Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field, at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre; 66-foot) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails (small sticks) balanced on three stumps. Two players from the batting team, the striker and nonstriker, stand in front of either wicket holding bats, while one player from the fielding team, the bowler, bowls the ball toward the striker's wicket from the opposite end of the pitch. The striker's goal is to hit the bowled ball with the bat and then switch places with the nonstriker, with the batting team scoring one run for each of these exchanges. Runs are also scored when the ball reaches the boundary of the field or when the ball is bowled illegally.
The Adelaide leak was the revelation to the press of a dressing-room incident during the third Test, a cricket match played during the 1932–33 Ashes series between Australia and England, more commonly known as the Bodyline series. During the course of play on 14 January 1933, the Australian Test captain Bill Woodfull was struck over the heart by a ball delivered by Harold Larwood. Although not badly hurt, Woodfull was shaken and dismissed shortly afterwards. On his return to the Australian dressing room, Woodfull was visited by the managers of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team, Pelham Warner and Richard Palairet. Warner enquired after Woodfull's health, but the latter dismissed his concerns in brusque fashion. He said he did not want to speak to the Englishman owing to the Bodyline tactics England were using, leaving Warner embarrassed and shaken. The matter became public knowledge when someone present leaked the exchange to the press and it was widely reported on 16 January. Such leaks to the press were practically unknown at the time, and the players were horrified that the confrontation became public knowledge.
In the immediate aftermath, many people assumed Jack Fingleton, the only full-time journalist on either team, was responsible. This belief may have affected the course of his subsequent career. Fingleton later wrote that Donald Bradman, Australia's star batsman and the primary target of Bodyline, was the person who disclosed the story. Bradman always denied this, and continued to blame Fingleton; animosity between the pair continued for the rest of their lives. Woodfull's earlier public silence on the tactics had been interpreted as approval; the leak was significant in persuading the Australian public that Bodyline was unacceptable. (Full article...)
From their first match in 2006 to their final match in 2009, 37 players represented the Bermuda cricket team in One Day Internationals (ODIs). A One Day International is an international cricket match between two representative teams, each having ODI status, as determined by the International Cricket Council (ICC). An ODI differs from Test matches in that the number of overs per team is limited, and that each team has only one innings.
The Bermuda Cricket Board was formed in 1948, when the Somers Isles Cricket League amalgamated with the Bermuda Cricket Club to form the Bermuda Cricket Board. They were admitted to the ICC as an associate member in 1969, and in the 2005 ICC Trophy they gained ODI status and qualified for the World Cup for the first time. Bermuda played its first ODI against Canada in May 2006. In the 2007 World Cup, Bermuda struggled against the Test playing nations in their group and against India they recorded what remains the largest margin of defeat in a World Cup match, losing by 257 runs at Queen's Park Oval, Trinidad and Tobago. Bermuda lost all their matches in the World Cup, which began a decline in Bermudian cricket and eventually led to them losing their ODI status during the 2009 World Cup Qualifier, in which they finished 9th. Bermuda have not managed to regain this status and now play in World Cricket League Division Three, having also lost their first-class status they had held since 2004. (Full article...)
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Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. The club was established on 8 April 1882 and has played first-class cricket since 1894, List A cricket since 1963, and Twenty20 cricket since 2003.[A] Unlike most professional sports, in which a team usually has a single fixed home ground, county cricket clubs have traditionally used different grounds in various towns and cities within the county for home matches, although the use of minor "out grounds" has diminished since the 1980s. Warwickshire have played first class, List A, or Twenty20 matches at eleven different grounds. Six of these grounds are or were located in the cities of Birmingham and Coventry, which no longer lie within the county of Warwickshire due to changes in the county boundaries in England in 1974.
The county's debut home match in first-class cricket was played at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham against Kent in 1894. At this time the ground stood on land owned by the Gough-Calthorpe family, who had developed the manor of Edgbaston into an exclusive Birmingham suburb during the 19th century, and believed that a cricket ground would enhance the image of the district. Warwickshire had previously considered locating their headquarters in Rugby or Leamington Spa, but secretary William Ansell considered Birmingham more suitable due to its large population and railway connections. Edgbaston has remained the club's primary ground, hosting the majority of the club's matches, and also played host to the club's first home fixtures in the other formats of the game; in List A cricket in 1964 against Hampshire; and in Twenty20 cricket against Glamorgan in 2003. Since 1902 the ground has also hosted matches played by the England cricket team. (Full article...)
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Glenn McGrath, a retired international Australiancricketer, took a number of five-wicket hauls during his career. In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and fewer than 40 bowlers have taken more than 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers.
McGrath made his Test debut in November 1993, against New Zealand, but it was not until March 1995 that he took his first five-wicket haul in Australia's victory over the West Indies in Barbados; his performance earned him the man of the match award. He followed that three weeks later with six wickets in a defeat in Trinidad. McGrath took 10 of his 29 Test five-wicket hauls in The Ashes (the traditional name for Test matches between Australia and England). During the 1997 Ashes series, McGrath "humiliated" England, taking eight wickets in a single innings at Lord's and restricting England to 77, the lowest total in any Test match at the ground since 1888. A month later, he dismissed seven English batsmen in the first innings at The Oval but despite these performances, Australia did not win either Test match. The 2001 Ashes series saw McGrath make four five-wicket hauls in consecutive matches. He twice took five-wicket hauls in both innings of a Test match – in March 1999 he dismissed five West Indian batsmen in each innings of the first Test of the Frank Worrell Trophy; in the following year, he took ten wickets against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground. (Full article...)
Bell made his Test debut in 2004 in the fourth Test against the West Indies at The Oval, scoring 70 in a ten-wicket England victory. His first century came a year later against Bangladesh at the Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street. His highest Test score is 235 against India at The Oval. Bell has scored Test centuries at fifteen cricket grounds, including seven at venues outside England. He has scored his twenty-two Test centuries against eight different opponents; he is most successful against Australia, Pakistan and India, with four against each. England have never lost a test match in which Bell has scored a century. His dismissal for 199 against South Africa in July 2008 made him just the seventh batsman to lose his wicket on that score in Test cricket. As of November 2015, Bell is joint twenty-eighth among all-time Test century makers,[A] and joint third in the equivalent list for England. (Full article...)
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Shane Warne, a late Australian international cricketer, had taken 37 five-wicket hauls during his career playing for the Australia national cricket team. In cricket, a five-wicket haul – also known as a five-for or fifer – refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and only five bowlers have taken more than 30 five-wicket hauls in their Test cricket careers. Warne has the second most five-wicket hauls in Test cricket, behind Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan. Despite this, he has only taken a single five-wicket haul in One Day Internationals (ODI). He was one of the most experienced Australian cricketers, and the second leading wicket taker in Test cricket history, with 708 wickets, again behind Muralitharan. He is twelfth on the all-time list of ODI wicket takers. In 2000, Warne was named the fourth of five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, behind Don Bradman, Garfield Sobers and Jack Hobbs.
Warne made his Test debut against the Indian team at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) in January 1992, and took his first five-wicket haul later that year, against the West Indies team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He has taken ten or more wickets in a match 10 times in his career, and is second in the all-time list behind Muralitharan, with 22. Warne's career-best bowling figures in an innings is 8 wickets for 71 runs, which he accomplished in 1994 against the English team at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, while his best match figures are 12 wickets for 128 runs, achieved in 1994 against the South Africa team in Sydney. Warne has been most successful against England, taking 11 five-wicket hauls against them, the first in 1993 and the last in 2006, and was most prolific at the SCG, where 5 of his 38 five-wicket hauls were taken. Warne retired from international cricket in January 2007, having taken 708 Test and 293 ODI wickets in his career. He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in May 2011. (Full article...)
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Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship, representing the historic county of Derbyshire. The club was established on 4 November 1870 and has competed in first-class cricket since 1871, List A cricket since 1963 and Twenty20 cricket since 2003.[A] Unlike most professional sports, in which a team usually has a single fixed home ground, county cricket clubs have traditionally used different grounds in various towns and cities within the county for home matches, although the use of minor "out grounds" has diminished since the 1980s. The Derbyshire team have played first class, List A, or Twenty20 home matches at twenty-five different grounds. This includes grounds in Burton upon Trent, Knypersley, Leek, Cheadle and Checkley, all of which are not actually located in Derbyshire, but in the adjoining county of Staffordshire.
The county's debut home game in first-class cricket was played at the County Ground in Derby against Lancashire. The venue has also been known as the Racecourse Ground, as it had previously been used for horse racing, and also served as the original home ground of Derby County Football Club, which was formed as an offshoot of the cricket club in 1884. The County Ground has remained the cricket club's primary ground, hosting the majority of home matches, and also played host to the club's first home fixture in Twenty20 cricket against Nottinghamshire in 2003. Queen's Park in Chesterfield, however, staged the club's first home game in List A cricket against Essex in 1964. Queen's Park was first used by the county in 1898 and has continued to be a regular venue for Derbyshire matches, staging over 400 first-class games. (Full article...)
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The Hyderabad Deccan Chargers (often abbreviated as DC) was a franchise cricket team based in Hyderabad, Telangana, that competed in the Indian Premier League (IPL) from 2008 to 2012. The team was owned by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited who won the bid for the Hyderabad franchise at US$107 million. VVS Laxman and Robin Singh were appointed as the captain and the coach for their first season in 2008. After finishing last in that season, the DC sacked their coach and removed their captain and replaced them with Darren Lehmann and Adam Gilchrist under whom they won their only IPL title in 2009, when they defeated the Royal Challengers Bangalore by six runs in the final. They reached the semi-finals again in 2010 but failed to reach past the group stages before the team was folded in 2012. They qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 only once, for the 2009 season, but failed to advance past the group stage. Lehmann remained as the coach for the DC but they were forced to replace Gilchrist with Kumar Sangakkara in 2011 after they lost former to the Kings XI Punjab in the 2011 auction. Sangakkara remained as the captain until the middle of the 2012 season before he was replaced by Cameron White following the poor performances. Sangakkara later returned as captain as the move did not yield the desired results for the Deccan Chargers.
On 15 September 2012, the Deccan Chargers' IPL contract was terminated by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which was concerned about overdue payments to the players. The Hyderabad franchise was later acquired by the Sun TV Network for ₹85.05 crore (US$10 million) per year in a bid which also retained 20 players. (Full article...)
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The Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year is an annual cricket award, presented to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the year in English county cricket. The award has been presented since the 1950 season and the winner is chosen by a vote amongst the members of the Cricket Writers' Club. Only players that are qualified to represent the England cricket team, and are aged under 23 on 1 May of the awarding year, are eligible for the prize. With the exception of 1986, when a joint award was made, the accolade has been presented to one individual each season. The award has been described by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) as "prestigious". Although not a firm rule, once a player has won the award, they are considered ineligible to receive it in the future.
Archie Ledbrooke, a sports reporter for the Daily Mirror and the first treasurer of the Cricket Writers' Club, came up with the idea for the award. It was first presented in 1950, when Roy Tattersall of Lancashire was the recipient. In 1986, the vote was tied, and the award was made jointly to Ashley Metcalfe of Nottinghamshire and James Whitaker of Leicestershire. The 1995 winner, Andrew Symonds, went on to make over 200 international appearances for Australia, but at the time of his award was eligible to play for England, as he was born in Birmingham. As of 2021[update], representatives of seventeen of the eighteen first-class cricket counties have won the award; no player from Worcestershire has ever won. Yorkshire players have collected the award most frequently, doing so on eleven occasions. Only seven winners have not gone on to play international cricket. (Full article...)
This list is of all members of the England cricket team who have played at least one T20I match. The order is by each player name as they achieved a first Twenty20 cap; achievement by several players during the same match is arranged by surname alphabetically. (Full article...)
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International cricket, which had been suspended since 1939 due to the Second World War, resumed in 1946. From then until the end of 1959, the England cricket team, which represented England, Scotland and Wales in Test cricket, played 115 Test matches, resulting in 45 victories, 39 draws and 31 defeats. During this period, England faced Pakistan for the first time, when they toured England in 1954. During that tour, they became the first team to win a Test match on their first visit to England. England were the dominant team in international cricket during the 1950s; they did not lose a Test series between March 1951 and December 1958, and featured an array of stars such as Colin Cowdrey, Denis Compton, Fred Trueman, Brian Statham and Jim Laker.
England faced Australia most frequently during this period—playing 35 matches against them—followed by South Africa. England won more matches than they lost against India, New Zealand and South Africa, but against Australia they won seven and lost seventeen Ashes matches, while against the West Indies they won six and lost seven. They faced newcomers Pakistan in just four matches, winning one, losing one and drawing the others. England won 16 matches by an innings, with their largest victory being by an innings and 248 runs against New Zealand in 1958. Their largest victory by runs alone during this period was in 1956–57 against South Africa, when they won by 312 runs, while they won by ten wickets on four occasions. Conversely, England suffered their largest ever defeat, losing to Australia by an innings and 332 runs during the 1946–47 Ashes series. (Full article...)
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Test cricket is the longest version of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between international teams of eleven players each over four innings; each team bats twice. In the women's variant, the game is scheduled to last four days of play. The Women's Cricket Association was formed in England in 1926, and the first women's Test was played between England and Australia in 1934. The English team were on a tour of Australia and New Zealand, arranged by the WCA. The International Women's Cricket Council was formed in 1958 as the governing body for women's cricket. In 2005, women's cricket was brought under the International Cricket Council along with men's cricket; at that time 89 of the council's 104 members had started developing women's cricket. As of June 2024, a total of ten teams have played a total of 149 women's Test matches and 2 matches were abandoned. England have played the most matches (98) while Sri Lanka, Ireland and the Netherlands have played only one Test each.
A century is a score of a hundred or more runs in an innings. The first century in women's Test cricket was scored in 1935 by Myrtle Maclagan, who made 119 runs for England against Australia. Since then, a total of 108 centuries, including seven double centuries, have been scored. Betty Snowball of England (189 runs) held the record for the highest individual score for over 51 years. She was the second cricketer to hold the record after Maclagan, a record which stood until Sandhya Agarwal of India surpassed it by a single run in 1986. Following Agarwal the record was held by Denise Annetts (Australia, 1987), Kirsty Flavell (New Zealand, 1996), Karen Rolton (Australia, 2001), Mithali Raj (India, 2002), and the current record holder Kiran Baluch of Pakistan who, in 2004, scored 242 runs against the West Indies. Janette Brittin of England has scored five centuries in a Test career spanning 27 matches and 44 innings, the most hundreds in women's Test match history. Flavell scored the first double century in women's Test cricket in 1996; over the next eight years five more double centuries were scored, by Joanne Broadbent (Australia, 1998), Michelle Goszko (Australia, 2001), Karen Rolton (Australia, 2001), Mithali Raj (India, 2002), and Kiran Baluch (Pakistan, 2004), which was then succeeded by a 13 year wait until Ellyse Perry of Australia scored the next one in 2017. As of June 2022[update], Australia and England have the most centurions (23 players each) while English players have scored the most centuries (44 times). (Full article...)
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The Kensington Oval is a 15,000-capacity sports stadium located in Bridgetown on the island nation of Barbados. Used mainly for cricket, the Kensington Oval hosted its first Test in 1930 and its first One Day International (ODI) in 1985. The ground has seen 51 Tests—all including the West Indies—along with 30 ODIs, and has been the scene of 108 Test and 14 ODI centuries. Additionally, the ground hosted a pair of World Series Cricket one-day games and a Supertest between the WSC West Indies and WSC Australian teams.
West Indian Clifford Roach became the first player to score a century at the venue, managing 122 runs in the ground's inaugural match. Two other batsmen, Andy Sandham and George Headley from England and the West Indies respectively, also scored centuries in this match. However, it took a further four Tests until West Indian Clyde Walcott scored the next hundred, 220 in 1954. The innings was also the first double century to be scored at the Kensington Oval. PakistaniHanif Mohammad's score of 337, which was achieved in 1958, remains the highest score seen at the ground, while West Indian Lawrence Rowe is the only other batsman to score a triple century at the venue, hitting 302 against England in 1974. Desmond Haynes, Clive Lloyd and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are the only players to score four Test centuries at the Kensington Oval, while Garry Sobers, Viv Richards and Brian Lara have all stuck three hundreds. As of January 2019, 9 batsmen have scored double centuries and two triple centuries has scored at the venue. (Full article...)
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In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded as a notable achievement, and as of December 2015 only 45 bowlers have taken at least 15 five-wicket hauls at international level in their cricketing careers. Richie Benaud, a leg spinner and former captain of the Australia cricket team, played 63 Tests for his country between 1952 and 1964. He took 248 wickets at an average of 27.03, including 16 five-wicket hauls. The cricket almanack Wisden named him one of their Cricketers of the Year in 1962. He was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2007, and into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the inaugural members in January 2009. Leo McKinstry, a cricket writer, in 1998 described Benaud as "one of cricket's greatest legends" and "one of the great all-rounders", and further noted him being the first to take 200 wickets and make 2,000 runs in Tests.
Benaud made his Test debut in January 1952 against the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground, a match Australia won by 202 runs. His first Test five-wicket haul came in the first match of the 1956–57 series against India at the Corporation Stadium. He took 7 wickets for 72 runs in the first innings of the match, his best bowling figures for an innings. Benaud took his solitary pair of five-wicket hauls in the third Test of the series at the Eden Gardens. He accumulated 11 wickets for 105 runs in the match, his career-best performance in Test cricket. Benaud claimed his 16 five-wicket hauls against five different opponents, and Australia never lost any of the games on such instances. He was most successful against India and South Africa, taking 5 five-wicket hauls against each side. Benaud took his five-wicket hauls at 12 cricket grounds, including 11 at venues outside Australia. As of August 2014, he is thirty-first among all-time combined five-wicket haul takers. (Full article...)
Twenty20 cricket was developed by the ECB to attract new, younger audiences to cricket. Replacing the 50 overs-per-side 'Benson & Hedges Cup', the 'Twenty20 Cup' was introduced in 2003, and was over two hours shorter than its predecessor, and matches also featured greater entertainment off the field, such as live music, barbecues, fancy dress and karaoke. The competition was rebranded as the 'Friends Provident t20' in 2010, and a season later as the 'Friends Life t20'. In 2014, the competition became known as the NatWest t20 Blast. For the first seven years of the competition, teams were allowed one overseas player, as in the other domestic tournaments, but from the 2010 season, each team was allowed two. The finalists in both 2009 and 2011 qualified for the Champions League Twenty20, an international competition between the leading domestic teams from the major cricketing nations. (Full article...)
The following are images from various cricket-related articles on Wikipedia.
Image 1Photograph of Miss Lily Poulett-Harris, founding mother of women's cricket in Australia. (from History of women's cricket)
Image 2Afghan soldiers playing cricket. Afghan refugees in Pakistan brought the sport back to Afghanistan, and it is now one of the most popular sports in the country. (from History of cricket)
Image 3A wicket consists of three stumps, upright wooden poles that are hammered into the ground, topped with two wooden crosspieces, known as the bails. (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 4New articles of the game of cricket, 25 February 1774 (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 6In men's cricket the ball must weigh between 5.5 and 5.75 ounces (155.9 and 163 g) and measure between 8.81 and 9 in (22.4 and 22.9 cm) in circumference. (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 10Plaquita, a Dominican street version of cricket. The Dominican Republic was first introduced to cricket through mid-18th century British contact, but switched to baseball after the 1916 American occupation. (from History of cricket)
Image 11A Game of Cricket at The Royal Academy Club in Marylebone Fields, now Regent's Park, depiction by unknown artist, c. 1790–1799 (from History of cricket)
Image 12The boundary can be marked in several ways, such as with a rope. (from Laws of Cricket)
Image 13 First Grand Match of Cricket Played by Members of the Royal Amateur Society on Hampton Court Green, August 3rd, 1836 (from History of cricket)
Image 14A 1793 American depiction of "wicket" being played in front of Dartmouth College. Wicket likely came to North America in the late 17th century. (from History of cricket)
Image 15A wicket can be put down by throwing the ball at it and thereby dislodging the bails. (from Laws of Cricket)
The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the international governing body of cricket, and produces team rankings for the various forms of cricket played internationally.
Test cricket is the longest form of cricket, played up to a maximum of five days with two innings per side.
Matches is the number of matches played in the 12–24 months since the May before last, plus half the number in the 24 months before that. See points calculations for more details.