Cricket is one of the most popular sports in England, having been played since the 16th century. Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord's Cricket Ground in London, developed the modern rules of play and conduct and the sport is now administered by the England and Wales Cricket Board. English cricket is represented at the international level by the various England men's teams and England women's teams. At the domestic level teams are mostly organised by county, competing in tournaments such as the County Championship, Metro Bank One-Day Cup, T20 Blast, the Women's Twenty20 Cup, The Hundred for both men and women, as well as within a regional structure for women's cricket. Recreational matches are organised on a regional basis, with the top level being the ECB Premier Leagues.
History History of cricket to 1725 History of English cricket (1726–1750) History of English cricket (1751–1775) History of English cricket (1776–1800) History of English cricket (1801–1825) History of English cricket (1826–1845) History of English cricket (1846–1863) History of English cricket (1864–1918) History of English cricket (1919–1945) History of English cricket since 1945
Organisation
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales, and hence governs the various England cricket teams. The ECB was created on 1 January 1997 and combines the roles of the now superseded Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), National Cricket Association (NCA), and the Cricket Council.
The ECB has been a full member of the international governing body for world cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC), since 1909, and is a member of ICC Europe.
International cricket National teams of England England Men England Women England U-19 Men England U-19 Women England Lions England A Women The various men's and women's England cricket teams represent England and Wales in three forms of international cricket: Test, One Day International, and Twenty20.
Test is the oldest form of cricket played at international level, and is played by teams representing full member nations of the ICC. A Test is scheduled to take place over a period of up to five days, although until the 1930s timeless Tests – i.e. without a time limit – were played.
One Day International (ODI) is a form of cricket played between two teams with international status in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with games lasting up to 7 hours.
Twenty20 International (T20 International) is a form of cricket played between two teams with international status in which each team plays a single innings against their opponent, facing a maximum of twenty overs.
International cricket in England follows a fixed pattern whereby English teams schedule tours in other countries during the winter and play at home against visiting teams during the summer.
Men's teams the England men's team had played more Test matches than any other team, winning 400 of their 1083 games, drawing 355, and losing 328. With 36.9 per cent of their matches won, England were then the third most successful team in the history of Test cricket after Australia on 47.8 per cent and South Africa on 38.9 per cent.
The England men's team played their first ODI in 1971 against Australia and reached the finals of the ODI Cricket World Cup in 1987 and 1992. They won their first title in 2019, beating New Zealand in the final in England.
The England men's team played their first T20 International in 2005 against Australia in May 2010, winning their first-ever ICC Men's T20 World Cup the same year by beating arch-rivals Australia by 7 wickets in the final in England. They also won the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in 2022, defeating Pakistan in the final.
TournamentAppearance in finals Lastappearance Bestperformance ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 4 out of 13 2023 ICC Men's T20 World Cup 3 out of 9 2024 Olympics 1 out of 1 1900 ICC Champions Trophy 2 out of 8 2017 ICC World Test Championship 0 out of 3 2023–25
Women's teams
The England women's cricket team represents England and Wales in international women's cricket matches and has been participating in international cricket since 1909. They made their debut in Tests in 1934 against Australia, with their greatest Test rivalry still being against Australia in what is called the Women's Ashes.
The England women's team played their first ODI in 1973 against the International XI women's cricket team. They have been participating in the ODI Women's Cricket World Cup since it was first held in 1973, when they won by beating Australia in the points table. Winning again in 1993, 2009, and 2017, they have won the second-most Women's Cricket World Cup titles after Australia, and in 2017 they won the trophy by beating India by 9 runs in the final.
The England women's team played in the first ever Twenty20 International for either men or women, against New Zealand at Hove, and also won the inaugural World Twenty20 in 2009, beating New Zealand by 6 wickets in the final in England. Since then they have consistently reached the finals but have failed to clinch the title on multiple occasions, recording their worst performance in the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup. TournamentAppearance in finals Lastappearance Bestperformance ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 8 out of 12 2022 ICC Women's T20 World Cup 4 out of 9 2024 Commonwealth Games 0 out of 1 2022
Under-19 men's teams
TournamentAppearance in finals Lastappearance Bestperformance ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup 2 out of 15 2024
Under-19 women's teams
TournamentAppearance in finals Lastappearance Bestperformance Under-19 Women's T20 World Cup 1 out of 1 2023
Domestic cricket
At a domestic level there are eighteen professional county cricket clubs, seventeen of them in England and one in Wales, all named after and originally representative of historic counties. These clubs are heavily dependent on subsidies from the ECB, which earns revenue from television coverage, endorsement contracts, and attendances at international matches.
The English cricket season traditionally starts at the beginning of April and runs through to the second half of September, although in recent years counties have played pre-season friendly matches at the very end of March.
In the county cricket competition, the following games are considered derbies: Roses Match – Yorkshire v Lancashire Battle of London (Cross-Thames Derby) – Middlesex v Surrey Battle of the Bridge – Essex v Kent South Coast Special (El Clasicoast) – Hampshire v Sussex West Midlands Derby – Warwickshire v Worcestershire West Country Derby – Somerset v Gloucestershire East Midlands Derby – Nottinghamshire v Derbyshire North Derby – Yorkshire v Durham
Men's first-class competitions The County Championship is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales, and is organised by the ECB as a two-league system involving all 18 of the men's cricket teams representing the historic counties of England and Wales. The County Championship was constituted on 16 December 1889 when secretaries of the major clubs gathered at Lord's to decide the following season's fixtures, while at the same time representatives of the eight leading counties met privately to determine how teams would be ranked. The new competition began in the 1890 season and at first involved just the eight leading clubs: Gloucestershire, Kent, Lancashire, Middlesex, Nottinghamshire, Surrey, Sussex, and Yorkshire. The championship has since been expanded to 18 clubs by the addition at various times of Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Glamorgan, Hampshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. Counties without first-class status compete in the National Counties Cricket Championship.
The Champion County match is traditionally played between the winner of the previous season's County Championship and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). The match was played at Lord's Cricket Ground for many seasons, but from 2010 to 2017 it took place at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The 2018 match was played at the Kensington Oval ground in Bridgetown, Barbados.
Men's limited-overs competition The One-Day Cup is a 50-overs-per-side competition for the English and Welsh first-class counties, and began in 2014 as a replacement for the ECB 40 tournament held from 2010 to 2013. In contrast to its 40-over predecessor, the number of overs per innings was set at 50 to bring the competition in line with One-Day Internationals. The competition begins with a round-robin tournament featuring two groups of nine. The groups were originally organised geographically with a North group and a South group, but since 2021 the groups have been decided by a draw. As of 2024 the top three teams in each group progress to the knock-out stage of the competition. The final was held at Lord's until 2020, when it was moved to Trent Bridge.
Men's Twenty20 competition The T20 Blast is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in England and Wales, established by the ECB in 2003 and the oldest domestic T20 league in the world. The T20 Blast comprises 18 teams – 17 in England and 1 in Wales – and is one of the top-level Twenty20 leagues in the world.
Women's limited-over competition The Women's County Championship was a one-day competition competed for by counties which ended in 2019. The introduction of a new regional domestic structure for women's cricket in 2020 resulted in the establishment of the Women's One-Day Cup, a professional county league of 50-over matches between eight teams each representing a region of England and Wales and competing for the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy from 2020 to 2024.
Women's Twenty20 competitions The Women's Cricket Super League was established as a Twenty20 competition with six franchise teams, but was succeeded by the Women's Twenty20 Cup in 2020 when the new regional domestic structure for women's cricket was introduced. From 2009 to the end of the 2019 season, teams in the Women's Twenty20 Cup were organised in tiered divisions, with a national winner. But following the 2020 reorganisation, the 35 teams – that mostly represent counties – now compete for the Charlotte Edwards Cup.
The Women's T20 Blast is a knockout Twenty20 competition organised by the ECB.
100-ball competitions The Hundred is a professional league with both men's and women's competitions, and is the only prominent cricket league in the world that plays the 100-ball format. It is held annually in July and August. The Hundred involves eight non-county teams, with seven in England and one in Wales: Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets, and Welsh Fire.
University cricket
University first-class matches Oxford and Cambridge universities played their first match against each other in 1827, with the combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team played 18 first class matches against touring sides from 1839 to 1992, including two before official first class status started. After the advent of first class cricket in 1895, matches between Oxford and Cambridge – or between either of those universities and another first class side – were considered first class matches, with that status also applied retroactively to earlier matches.