England Cricket Team

2010

History:

James Lillywhite led the England team which sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876. They would play a combined Australian XI, for once on even terms of 11 a side. The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground came to be regarded as the first Test match. The combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. At the time this match carried little significance and was classed as another tour match and was labelled as the James Lillywhite's XI v South Australia and New South Wales. The first Test match on English soil occurred in 1880 with England winning this series 1–0. The series was also the first for England to field a fully representative side with W.G. Grace being present in the team.

The Ashes:

England would lose their first home series 1–0 in 1882 with The Sporting Times famously printing an obituary on English cricket:

“ In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P. N.B. - The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.”

As a result of this loss the tour of 1882–83 was dubbed by England captain Ivo Bligh as "the quest to regain the ashes". England with a mixture of amateurs and professionals won the series 2–1. Bligh was presented with an urn that contained some ashes, which have variously been said to be of a bail, ball or even a woman's veil and so The Ashes was born. A fourth match was then played which Australia won by 4 wickets but the match was not considered part of the Ashes series. England would dominate many of these early contests with England winning the Ashes series 10 times between 1884–98. During this period England also played their first Test match against South Africa in 1889 at Port Elizabeth.

The 1899 Ashes series was the first tour where the MCC and the counties appointed a selection committee. There were three active players: Lord Hawke, W.G. Grace and HW Bainbridge who was the captain of Warwickshire. Prior to this, England teams for home Tests had been chosen by the club on whose ground the match was to be played.

The turn of the century saw mixed results for England as they lost four of the eight Ashes series between 1900 and 1914. During this period England would lose their first series against South Africa in the 1905/06 season 4–1 as their batting faltered. The 1912 season saw England take part in a unique experiment. A nine Test triangular tournament involving England, South Africa and Australia was set-up. The series was hampered by a very wet summer and player disputes however and the tournament was considered a failure with the Daily Telegraph stating:

“ Nine Tests provide a surfeit of cricket, and contests between Australia and South Africa are not a great attraction to the British public. ”

With Australia sending a weakened team and the South African bowlers being ineffective England dominated the tournament winning four of their six matches. The Australia v South Africa match, at Lord's, was notable for a visit by King George V, the first time a reigning monarch had watched Test cricket. England would go on one more tour against South Africa before the outbreak of World War I.

Inter-war:

England's first match after the war was in the 1920–21 season against Australia. Still feeling the effects of the war England went down to a series of crushing defeats, and suffered their first whitewash losing the series 5–0. Six Australians scored hundreds while Mailey spun out 36 English batsmen. Things were no better in the next few Ashes series losing the 1921 Ashes series 3–0 and the 1924–5 Ashes 4–1. England's fortunes were to change in 1926 as they regained the Ashes and were a formidable team during this period dispatching Australia 4–1 in the 1928–29 Ashes tour.

On the same year the West Indies became the fourth nation to be granted Test status and played their first game against England. England won each of these three Tests by an innings, and a view was expressed in the press that their elevation had proved a mistake although Learie Constantine did the double on the tour. In the 1929–30 season England went on two concurrent tours with one team going to New Zealand (who were granted Test status earlier that year) and the other to the West Indies. Despite sending two separate teams England won both tours beating New Zealand 1–0 and the West Indies 2–1.

Bill Woodfull evades a Bodyline ball. Note the number of leg-side fielders.The 1930 Ashes series saw a young Don Bradman dominate the tour, scoring 974 runs in his seven Test innings. He scored 254 at Lord's, 334 at Headingley and 232 at the Oval. Australia regained the Ashes winning the series 3–1. As a result of Bradman's prolific run-scoring the England captain Douglas Jardine chose to develop the already existing leg theory into fast leg theory, or bodyline, as a tactic to stop Bradman. Fast leg theory involved bowling fast balls directly at the batsman's body. The batsman would need to defend himself, and if he touched the ball with the bat, he risked being caught by one of a large number of fielders placed on the leg side.

English cricket team at the test match held at the Brisbane Exhibition Ground. England won the match by a record margin of 675 runs.Using his fast leg theory England won the next Ashes series 4–1. But complaints about the Bodyline tactic caused crowd disruption on the tour, and threats of diplomatic action from the Australian Cricket Board, which during the tour sent the following cable to the MCC in London:

“ Bodyline bowling assumed such proportions as to menace best interests of game, making protection of body by batsmen the main consideration. Causing intensely bitter feeling between players as well as injury. In our opinion is unsportsmanlike. Unless stopped at once likely to upset friendly relations existing between Australia and England. ”

Later, Jardine was removed from the captaincy and the laws of cricket changed so that no more than one fast ball aimed at the body was permitted per over, and having more than two fielders behind square leg were banned.

England's following tour of India in the 1933–34 season was the first Test match to be staged in the subcontinent. The series was also notable for Morris Nichols and Nobby Clark bowling so many bouncers that the Indian batsman wore solar topees instead of caps to protect themselves.

Australia won the 1934 Ashes series 2–1 and would keep the urn for the following 19 years. Many of the wickets of the time were friendly to batsmen resulting in a large proportion of matches ending in high scoring draws and many batting records being set.

The 1938–39 tour of South Africa saw another experiment with the deciding Test being a timeless Test that was played to a finish. England lead 1–0 going into the final timeless match at Durban. Despite the final Test being ‘timeless’ the game ended in a draw, after 10 days as England had to catch the train to catch the boat home. A record 1981 runs were scored, and the concept of timeless Tests was abandoned. England would go in one final tour of the West Indies in 1939 before the World War II, although a team for an MCC tour of India was selected more in hope than expectation of the matches being played.

Post-war:

After World War II, England fell under difficult times suffering a heavy defeat 3–0 to Australia. This followed by a 4–0 loss to Bradman's 'invincibles' and a stunning 2–0 loss to the West Indies. These loses were tempered by victories against India and South Africa.

Their fortunes would change in the 1953 Ashes tour as they won the series 1–0. England would not lose a series between their 1950–51 and 1958–59 tours of Australia and secured famous victory in 1954–55 thanks to Typhoon Tyson whose 6–85 at Sydney and 7–27 at Melbourne are remembered as the fastest bowling ever seen in Australia. The 1956 series was remembered for the bowling of Jim Laker who took 46 wickets at 9.62 which included bowling figures of 19/90 at Old Trafford. After drawing to South Africa, England defeated the West Indies and New Zealand comfortably. The England team would then leave for Australia in the 1958–59 season with a team that had been hailed as the strongest ever to leave on an Ashes tour but lost the series 4–0 as Richie Benaud's revitalised Australians were too strong.

The early and middle 1960s were poor periods for English cricket. Despite England's strength on paper, Australia held the Ashes and the West Indies dominated England in the early part of the decade. However, from 1968 to 1971 they played 27 consecutive Test matches without defeat, winning 9 and drawing 18 (including the abandoned Test at Melbourne in 1970–71). The sequence began when they drew with Australia at Lords in the Second Test of the 1968 Ashes series and ended in 1971 when India won the Third Test at the Oval by 4 wickets. They played 13 Tests with only one defeat immediately beforehand and so played a total of 40 consecutive Tests with only one defeat, dating from their innings victory over the West Indies at The Oval in 1966. During this period they beat New Zealand, India, the West Indies, Pakistan and, under Ray Illingworth's determined leadership, regained the The Ashes from Australia in 1970–71.

1971-2000:

They then suffered a loss of form losing to India and a rising West Indian side. This culminated in a 4–1 defeat in the 1974–75 Ashes series. The inaugural 1975 Cricket World Cup saw England reach the semi-finals and was to be the turning point in England's fortunes. The results of the Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket (WCS) were felt in Test cricket with Australia and Pakistan losing many of its star players. England replaced captain Tony Greig, who had joined WCS, with Mike Brearley while Geoffrey Boycott returned from his Test exile. England would defeat a divided Australian side 3–0 in the centenary Ashes series. This was followed by a comfortable 4–0 win against Pakistan and a World Cup final appearance against the West Indies.

With Ian Botham and Bob Willis at their peak with the ball, Boycott and Graham Gooch opening the batting, and a young David Gower in the middle order, England had a promising team whose early results were encouraging. However, the team's lack of real quality was evidenced by a string of defeats, some heavy, against West Indies, the outstanding Test team at the time. England won the 1981 Ashes series 3–1, coming from behind after Brearley, who had retired, was reinstated as captain. The third Test at Headingley saw England win by 18 runs after following-on, only the second time in the history of England v Australia Tests that this has been achieved. After losing the Ashes in 1982–83, England recovered them in 1985 when they comfortably beat a poor Australian team. But England suffered two series "whitewashes" against the West Indies in 1984 and on the 1985–86 tour.

A shocked England team never truly recovered from this defeat and, although they managed to retain the Ashes in 1986–87, they would only win one further Test series in the 1980s against newcomers Sri Lanka. Australia meanwhile staged a recovery and easily defeated England in 1989 to begin a long period of domination.

England continued to decline through the 1990s, a situation not helped by squabbles between players and selectors. Another reason for their poor performances were the demands of County Cricket teams on their players, meaning that England could rarely field a full strength team on their tours. This would eventually lead to the ECB taking over the MCC as the governing body of England and the implementation of central contracts.

There was a string of disappointing results as England did not win a Test match for two and half years. However, England's performance in ODI cricket was still good, as they defeated Australia, the West Indies and South Africa to reach the final of the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Shortly after the World Cup Mike Atherton replaced Gooch as England captain but his captaincy was regarded as a failure with England winning only one Test series under his captaincy. A surprise win against South Africa in 1998 was England's first five Test series win since 1986–87, but this would be a false dawn as they were eliminated in the first round of the 1999 Cricket World Cup (which they hosted) and lost a home Test series against New Zealand 2–1, resulting in England being officially ranked as the worst Test nation at the end of the 20th century.

21st century:

With the appointment of Duncan Fletcher as coach and Nasser Hussain as captain, England began to rebuild the team. They won four consecutive Test series which included impressive wins against West Indies (a first in 32 years) and Pakistan. England were still no match for Steve Waugh's Australia and lost the 2001 Ashes 4–1. Good results against India and Sri Lanka gave England some hope for the 2002–03 Ashes series but a 4–1 defeat showed that they were still inferior to Australia. But that setback did not stop England's resurgence as they defeated the West Indies 3–0 and followed up with whitewashes against New Zealand and the West Indies at home. A victory in the first Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth meant England had won their eighth successive Test, their best sequence of Test match wins for 75 years.

In 2005, England under Michael Vaughan's captaincy and aided by Kevin Pietersen's batting in his maiden series (most notably 158 at the Oval), and Andrew Flintoff's superb all-round performances, defeated Australia 2–1 to regain the Ashes for the first time in 18 years.

Following the 2005 Ashes win, the team suffered from a serious spate of injuries to key players such as Vaughan, Flintoff, Ashley Giles, Steve Harmison and Simon Jones. As a result, the team underwent an enforced period of transition.

In the home Test series victory against Pakistan in July and August 2006, several promising new players emerged. Most notable were the left-arm orthodox spin bowler Monty Panesar, the first Sikh to play Test cricket for England; and left-handed opening batsman Alastair Cook. Meanwhile England's injury problems allowed previously marginal Test players such as Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell to consolidate their places in the team.

The 2006–07 Ashes series was keenly anticipated and was expected to provide a level of competition comparable to the 2005 series. In the event, England, captained by Flintoff, lost all 5 Tests to concede the first Ashes whitewash in 86 years.

England's form in ODIs had been consistently poor. They only narrowly avoided the ignominy of having to play in the qualifying rounds of the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy. Despite this, in the ODI triangular in Australia, England recorded its first ODI tournament win overseas since 1997. But, in the 2007 Cricket World Cup, England lost to most of the Test playing nations they faced, beating only the West Indies and Bangladesh, although they also avoided defeat by any of the non-Test playing nations. Even so, the unimpressive nature of most of their victories in the tournament, combined with heavy defeats by New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, left many commentators criticising the manner in which the England team approached the one-day game. Coach Duncan Fletcher resigned after eight years in the job as a result and was succeeded by former Sussex coach Peter Moores.

Since then, England's Test record has been indifferent and the team has slumped to fifth in the ICC rankings. There was a convincing 3–0 Test series win over West Indies in 2007 but it was followed in the second half of the summer by a 1–0 loss to India, although England did defeat India 4–3 in the LOI series.

In 2007, England toured Sri Lanka and New Zealand, losing the first series 1–0 and winning the second 2–1. They followed up at home in May 2007 with a 2–0 win against New Zealand, these results easing the pressure on Moores, who was not at ease with his team, particularly Pietersen, who succeeded Vaughan as captain in 2008, after England had been well beaten by South Africa at home.

The poor relationship between Moores and Pietersen came to a head in India on the 2008–09 tour. England lost the series 1–0 and both men resigned their positions, although Pietersen remained a member of the England team. Against this background, England toured the West Indies and, in a disappointing performance, lost the Test series 1–0. Almost immediately, they played West Indies in a home series which they won 1–0.

The second Twenty20 World Cup was held in England in 2009 but England suffered an opening day defeat to the Netherlands. They recovered to defeat both eventual champions Pakistan and reigning champions India but were then knocked out by West Indies.

This was followed by the 2009 Ashes series which featured the first Test match played in Wales, at SWALEC Stadium, Cardiff. England drew that match thanks to a last wicket stand by bowlers James Anderson and Monty Panesar. They won the Second Test at Lords while the rain-affected Third Test at Edgbaston was drawn. In the Fourth Test at Headingley, England suffered one of their worst results for some years and were heavily beaten by an innings. The series was decided at The Oval, where England had to win to recover the Ashes. Thanks to fine bowling by Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann and a debut century by Jonathan Trott, England won by 177 runs.

After a drawn Test series in South Africa, England won their first ever ICC tournament, the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. The following winter, they surprisingly thrashed a very weak Australia 3–1 to retain the Ashes; their first series win in Australia for 24 years, which included three innings victories. This victory left England in third place in the ICC rankings, whilst back-to-back Ashes defeats contributed to Australia falling from first to fifth.

England struggled to match their Test form in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Despite beating South Africa and tying with eventual winners India, England suffered shock losses to Ireland and Bangladesh. They scrapped through to the quarter-finals before losing to Sri Lanka by 10 wickets. However, the team's excellent form in the Test match arena continued, beating Sri Lanka 1-0 in a rain affected series, before comfortably whitewashing the Indians 4-0 to become the World No.1 side.

But this status only lasted a year - having lost 3-0 to Pakistan over the winter, England were beaten 2-0 by South Africa, who replaced them at the top of the rankings. It was their first home series loss since 2008, against the same opposition.

This loss saw the resignation of Strauss as captain. His replacement, Alastair Cook, was already in charge of the ODI side and had previously captained two Tests. In his first series, Cook led England to a 2-1 victory in India - their first in the country since 1984-85. In doing so, Cook became the first ever captain to score centuries in his first five Tests as captained and became England's leading century-maker with 23.

As at May 14, 2013