1.
ICC ODI Championship
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The ICC ODI Championship is an international One Day International cricket competition run by the International Cricket Council. The competition is notional in that it is simply a ranking scheme overlaid on the regular ODI match schedule, after every ODI match, the two teams involved receive points based on a mathematical formula. Each teams points total is divided by their number of matches played to give a rating. A drawn match between higher and lower rated teams will benefit the team at the expense of the higher-rated team. An average team that wins as often as it loses while playing a mix of stronger and weaker teams should have a rating of 100. As of 4 March 2017, South Africa lead the ICC ODI Championship with a rating of 119, while the lowest rated team, the championship consists of two separate ranking tables. The ten ICC Full Members that play Test cricket are automatically listed on the main table, latest entrant is Afghanistan, by defeating Bangladesh in 2014 Asia Cup. Netherlands and Kenya were also listed on the table as they previously had permanent ODI status. Each May, the matches and points earned between 3 and 4 years ago are removed, and the matches and points earned between 1 and 2 years ago switch from 100% weighting to 50% weighting. For example, at May 2014, the matches played between May 2010 and May 2011 were removed, and the matches played between May 2012 and May 2013 switched to 50% weighting. This happens overnight, so can result in teams changing positions in the table despite not playing. Each time two teams play match, the rankings table is updated as follows, based on the ratings of the teams immediately before they played. Add the match points scored to the points scored, add one to the number of matches played. Points earned by teams depend on the ratings, therefore this system needed to assign base ratings to teams when it started. See also, Detailed example The ICC provides ratings for the end of each back to October 2002. This table lists the teams that have held the highest rating since that date. The table only begins from 1981 as prior to date, there is not enough data available due to the infrequency of matches. The ICC used the results from the 2005 ICC Trophy and WCQS Division 2 competition to rank the nations and these rankings were used to seed the initial stage of the global World Cricket League
2.
England cricket team
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The England cricket team is the team that represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, England and Australia were the first teams to play a Test match, and these two countries together with South Africa formed the Imperial Cricket Conference on 15 June 1909. England and Australia also played the first One Day International on 5 January 1971, Englands first Twenty20 International was played on 13 June 2005, once more against Australia. As of 9 March 2017, England has played 983 Test matches, winning 351, the team has won The Ashes on 32 occasions, the same number as their opponents Australia. England has played 683 ODIs, winning 332, and its record in major ODI tournaments includes finishing as runners-up in three Cricket World Cups, and also in two ICC Champions Trophys, England has also played 89 T20Is, winning 43. They won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010, and were runners-up in 2016, England are currently ranked fourth in Tests, fifth in ODIs and fifth in T20Is by the ICC. England currently holds the record for the highest ever ODI total of 444, such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of a century. In 1846 William Clarke formed the All-England Eleven and this team would eventually compete against a United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1847 and 1856. These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season if judged by the quality of the players, the first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England touring North America. This team had six players from the All-England Eleven, six from the United All-England Eleven and was captained by George Parr, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned elsewhere. English tourists visited Australia in 1861-62 with this first tour organised as a venture by Messrs Spiers and Pond. Most matches played during tours prior to 1877 were against odds and this first Australian tour were mostly against odds of at least 18/11. The tour was so successful that George Parr led a tour in 1863–64. James Lillywhite led a subsequent England team which sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876 and 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 inaugural 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, the match was promoted as James Lillywhites XI v Combined Victoria, the teams played a return match on the same ground at Easter,1877, when Lillywhites team avenged their loss with a victory by four wickets. The first Test match on English soil occurred in 1880 with England victorious, – The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. As a result of loss the tour of 1882–83 was dubbed by England captain Ivo Bligh as the quest to regain the ashes
3.
India national cricket team
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The Indian cricket team, also known as Team India and Men in Blue, represents India in international cricket. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India, it is a member of the International Cricket Council with Test, One Day International. In its first fifty years of cricket, India was one of the weaker teams. From 1932 India had to wait until 1952, almost 20 years for its first Test victory. Traditionally much stronger at home than abroad, the Indian team has improved its overseas form since the start of the 21st century, winning Test matches in Australia, England and South Africa. It has won the Cricket World Cup twice – in 1983 under the captaincy of Kapil Dev and in 2011 under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni. After winning the 2011 World Cup, India became only the team after West Indies and Australia to have won the World Cup more than once. It has won the 2007 ICC World Twenty20 and 2013 ICC Champions Trophy and it was also the joint champions of 2002 ICC Champions Trophy, along with Sri Lanka. As of 7th March 2017, India is ranked first in Tests, fourth in ODIs, Virat Kohli is the current captain of the team across all formats, while former Test captain Anil Kumble is the head coach. The Indian cricket team has rivalries with other Test-playing nations, most notably with Pakistan, however, in recent times, rivalries with nations like Australia, England and Bangladesh and have also gained prominence. The British brought cricket to India in the early 1700s, with the first cricket match played in 1721, in 1848, the Parsi community in Bombay formed the Oriental Cricket Club, the first cricket club to be established by India Ltdns. After slow beginnings, the Europeans eventually invited the Parsis to play a match in 1877, by 1912, the Parsis, Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of Bombay played a quadrangular tournament with the Europeans every year. In the early 1900s, some Indians went on to play for the England cricket team, in 1911, an Indian team went on their first official tour of the British Isles, but only played English county teams and not the England cricket team. The one-off Test match between the two sides was played at Lords in London, the team was not strong in their batting at this point and went on to lose by 158 runs. In 1933, the first Test series in India was played between India and England with matches in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, the Indian team continued to improve throughout the 1930s and 40s but did not achieve an international victory during this period. In the early 1940s, India didnt play any Test cricket due to the Second World War, the teams first series as an independent country was in late 1947 against Sir Donald Bradmans Invincibles. It was also the first Test series India played which was not against England, Australia won the five-match series 4–0, with Bradman tormenting the Indian bowling in his final Australian summer. India subsequently played their first Test series at home not against England against the West Indies in 1948, West Indies won the 5-Test series 1–0
4.
South Africa national cricket team
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The South African national cricket team, nicknamed the Proteas, represents South Africa in international cricket. It is administered by Cricket South Africa, South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status. As of 27 November 2016, South Africa has played 405 Test matches, winning 148, the team has played 564 ODIs, winning 348, losing 194 and tying six, with 16 no-results. Finally, it has played 91 Twenty20 Internationals, winning 54 and losing 36, on 20 August 2012, South Africa became the top ranked team in test cricket for the first time. 8 days later, on 28 August 2012, it became the first team to top the rankings in all three formats of the game, South Africa is currently ranked third in Tests, first in ODIs and third in T20Is by the ICC. South Africa first played cricket in 1889, though the players participating at the time were not aware of the fact. The South African cricket team toured England in 1947, at Trent Bridge, Captain Alan Melville and vice-captain, Dudley Nourse achieved a Test match record for a third wicket partnership of 319. The following year Nourse, 38-year-old captain of Natal, was appointed Captain for the 1948 MCC Test matches in South Africa and they continued to play regularly series of matches against England, Australia and New Zealand until 1970. The membership rules of the Imperial Cricket Conference meant that when South Africa left the Commonwealth in May 1961, despite the rules being changed in 1964 to allow other nations to be Associate members, South Africa did not reapply. Due to South African apartheid laws, which introduced legal racial segregation to the country in 1948, the anti-apartheid movement led the ICC to impose a moratorium on tours in 1970. This decision excluded players such as Graeme Pollock, Barry Richards, World class cricketers of their day like Clive Rice, Vintcent van der Bijl also never played Test Cricket despite their first class records. The ICC reinstated South Africa as a Test nation in 1991, South Africas first Test match after re-admission was played against the West Indies in April 1992. The match was played in Bridgetown, Barbados and South Africa lost by 52 runs, since South Africa have been reinstated they have achieved mixed success, and hosted the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup in 2003. In 2003, South Africa were one of the favourites but were eliminated by one run in the stages after they had mistakenly counted the number of runs they needed. They have also had bad press for failing in vital matches in tournaments including the 2002 ICC Champions Trophy. With Donald retiring, Cronje banned for match-fixing and later killed in a crash, and Pollock also retiring from international cricket. Graeme Smith was made captain, although following injuries to Smith and Jacques Kallis, at the age of 29, he became the first non-white man to captain the once all-white South African cricket team. Due to a racial policy, the side was once required to contain black players
5.
New Zealand national cricket team
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The New Zealand cricket team, nicknamed the Black Caps, are the national cricket team representing New Zealand. They played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, New Zealand, from 1930 New Zealand had to wait until 1956, more than 26 years, for its first test victory, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland. They played their first ODI in the 1972–73 season against Pakistan in Christchurch, the current Test, One-day and Twenty20 captain is Kane Williamson, who replaced Brendon McCullum who announced his retirement in late December,2015. The national team is organised by New Zealand Cricket, the New Zealand cricket team became known as the Black Caps in January 1998, after its sponsor at the time, Clear Communications, held a competition to choose a name for the team. Official New Zealand Cricket sources typeset the nickname as BLACKCAPS and this is one of many national team nicknames related to the All Blacks. As of February 2017, New Zealand have played 419 Test matches, winning 89, losing 169, as of February 2017, the New Zealand cricket team is ranked 5th in Tests, 3rd in ODIs and 1st in T20Is by the ICC. New Zealand reached the final match in the ICC Cricket World Cup for the first time in its history, darwin in The Voyage of the Beagle wrote, several young men redeemed by the missionaires from slavery were employed on the farm. In the evening I saw a party of them at cricket, the first recorded game of cricket in New Zealand took place in Wellington in December 1842. The Wellington Spectator reports a game on 28 December 1842 played by a Red team, the first fully recorded match was reported by the Examiner in Nelson between the Surveyors and Nelson in March 1844. The first team to tour New Zealand was Parrs all England XI in 1863–64, between 1864 and 1914,22 foreign teams toured New Zealand. England sent 6 teams, Australia 15 and one from Fiji, on 15–17 February 1894 the first team representing New Zealand played New South Wales at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. New South Wales won by 160 runs, New South Wales returned again in 1895–96 and New Zealand won the solitary game by 142 runs, its first victory. The New Zealand Cricket Council was formed towards the end of 1894, New Zealand played its first two internationals in 1904–05 against a star-studded Australia team containing such players as Victor Trumper, Warwick Armstrong and Clem Hill. They played 26 first class matches, mostly against county sides and they managed to beat Worcestershire, Glamorgan, Somerset, and Derbyshire. On the strength of the performances of this tour New Zealand was granted Test status, in 1929/30 the M. C. C toured NZ and played 4 Tests all of 3 days in duration. New Zealand lost its first Test match but drew the next 3, in the second Test Stewie Dempster and Jackie Mills put on 276 for the first wicket. This is still the highest partnership for New Zealand against England, New Zealands first Test after the war was against Australia in 1945/46. This game was not considered a Test at the time but it was granted Test status retrospectively by the International Cricket Council in March 1948
6.
Pakistan national cricket team
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The Pakistan cricket team, also known as The Green Shirts or The Shaheens) is the national cricket team of Pakistan. Represented by the Pakistan Cricket Board, the team is a member of the International Cricket Council. Pakistan have played 871 ODIs, winning 458, losing 387, Pakistan were the 1992 World Cup champions, and were runners-up in the 1999 tournament. Pakistan, in conjunction with other countries in South Asia, have hosted the 1987 and 1996 World Cups, the team has also played 110 Twenty20 Internationals, the most of any team, winning 64 losing 43 and tying 3. Pakistan won the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 and were runners-up in the tournament in 2007. Pakistan have played 406 Test matches, with winning 130, losing 118, the team has the third-best win/loss ratio in Test cricket of 1.10, and the fifth-best overall win percentage of 32. 01%. In the 1950s, several Pakistani Test players had played Test cricket for the Indian cricket team before the creation of Pakistan in 1947, as of 31 January 2017, the Pakistani cricket team is ranked sixth in Tests, eighth in ODIs and seventh in T20Is by the ICC. Cricket in Pakistan has a history of even before the creation of the country in 1947, the first ever international cricket match in Karachi was held on 22 November 1935 between Sindh and Australian cricket teams. The match was seen by 5,000 Karachiites, the first captain of the Pakistan national cricket team was Abdul Hafeez Kardar. Pakistans first Test match was played in Delhi in October 1952 as part of a five Test series which India won 2–1. Pakistan made their first tour of England in 1954 and drew the series 1–1 after a victory at The Oval in which fast bowler Fazal Mahmood took 12 wickets. Pakistans first home Test match was in Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dacca, in January 1955 against India, after which four more Test matches were played in Bahawalpur, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi. The team is considered a strong but unpredictable team, Pakistani contests with India in the Cricket World Cup have seen packed stadiums and elevated atmospheres no matter where the World Cup has been held. However the fans love their team, the 1986 Austral-Asia Cup, played in Sharjah in UAE, is remembered for a famous last-ball victory for Pakistan against arch-rivals India, with Javed Miandad emerging as a national hero. India batted first and set a target of 245 runs, leaving Pakistan with a run rate of 4.92 runs per over. Javed Miandad came in to bat at number 3 and Pakistan lost wickets at regular intervals, later recalling the match, Miandad stated that his main focus was to lose with dignity. With 31 runs needed in the last three overs, Miandad hit a string of boundaries while batting with his teams lower order, Miandad received a leg side full toss from Chetan Sharma, which he hit for six over the midwicket boundary. At the 1992 World Cup Semi-final, having won the toss, New Zealand chose to bat first, Pakistan batted conservatively yet lost wickets at regular intervals
7.
Australia national cricket team
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The Australia national cricket team, represents the country of Australia in international cricket. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, having played in the first ever Test match in 1877, the team draws its players from teams playing in the Australian domestic competitions – the Sheffield Shield, the Australian domestic limited-overs cricket tournament and the Big Bash League. The national team has played 801 Test matches, winning 377, losing 215, drawing 207, Australia is ranked the number-one team overall in Test cricket in terms of overall wins, win-loss ratio and wins percentage. As of 29 March 2017, Australia is ranked third in the ICC Test Championship on 108 rating points, the Australian cricket team has played 898 ODI matches, winning 554, losing 303, tying 9 and with 32 ending in no-result. They currently lead the ICC ODI Championship, having done so for 130 of 161 months since its introduction in 2002. Australia have made a record seven World Cup final appearances and have won the World Cup a record five times in total,1987,1999,2003,2007 and 2015 and it is also the second team to win a World Cup on home soil, after India. The team was undefeated in 34 consecutive World Cup matches until 19 March at the 2011 Cricket World Cup where Pakistan beat them by 4 wickets. Australia have also won the ICC Champions Trophy twice – in 2006 and in 2009 – making them the first and the only team to become back to back winners in the Champions Trophy tournaments. Test cricket, which occurred between Australia and England at the time, was limited by the long distance between the two countries, which would take several months by sea. Most cricketers at the time were either from New South Wales or Victoria, with the exception of George Giffen. A highlight of Australias early history was the 1882 Test match against England at The Oval, in this match Fred Spofforth took 7/44 in the games fourth innings to save the match by preventing England from making their 85-run target. This was the start of the famous Ashes series in which Australia, to this day, the contest is one of the fiercest rivalries in sport. It participated in between the 1897–98 English tour of Australia and the 1910–11 South African tour of Australia, Victor Trumper became one of Australias first sporting heroes, and was widely considered Australias greatest batsman before Bradman and one of the most popular players. He played a number of Tests at 49 and scored 3163 runs at a high for the time average of 39.04. His early death in 1915 at the age of 37 from kidney disease caused national mourning, the Wisden Cricketers Almanack, in its obituary for him, called him Australias greatest batsman, Of all the great Australian batsmen Victor Trumper was by general consent the best and most brilliant. Led by Peter McAlister, who was attempting to gain control of tours from the players. This led to six leading players walking out on the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England and this was the last series before the war, and no more cricket was played by Australia for eight years, with Tibby Cotter being killed in Palestine during the war. Test cricket resumed in the 1920/21 season in Australia with a touring English team, captained by Johnny Douglas losing all five Tests to Australia, the team continued its success on the 1921 Tour of England, winning three out of the five Tests in Warwick Armstrongs last series
8.
Bangladesh national cricket team
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The Bangladesh national cricket team, also known as The Tigers, represents Bangladesh in international cricket. It is administered by the Bangladesh Cricket Board, Bangladesh is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status. It played its first Test match in November 2000 against India in Dhaka, Bangladeshs first official foray into international cricket came in the 1979 ICC Trophy in England. On 31 March 1986, Bangladesh played its first ODI match, for a long time, football was the most popular sport in Bangladesh, but cricket gradually became very popular – particularly in urban areas – and by the late 1990s had surpassed football. In 1997, Bangladesh won the ICC Trophy in Malaysia and thus qualified for its first Cricket World Cup to participate in England in 1999, there, it defeated Pakistan – causing much upset – and also Scotland. On 26 June 2000, Bangladesh was granted full ICC membership, Bangladesh holds the record for most consecutive losses in Tests and ODIs. After gaining full member status with the ICC, Bangladesh had to wait until 2004 for its first ODI win since the 1999 World Cup, in 2009 Bangladesh toured the West Indies for two Tests and by winning both secured their first overseas series victory. On 14 March 2017, against Sri Lanka Bangladesh became the youngest team to play 100 test matches, as of 6 April 2017, Bangladesh has played 100 Tests, winning nine tests among them. Its first victory was against team Zimbabwe, and the two came against the West Indian team. They played their 100th Test when they toured Sri Lanka in March 2017, the team has been more successful in ODIs, having won 102 of its 324 matches. It has also played 67 Twenty20 Internationals, winning 21, however the limited over success is due to the wins against Zimbabwe and associate members. Bangladesh is currently ranked ninth in Tests, seventh in ODIs, in 1977, Bangladesh became an Associate member of the International Cricket Council. Bangladesh was one of fifteen teams to take part in the inaugural ICC Trophy, held in 1979, it gave non-Test playing countries the opportunity to qualify for that years World Cup. Bangladesh, under the captaincy of Raqibul Hasan, won two matches and lost two, but failed to progress beyond the first round, victory in the South-East Asian Cricket Conference Tournament in February 1984 ensured Bangladesh qualified for the 1986 Asia Cup. They lost their second ODI which was against Sri Lanka, finishing last in the three-team tournament, Bangladesh qualified for the 1988 Asia Cup, this time hosting the tournament, it was the first time ODIs had been staged in the country. Although they lost all their matches, Bangladeshs fixtures were retrospectively awarded ODI, floods in the preceding months meant the tournament was in doubt, but it went ahead as planned. A charity match raised $70,000 for the flood victims, Bangladesh took part in the 1990 Austral-Asia Cup, the Asia Cup in 1990–91,1995, and 1997, but it was not until 1998 that they won their first ODI. Their 22-match losing streak since their first ODI was at the time a record, Bangladesh posted its first ODI win against Kenya, in India thanks largely to Mohammad Rafique, who contributed a fiery 77 runs and took 3 wickets
9.
Sri Lanka national cricket team
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The team first played international cricket in 1926–27, and were later awarded Test status in 1982, which made Sri Lanka the eighth Test cricket playing nation. The team is administered by Sri Lanka Cricket, Angelo Mathews is the current captain of all formats of the game. Sri Lankas national cricket team achieved considerable success beginning in the 1990s, since then, the team has continued to be a force in international cricket. The Sri Lankan cricket team reached the finals of the 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups consecutively, but they ended up being runners up in both those occasions. Sri Lanka have won the Cricket World Cup in 1996, the ICC Champions Trophy in 2002 and they have been consecutive runners up in the 2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups, and have been runners up in the ICC World Twenty20 in 2009 and 2012. The Sri Lankan cricket team currently holds world records, including the world record for highest team total in Tests. The ODI total was broken by England on 30 August 2016, the Sri Lanka national cricket team began with the formation of the Colombo Cricket Club in 1832. By the 1880s a national team, the Ceylon national cricket team, was formed which began playing cricket by the 1920s. The Ceylon national cricket team had achieved associate member status of the International Cricket Council in 1965 and they have also won the 2001-02 Asian Test Championship, defeating Pakistan in the final by an innings and 175 runs. Sri Lanka registered their first ODI win against India at Manchester, England and they also won the 1996 Cricket World Cup, co-champions in 2002 ICC Champions Trophy and also became five times Asian champions in 1986,1997,2004,2008 and 2014. Sri Lanka played their first Twenty20 International match at the Rose Bowl, on 15 June 2006, against England, in 2014, they won the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, defeating India by 6 wickets. As of January 2016, Sri Lanka have faced all nine teams in Test cricket, with their most frequent opponent being Pakistan, Sri Lanka have registered more wins against Pakistan and Bangladesh than any other team, with 14. In ODI matches, Sri Lanka have played against 17 teams, they have played against India most frequently, within usual major ODI nations, Sri Lanka have defeated England on 34 occasions, which is their best record in ODIs. The team have competed against 13 countries in T20Is, and have played 15 matches against New Zealand, Sri Lanka have defeated Australia and West Indies 6 occasions each. Sri Lanka was the best T20I team in the world, where they ranked number one in more than 32 months, as of 14 January 2017, Sri Lanka have played 256 Test matches, they have won 80 matches, lost 95 matches, and 81 matches were drawn. As of 10 February 2017, Sri Lanka have played 787 ODI matches, winning 368 matches and losing 379, they also tied 5 matches, whilst 35 had no result. As of 19 February 2017, Sri Lanka have played 92 T20I matches, Sri Lanka were awarded Test cricket status in 1981, by the International Cricket Council. They played their first Test match against England at P. Saravanamuttu Stadium, B. Warnapura was the captain for Sri Lanka in that watch, which England was victorious by 7 wickets
10.
West Indies cricket team
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From the mid-to-late 1970s to the early 1990s, the West Indies team was the strongest in the world in both Test and One Day International cricket. The West Indies were the first team to win back-to-back World Cups, as of 5 October 2016, the West Indian cricket team is ranked eighth in Tests, ninth in ODIs and fourth in T20Is by the ICC. West Indies has hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, the Leeward Islands Cricket Association consists of associations of one sovereign state, the two entities of Saint Kitts and Nevis, three British Overseas Territories and two other dependencies. The Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control consists of associations of four sovereign states, currently, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, other historical parts of the former West Indies Federation and now British Overseas Territories, have their own teams. National teams also exist for the islands, which, as they are all separate countries, very much keep their local identities. These national teams take part in the West Indian first-class competition and it is also common for other international teams to play the island teams for warm-up games before they take on the combined West Indies team. The official population number for those countries and dependencies is estimated to around 6 million, which is larger than Scotland, Kitts Cricket Association St. Lucia Cricket Association St. In their early days in the 1930s, the side represented the British colonies that would form the West Indies Federation plus British Guiana. The last series the West Indies played before the outbreak of the Second World War was against England in 1939, there followed a hiatus that lasted until January 1948 when the MCC toured the West Indies. Of the West Indies players in that first match after the war only Gerry Gomez, George Headley, Jeffrey Stollmeyer, and Foffie Williams had previously played Test cricket. The West Indies defeated England for the first time at Lords on 29 June 1950 and, on 16 August 1950, by the late 1970s, the West Indies led by Clive Lloyd had a side recognised as unofficial world champions, a reputation they retained throughout the 1980s. During these glory years, the West Indies were noted for their four-man fast bowling attack, in 1976, fast bowler Michael Holding took 14/149 in a Test against England, setting a record which still stands for best bowling figures in a Test by a West Indies bowler. The 1980s saw the set a then-record streak of 11 consecutive Test victories in 1984. West Indies would not play a One Day International after World Cup 2015 until after 30 September, a scheduled Triangular series with Zimbabwe and Pakistan was cancelled after the Pakistan Cricket Board refused to risk their hard-earned spot in the same competition. West Indies first game after World Cup was against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka whitewashed West Indies in both Test and ODI series as 2-0 and 3-0 respectively, which cause them to fall down the rankings. But in 2-match T20 series, West Indies were able to draw it by winning the last match of the tour. With this win, West Indies moved higher in T20I team rankings up to third place, most cricketing nations use their own national flags for cricketing purposes. However, as the West Indies represent a number of independent states and dependencies, the WICB has, therefore, developed an insignia showing a palm tree and cricket stumps on a small sunny island
11.
Afghanistan national cricket team
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The Afghanistan national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Afghanistan in international cricket matches. Cricket has been played in Afghanistan since the mid 19th century, the Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in 1995 and became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council in 2001 and a member of the Asian Cricket Council in 2003. They are ranked 9th in International Twenty20 cricket as of 7 January 2017 ahead of full members Bangladesh, in the same year they won their first Intercontinental Cup, beating Scotland in the final. Afghanistan also won the Asia Vs Caribbean T20 Championship and beat T&T, Bangladesh, Afghanistan also qualified for 2012 ICC World Twenty20 held in Sri Lanka as the runner up of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier and joined India and England in the group stage. In the first match against India on 19 September, Afghanistan won the toss, India posted 159/5 in 20 overs but Afghanistan fell short of that target by scoring 136 in 19.3 overs. In the second match against England on 21 September, Afghanistan won the toss, England set a target of 196/5 but Afghanistan were all out for 80 in 17.2 overs. England and India qualified for the Super Eights and Afghanistan were eliminated as a result of this match. On October 3,2013, Afghanistan beat Kenya to finish second in the WCL Championship and qualify for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, becoming the 20th team to gain entry into the tournament overall. Afghanistan secured their passage to Australia and New Zealand in 2015 by beating Kenya comprehensively for the time in succession in Sharjah. Afghanistan will join Pool A at the World Cup along with Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, on November 24,2013, Afghanistan beat Kenya to qualify for the 2014 T20 world cup. In March 2014, Afghanistan beat Hong Kong in the 2014 ICC World Twenty20, on February 25,2015 Afghanistan won their first Cricket World Cup match beating Scotland by 14 runs. Afghanistan participated in the World Twenty202016 in India and they were unable to qualify for the Semi-Finals of the International Tournament. They defeated the champions, West Indies, during their final group match of the tournament. Their third match was against the full member test team Zimbabwe and they played exceptionally well beating Zimbabwe by 59 runs. Afghanistan qualified for the Super 10 stage of the tournament as a result of this match, Afghanistan progressed to the second phase of a World Twenty20 tournament for the first time. He was chosen ahead of Mohammad Yousuf, Herschelle Gibbs and Corey Collymore Rajput is in line for a two-year contract, but that decision would be finalised after the upcoming tour of Europe. In July 2016, ACB unveiled a plan and set targets for Afghanistan cricket team to be a top-six ODI team by 2019. In order to achieve this, ACB created a proposal to be presented to BCCI, in the works to secure annual bilateral matches against India, on 25 July 2016, Afghanistan confirmed its first full series against West Indies a top-8 ranked Full member
12.
Zimbabwe national cricket team
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The Zimbabwean cricket team is the team that represents Zimbabwe in international cricket. It is administered by Zimbabwe Cricket, Zimbabwe is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status. As of 15 August 2016, Zimbabwe is ranked tenth in Tests, eleventh in ODIs, Zimbabwe – known as Rhodesia until independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 – had a national cricket team before it achieved Test status. Following independence, the country began to more international cricket. On 21 July 1981, Zimbabwe became a member of the ICC. Zimbabwe participated in the 1983 Cricket World Cup, as well as the 1987 and 1992 events, Zimbabwes first World Cup campaign in 1983 ended in the group stage, as they lost five of their six matches. However, they threw a surprise against Australia, batting first, Zimbabwe reached a total of 239 for 6 in the allotted 60 overs, with skipper Duncan Fletcher top-scoring with 69 not out. Fletcher then produced career-best figures of 4 for 42 to restrict Australia to 226 for 7, in the 1987 World Cup, Zimbabwe lost all six of their group-stage matches, though they came very close to winning against New Zealand. Chasing 243 to win from 50 overs, wicketkeeper-batsman David Houghton scored 142, in the 1992 tournament, Zimbabwe failed to progress beyond the round-robin stage, losing seven of their eight matches, though there were two notable achievements. Against Sri Lanka in their first match, Zimbabwe posted their then-highest total of 312 for 4, however, the Sri Lankans chased this total down with four balls to spare, winning by three wickets. In their final match, Zimbabwe faced England in an inconsequential encounter, batting first, Zimbabwe were all out for 134. Eddo Brandes then produced a spell of 4 for 21, including dismissing Graham Gooch first ball, to help restrict England to 125 all out. These twenty World Cup matches were Zimbabwes only international games during this period, Zimbabwe was granted Test status by the ICC in July 1992 and played its first Test match in October that year, against India at Harare Sports Club. They became the ninth Test nation, Zimbabwes early Test performances were consistently weak, leading to suggestions that they had been granted Test status prematurely. Of their first 30 Test matches, they won just one, in the one-day arena, however, the team soon became competitive, if not particularly strong. In particular, world respect was gained for their fielding ability, in spite of his teams difficulties, wicket-keeper/batsman Andy Flower was at one point rated the best batsman in world cricket. During this era, Zimbabwe also produced such cricketers as Flowers brother Grant, murray Goodwin was also a world-class batsman, following his retirement from international cricket, he has scored heavily for Sussex. Another world-class batsman was David Houghton, who holds the record for the highest individual Test score for Zimbabwe of 266 against Sri Lanka in 1994/95, unfortunately, the political situation in Zimbabwe declined at around the same time, which had a detrimental effect on the national teams performances
13.
Ireland cricket team
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The Ireland cricket team is the cricket team representing all of Ireland. They are an Associate member of the International Cricket Council, Ireland played their first ODI in 2006 against England. Since then, they have gone on to play 101 ODIs, resulting in 45 victories,47 defeats,6 no results, contracts for players were introduced in 2009, marking the transition to becoming a professional team. Cricket Ireland is the governing body in Ireland. Cricket was introduced to Ireland in the 19th century, and the first match played by an Ireland team was in 1855, Ireland toured Canada and the United States in the late 19th century, and occasionally hosted matches against touring side. Rivalry with the Scotland national cricket team was established when the teams first played each other in 1888, Irelands maiden first-class match was played in 1902. In 1993 the Irish Cricket Union, the predecessor to Cricket Ireland, was elected to the ICC as an Associate member, Associates are the next level of team below those that play Test cricket. Due to their successes in the Intercontinental Cup and at the World Cup and this would allow Ireland to become a permanent One Day International playing nation and eventually grant them Test status. Ireland qualified for the Cricket World Cup for the first time in 2007 and they also qualified for the 2009,2010,2012, and 2014 World Twenty20 competitions. Ireland also play cricket in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, which they have won four times since 2005. Cricket was introduced to Ireland by the English in the towns of Kilkenny, in the 1830s, the game began to spread, many of the clubs which were founded in the following 30 years are still in existence today. The first Irish national team played in 1855 against The Gentlemen of England in Dublin, in the 1850s, the Englishman Charles Lawrence was responsible for developing the game in Ireland through his coaching. In the 1850s and 1860s, Ireland was visited for the first time by touring professional teams, Irelands first match against Marylebone Cricket Club was in 1858. The game gained popularity until the early 1880s, the land war in the 1880s resulting from the Irish Land Commission and a ban on playing foreign games, in practice, British, by the Gaelic Athletic Association set back the spread of cricket. The ban was lifted in 1970, and before then anyone playing foreign games, such as cricket was banned from the Irish games such as hurling, Irish teams toured Canada and the USA in 1879,1888,1892, and 1909. On top of this, Ireland defeated a touring South African side in 1904 and their first match with first-class status was played on 19 May 1902 against a London County side including W. G. Grace. The Irish, captained by Sir Tim OBrien, won convincingly by 238 runs, after the 1902 tour of England, where four matches yielded one win, two draws and one loss, Ireland did not play first-class cricket again for five years. In 1909, the first annual first-class match between Ireland and Scotland was held, and a match against the M. C. C. was arranged from 1924 onwards
14.
Scotland national cricket team
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The Scotland national cricket team represents Scotland in the game of cricket. They play their matches at The Grange, Edinburgh. Scotland became associate members of the International Cricket Council in 1994 after severing links with the England cricket team two years earlier, since then, they have played in three Cricket World Cups and three ICC World Twenty20 tournaments. However, their first win in either of these events did not come until they beat Hong Kong in the 2016 World Twenty20. Scottish cricket team is governed by Cricket Scotland, Scotland have also played in every ICC Intercontinental Cup tournament, winning the inaugural edition in 2004. Between 2010 and 2013, the competed in the ECB40 as the Scottish Saltires. Kyle Coetzer became captain of the side in November 2016 after Preston Mommsen who had captained the side since September 2014 stepped down, the coach is New Zealander Grant Bradburn, who took on the role in April 2014. The first recorded match in Scotland took place in Alloa in 1785. It would be another eighty years, however, before Scotland played their first full match, against Surrey in 1865, the first Scottish Cricket Union was formed in 1879, and the national team beat Australia by 7 wickets three years later. The cricket union became defunct in 1883, and Grange Cricket Club took over the administration of the game until 1909, the first match against Ireland took place in Dublin in 1888, with the Irish emerging victorious. They also played South Africa, the West Indies, an all-Indian team,1948 saw Australia visit Scotland for two games at the end of their tour of England. These games, both of which were won by the Australians, were to be the last international games for Don Bradman, the Don signed off in typical style, making a fine unbeaten 123 in the innings victory. Scotland first competed in English domestic cricket in 1980, when they competed in the Benson & Hedges Cup for the first time, three years later they took part in the NatWest Trophy. Their first Benson & Hedges win came against Lancashire in 1986, the most famous cricketers to have come from Scotland are probably the former England captain, Mike Denness, Warwickshire all-rounder Dougie Brown, and former England Test player Gavin Hamilton. Another great Scottish cricketer was B. R, hardie, who was a major contributor to the successful Essex side of the 1970s and 1980s. Possibly one of the best spinners and certainly a respected journalist was the aptly named Ian Peebles, who was one of the cricketers of the year in 1931 alongside Don Bradman. The most infamous cricketer, a man who was vilified in Australia, was a Scot, Douglas Jardine, father to and inventor of Body Theory, Jardine was born in British India, and died in Switzerland, spending most of his life in England. He asked for his ashes to be scattered in Scotland and gave his own children Scottish names, in 1992 Scotland severed their ties with the Test and County Cricket Board and England, and gained associate membership of the ICC in their own right in 1994. They competed in the ICC Trophy for the first time in 1997, finishing third and qualifying for the 1999 World Cup, where they lost all their games
15.
United Arab Emirates national cricket team
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The United Arab Emirates national cricket team is the team that represents the country of the United Arab Emirates in international cricket matches. They became a member of the International Cricket Council in 1989. Since 2005, the ICCs headquarters have been located in Dubai and they won the ICC Trophy in 1994, and played their first ODIs that year, later playing in the 1996 Cricket World Cup. Other ODI matches came in the 2004 and 2008 Asia Cups, at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier, the UAE placed second behind Scotland, qualifying for the 2015 World Cup and gaining ODI, and therefore Twenty20 International, status until 2018. In 1892, the United Kingdom took responsibility of the Sheikhdoms, and cricket was introduced by the British Army in what is now the UAE, the pitches installed by them around the air base in Sharjah were used by British and other foreign nationals after the war ended. Sharjah residents began playing the Dubai residents in the local derbies which were held in Dubai, the Garden city of Al Ain has the oldest cricket council in the whole of the UAE. The popularity of the game declined after independence in 1971, however, the local Arab population, educated in India and Pakistan, set up clubs and domestic tournaments began in the 1980s. The first match was played by the UAE national side in February 1976 against Pakistan International Airlines in Sharjah, the visitors scored 345/5 from their 50 overs and the UAE were on 88/4 from 28 overs when the game was abandoned due to rain. Wealthy locals began investing in the sport and an International standard cricket ground was constructed in Sharjah, the Sharjah Cricket Association Stadium hosted its first international event in 1984 when India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka contested the Asia Cup. The venue has gone on to host almost 200 ODIs and four Test matches, the Emirates Cricket Board was established in 1989 and gained affiliate membership of the ICC the same year. They were quickly promoted to member status the following year. Also in 1990 the national side returned to action, twice losing heavily to the Netherlands and these heavy defeats showed that much work needed to be done if the UAE were to be successful in the 1994 ICC Trophy and the ECB adopted a controversial policy. With just one native Arab selected in the shape of Sultan Zarawani, who captained the side, whilst the ICC remained relatively silent on the controversy, the national team eligibility requirements were strongly tightened for all future ICC sanctioned tournaments. The UAE played their first ODIs in 1994 when they played against India and Pakistan in the Austral-Asia Cup, which they also hosted. They finished last in a tri-series against Kenya and the Netherlands the same year and also finished last in a tournament against the A sides of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 1995. They returned to ODI cricket in the 1996 World Cup where they lost all matches except the one against the Netherlands, later in 1996 the UAE were runners-up to Bangladesh in the first ACC Trophy. The tightened eligibility rules meant that they were unable to repeat their 1994 success when they finished tenth in the 1997 ICC Trophy in Malaysia and they were beaten by Bangladesh in the semi-finals of the 1998 ACC Trophy. They won the ACC Trophy in 2000 and 2002, beating Hong Kong and Nepal in the respective finals, UAE hosted the 2004 ICC Six Nations Challenge and finished fifth, level on points with four other teams
16.
Netherlands national cricket team
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The Dutch cricket team is a national cricket team representing the Netherlands. Cricket has been played in the Netherlands since at least the 19th century, other sports - notably football - have long since surpassed cricket in popularity amongst the Dutch, but today there are around 6,000 cricketers in the Netherlands. The Netherlands have taken part in all ten ICC Trophy/World Cup Qualifier tournaments, winning the competition in Canada in 2001 and finishing as runners-up twice. The Netherlands also participated in the 1996,2003,2007 and 2011 Cricket World Cups, in 2004 they played first-class cricket in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, drawing with Scotland in Aberdeen and then going down to an innings defeat against Ireland in Deventer. The Netherlands enjoyed full One Day International status from 1 January 2006 until 1 February 2014 and they have had Twenty20 International status since June 2014, having played their first match in this format in 2008. Cricket was introduced to the Netherlands by British soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars in the 19th century, further clubs came into existence in the 1870s. The Netherlands national team played their first game in 1881 and they fielded 22 players against an Uxbridge Cricket Club XI, but still lost by an innings. The Dutch Cricket Union was formed in 1883, with 18 member clubs, the first national tournament was held the following year, and was won by Haagsche CC. English touring teams then began visiting in 1886 including one in 1891 that featured the author of Sherlock Holmes, in 1894, the Gentlemen of Holland were the first Dutch team to visit England. The tour included a game against the MCC at Lords, which the MCC won by an innings and 169 runs. Tours by English sides continued for the rest of the 1890s, which saw the emergence of Carst Posthuma. He took 2339 wickets at an average of 8.66 in his career in the Netherlands,1901 saw another visit to England by the Gentlemen of Holland. They played five games on the tour, drawing two and losing the remainder,1905 saw the first international game against Belgium, which finished in a draw. In 1910, the Dutch team visited Belgium to take part in an exhibition tournament and they lost to the MCC by 2 wickets, and to France by 63 runs, but beat Belgium by 116 runs. During World War I, in which the Netherlands remained neutral, large numbers of British officers were interned in the country, a team made up of these players even won the Dutch championship in 1918. The Flamingos, a Dutch touring side, was formed in 1921, tours by English teams also continued in this period. The 1930s are said to be the heyday of Dutch cricket, in 1934, the first Dutch womens league was formed, and the womens national team played two games against Australia in 1937, losing heavily in both. Cricket was of course curtailed after the German invasion in 1940, the 1950s saw visits to the Netherlands by Australia and the West Indies, in addition to their first match against Denmark
17.
Nepal national cricket team
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The Nepal National Cricket Team is the team that represents Nepal in international cricket. They have been an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council since 1996, Nepal were awarded Twenty20 International status by the ICC in June 2014. Nepal made their appearance in the ICC global event at the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. They have been participating in international matches since 1996, including every ACC Trophy tournaments except 2015 ACC Twenty20 Cup in UAE, in 1920s Cricket was introduced to Nepal for the first time by Lt. -Gen. Though the game was kept within themselves and other members of the elite, after the introduction of democracy through the Revolution of 1951, cricket began to spread to the rest of the population. In 1961, in an effort to promote cricket to the whole of Nepal, nevertheless, the National games tended to be limited to Kathmandu until the 1980s. A major development programme was begun in the early 1990s, with regional and district tournaments established, interest in cricket increased quickly, and demand to play was such that teams in tournaments had to be restricted until more facilities were built in the mid 90s. The facilities in Nepal had improved enough by 1998 to allow them to host that years ACC Trophy at grounds in Lalitpur and Kirtipur, Nepal themselves were unsuccessful in the tournament, going without a win. On 28 June 2014, the ICC awarded T20I status to Nepal, Nepal had already played three T20I matches before gaining the status, as ICC had earlier announced that all matches at the 2014 ICC World Twenty20 would have T20I status. Nepal lost the status in July 2015, after failing to qualify for the 2016 ICC World Twenty20, Nepal played their first ever Twenty20 International series against Hong Kong in November 2014 in Sri Lanka. Initially the series was scheduled for three matches but only one match was played because of rain and poor ground conditions. Nepal lost the match but Sompal Kami put in impressive performance by scoring 40 off 31 balls and this is a world-record for the highest score made by a batsman at that position. Nepal played their second Twenty20 International series against the Netherlands from 30 June to 3 July 2015, Nepal lost the 4 match series 3–1. Paras Khadka was named the player of the series, in 2000, Nepals youth development policy began to pay off when the Nepal national under-19 cricket team finished eighth in the Under-19 World Cup. The senior side had their best performance to date later in the year when they reached the semi-finals of the 2000 ACC Trophy before losing to Hong Kong at Sharjah and they competed in the ICC Trophy for the first time the following year. In the tournament in Ontario, they beat Germany and Gibraltar, Nepal were runners-up to the UAE in the 2002 ACC Trophy in Singapore and they hosted the ACC Emerging Nations Tournament in 2003, winning easily against Bhutan and the Maldives. They won so comprehensively that they were not invited back to the tournament the next time it was played in 2005, raju Khadka became the first Nepalese cricketer to score an international century, when he slammed an unbeaten 105 off just 50 balls against Bhutan in the tournament. Nepal played first-class cricket for the first time in 2004, playing in the ICC Intercontinental Cup against the UAE and they beat Malaysia, but drew with the UAE, failing to reach the semi-final stage
18.
Limited overs cricket
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The name reflects the rule that in the match each team bowls a set maximum number of overs, usually between 20 and 50, although shorter and longer forms of limited overs cricket have been played. Each team bats only once, and each innings is limited to a set number of overs, usually fifty in a One Day International, List A is a classification of the limited-overs form of cricket, technically as the domestic level. As mentioned above, in almost all competitive games, a restriction is placed on the number of overs that may be bowled by any one bowler. This is to prevent a side playing two top-class bowlers with extremely good stamina who can bowl throughout their opponents innings, the usual limitation is set so that a side must include at least five players who bowl. For example, the limit for twenty-over cricket is four overs per bowler, for forty-over cricket eight per bowler. There are exceptions, Pro Cricket in the United States restricts bowlers to five overs each, thus leaving a side requiring only four bowlers. The idea for a one-day, limited 50-over cricket tournament, was first played in the match of the All India Pooja Cricket Tournament in 1951 in the small town of Thrippunithura in Kerala. It is thought to be the child of KV Kelappan Thampuran, a former cricketer. The one day limited over cricket game was adapted and played between English county teams for the first instance on 2 May 1962. Leicestershire beat Derbyshire and Northamptonshire beat Nottinghamshire over 65 overs in the Midlands Knock-Out Cup, the following year, the first full-scale one-day competition between first-class teams was played, the knock-out Gillette Cup, won by Sussex. The number of overs was reduced to 60 for the 1964 season, League one-day cricket also began in England, when the John Player Sunday League was started in 1969 with forty over matches. Both these competitions have continued every season since inauguration, though the sponsorship has changed, there is now one 50 over competition, which is called the Royal London One-Day Cup. The first Limited Overs International or One-Day International match was played in Melbourne in 1971, for more details, see History of cricket. Twenty20, a form of one-day cricket with 20 overs per side, was first played in England in 2003. It has proven popular, and several Twenty20 matches have been played between national teams. It makes several changes to the laws of cricket, including the addition of a bowl-out to decide the result of tied matches. Every four years, the Cricket World Cup involves all the Test-playing nations and it usually consists of round-robin stages, followed by semi-finals and a final. The International Cricket Council determines the venue far in advance, the ICC Champions Trophy also involves all the Test-playing nations, and is held between World Cups
19.
Cricket
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Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a cricket field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard-long pitch with a wicket at each end. One team bats, attempting to score as many runs as possible, each phase of play is called an innings. After either ten batsmen have been dismissed or a number of overs have been completed, the innings ends. The winning team is the one that scores the most runs, including any extras gained, at the start of each game, two batsmen and eleven fielders enter the field of play. The striker takes guard on a crease drawn on the four feet in front of the wicket. His role is to prevent the ball hitting the stumps by use of his bat. The other batsman, known as the non-striker, waits at the end of the pitch near the bowler. A dismissed batsman must leave the field, and a teammate replaces him, the bowlers objectives are to prevent the scoring of runs and to dismiss the batsman. An over is a set of six deliveries bowled by the same bowler, the next over is bowled from the other end of the pitch by a different bowler. If a fielder retrieves the ball enough to put down the wicket with a batsman not having reached the crease at that end of the pitch. Adjudication is performed on the field by two umpires, the laws of cricket are maintained by the International Cricket Council and the Marylebone Cricket Club. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball. Although crickets origins are uncertain, it is first recorded in south-east England in the 16th century and it spread globally with the expansion of the British Empire, leading to the first international matches in the mid-19th century. ICC, the governing body, has over 100 members. The sport is followed primarily in Australasia, Britain, the Indian subcontinent, southern Africa, womens cricket, which is organised and played separately, has also achieved international standard. A number of words have been suggested as sources for the term cricket, in the earliest definite reference to the sport in 1598 it is called creckett. One possible source for the name is the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, in Samuel Johnsons Dictionary, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, a stick
20.
Cricket World Cup
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The ICC Cricket World Cup is the international championship of One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the governing body, the International Cricket Council, every four years. The tournament is one of the worlds most viewed sporting events and is considered the event of the international cricket calendar by the ICC. The first World Cup was organised in England in June 1975, the first three World Cups were held in England. From the 1987 tournament onwards, hosting has been shared between countries under a rotation system, with fourteen ICC members having hosted at least one match in the tournament. A total of twenty teams have competed in the editions of the tournament. Australia has won the tournament five times, with the West Indies, India, Pakistan, the best performance by a non-full-member team came when Kenya made the semi-finals of the 2003 tournament. The first international match was played between Canada and the United States, on 24 and 25 September 1844. However, the first credited Test match was played in 1877 between Australia and England, and the two teams competed regularly for The Ashes in subsequent years, South Africa was admitted to Test status in 1889. Representative cricket teams were selected to each other, resulting in bilateral competition. Cricket was also included as an Olympic sport at the 1900 Paris Games and this was the only appearance of cricket at the Summer Olympics. The event was not a success, the summer was exceptionally wet, making play difficult on damp uncovered pitches, since then, international Test cricket has generally been organised as bilateral series, a multilateral Test tournament was not organised again until the triangular Asian Test Championship in 1999. The number of nations playing Test cricket increased gradually over time, with the addition of West Indies in 1928, New Zealand in 1930, India in 1932, however, international cricket continued to be played as bilateral Test matches over three, four or five days. In the early 1960s, English county cricket teams playing a shortened version of cricket which only lasted for one day. Starting in 1962 with a knockout competition known as the Midlands Knock-Out Cup. A national Sunday League was formed in 1969 and it was a forty over game with eight balls per over. In the late 1970s, Kerry Packer established the rival World Series Cricket competition, the first of the matches with coloured uniforms was the WSC Australians in wattle gold versus WSC West Indians in coral pink, played at VFL Park in Melbourne on 17 January 1979. The inaugural Cricket World Cup was hosted in 1975 by England, the 1975 tournament started on 7 June
21.
Twenty20 International
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A Twenty20 International is a form of cricket, played between two of the top members of the International Cricket Council, in which each team faces 20 overs. The matches have top-class status and are the highest T20 standard, the game is played under the rules of Twenty20 cricket. ICC decided to use DRS in Twenty20 internationals from October 2017, in 2016, for the first time in a calendar year, more Twenty20 International matches were played than ODI matches. There remain limits on how many Twenty20 Internationals a team can play each year, in order to protect Test cricket, as of 2016, there are 18 nations that feature in ICC T20I team rankings. The shorter format of the game makes reaching the milestones of scoring a century or taking five wickets in an innings more difficult. Cricket itself was probably first played in England in the Late Middle Ages, a set of laws were drawn up in 1744, and the game achieved a level of relative standardisation by the late nineteenth century. One-day cricket was trialled in 1962, and the first domestic tournament played the following year, the match consisted of one innings for each side, with 40 eight-ball overs. At the same time, the England and Wales Cricket Board conducted consumer research, and proposed the idea of a 20 overs-per-side contest, the first match was played in 2003 between Hampshire and Sussex. The first Twenty20 International match between two sides was played on 17 February 2005, involving Australia and New Zealand. However, Ponting himself said if it does become a game then Im sure the novelty wont be there all the time. Two further matches were played that year, England beat Australia in June, the game had initially been developed to boost the interest in domestic cricket, and to aid this the international teams were only allowed to host three T20Is each year. The cricket manager for the ICC, David Richardson, also commented that Part of the success of Twenty20 cricket is making sure it can coexist with Test cricket, despite this, the first international tournament was held in 2007 in South Africa, the 2007 ICC World Twenty20. That tournament was won by India, who defeated their close rivals Pakistan in the final, writing for The Guardian, Dilip Premachandran suggested that the competitions success meant that the format is here to stay. The next tournament was scheduled for 2009, and it was decided that they would take place biannually, in the opening match of the 2007 World Twenty20, Chris Gayle scored the first century in a T20I, the achievement being reached in the twentieth match of the format. The 500th T20I match was contested between Ireland and the United Arab Emirates at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi on 16 February 2016, the ten Test-playing nations have permanent T20I status. On 28 June 2014, the ICC granted T20I status to Nepal and Netherlands, in 1998, cricket was played as part of the Commonwealth Games, on this occasion in the 50-over format. Cricket was played in 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China and 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, there was further calls for subsequent Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games. The Commonwealth Games Federation asked the ICC to participate in the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, eSPNcricinfo suggested that the opposition might be based on the possible loss of income
22.
Melbourne Cricket Ground
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The Melbourne Cricket Ground, also known simply as The G, is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria. The MCG is within walking distance of the city centre and is served by the Richmond railway station, Richmond, and it is part of the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Precinct. Since it was built in 1853, the MCG has been in a state of almost constant renewal and it served as the centrepiece stadium of the 1956 Summer Olympics, the 2006 Commonwealth Games and two Cricket World Cups,1992 and 2015. The annual Boxing Day Test is one of the MCGs most popular events, the stadium fills to capacity for the AFL Grand Final. Concerts and other events are also held at the venue. The MCG is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register and was included on the Australian National Heritage List in 2005, journalist Greg Baum called it a shrine, a citadel, a landmark, a totem that symbolises Melbourne to the world. Founded in November 1838 the Melbourne Cricket Club selected the current MCG site in 1853 after previously playing at several grounds around Melbourne, the club’s first game was against a military team at the Old Mint site, at the corner of William and Latrobe Streets. The area was subject to flooding, forcing the club to move again and it was not long before the club was forced out again, this time because of the expansion of the railway. The South Melbourne ground was in the path of Victoria’s first steam railway line from Melbourne to Sandridge and this last option, which is now Yarra Park, had been used by Aborigines until 1835. Between 1835 and 1853 it was an agistment area for colonial troopers’ horses, in 1850 it was part of a 200-acre stretch set aside for public recreation extending from Governor La Trobe’s Jolimont Estate to the Yarra River. By 1853 it had become a busy promenade for Melbourne residents, an MCC sub-committee chose the Richmond Park option because it was level enough for cricket but sloped enough to prevent inundation. That ground was located where the Richmond, or outer, end of the current MCG is now, at the same time the Richmond Cricket Club was given occupancy rights to six acres for another cricket ground on the eastern side of the Government Paddock. At the time of the grant the Government stipulated that the ground was to be used for cricket and cricket only. This condition remained until 1933 when the State Government allowed the MCG’s uses to be broadened to other purposes when not being used for cricket. In 1863 a corridor of land running diagonally across Yarra Park was granted to the Hobson’s Bay Railway, the area closest to the river was also developed for sporting purposes in later years including Olympic venues in 1956. The first grandstand at the MCG was the original wooden stand built in 1854. It was during this tour that the MCG hosted the worlds first Test match, in 1881 the original members stand was sold to the Richmond Cricket Club for £55. A new brick stand, considered at the time to be the world’s finest cricket facility, was built in its place, the foundation stone was laid by Prince George of Wales and Prince Albert Victor on 4 July and the stand opened in December that year
23.
Test cricket
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Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket and is considered its highest standard. Test matches are played between national teams with Test status, as determined by the International Cricket Council. The two teams of 11 players play a match, which may last up to five days. It is generally considered the most complete examination of teams playing ability, the name Test stems from the long, gruelling match being a test of the relative strengths of the two sides. A Test match to celebrate 100 years of Test cricket was held in Melbourne from 12 to 17 March 1977, in October 2012, the International Cricket Council recast the playing conditions for Test matches, permitting day/night Test matches. The first day/night game took place between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, on 27 November 2015, Test matches are the highest level of cricket although, statistically, their data forms part of first-class cricket. Matches are played between national teams with Test status, as determined by the International Cricket Council. As of December 2014, ten teams have Test status. Zimbabwes Test status was suspended, because of poor performances between 2006 and 2011, it returned to competition in August 2011. If the Associate team defeats the test nation, then they could be added as the new test country, a list of matches, defined as Tests, was first drawn up by Australian Clarence Moody in the mid-1890s. Representative matches played by simultaneous England touring sides of 1891–92 and 1929–30 are deemed to have Test status, in 1970, a series of five Test matches was played in England between England and a Rest of the World XI. These matches, originally scheduled between England and South Africa, were amended after South Africa was suspended from international cricket because of their governments policy of apartheid. Although initially given Test status, this was withdrawn and a principle was established that official Test matches can only be between nations. Despite this, in 2005, the ICC ruled that the six-day Super Series match that took place in October 2005, some cricket writers and statisticians, including Bill Frindall, ignored the ICCs ruling and excluded the 2005 match from their records. The series of Test matches played in Australia between Australia and a World XI in 1971/72 do not have Test status, there are currently ten Test-playing teams, representing individual nations except for England and the West Indies. Test status is conferred upon a country or group of countries by the International Cricket Council, teams that do not have Test status can play in the ICC Intercontinental Cup, specifically designed to allow non-Test teams to play under conditions similar to Tests. In May 2016, ICC announced that it is contemplating the idea of two-tiers in Test match cricket, ICC hopes that this will help them draw more crowd and generate more revenue from the matches played between top tier teams. Promotion and relegation could be introduced into Test cricket as early as 2019 and this will give opportunities to more countries like Afghanistan and Ireland to play test cricket
24.
Kerry Packer
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Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. Outside Australia, Packer was best known for founding World Series Cricket, at the time of his death, Packer was the richest and one of the most influential men in Australia. In 2004, Business Review Weekly magazine estimated Packers net worth at A$6.5 billion, Kerry Packer was considered as one of Australias most powerful media proprietors. Kerry Packer was born Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer on 17 December 1937 and his father was Sir Frank Packer, an Australian media proprietor who controlled Australian Consolidated Press and the Nine Network. His mother, Gretel Bullmore, was the daughter of Herbert Bullmore and he had an older brother, Clyde Packer. He took part in sports at school, including boxing, cricket. On his fathers death in 1974, the estate, valued at $100 million, which included Australian Consolidated Press. His father had fallen out with his son, Clyde. Packer was the first person to make out of cricket by telecasting it in TV which created interest in people to watch cricket. Packer, through his family company Consolidated Press Holdings, was the shareholder with a 37% holding in Publishing and Broadcasting Limited. Until Packers death PBL owned the Nine television network, and Australian Consolidated Press which produces many of Australias top-selling magazines and he was involved in a number of other gambling and tourism ventures, notably Crown Casino in Melbourne. The Nine Network and Australian Consolidated Press businesses have since been divested to PBL Media, Kerrys independent business life began after his fathers death in 1974 when he inherited control of the familys controlling share in PBL, valued at A$100 million. The Packer familys business reputation suffered a blow when One. Tel, Kerry Packer was also one of Australias largest landholders. In 2003 a deposit of rubies was discovered on one of his properties, the Packer family has long been involved in media. Sir Frank wanted Kerry to experience work in the Newspaper Industry from the ground up, so Packer started in the dock of the Sydney newspaper The Telegraph. Kerry took over the running of PBL in 1974, on the death of his father, in 1987 Packer made a fortune at the expense of disgraced tycoon Alan Bond. Packer later quipped, You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, Packer was then able to re-invest the proceeds in a 25% share in the Foxtel pay TV consortium. After the sale to Bond, Packer said that he had regretted the decision to sell Nine, at the 2006 PBL AGM, Kerrys son James told of the true complexities of the deal
25.
World Series Cricket
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World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket, World Series Cricket drastically changed the nature of cricket, and its influence continues to be felt today. Packer was aided by businessmen John Cornell and Austin Robertson, both of whom were involved with the setup and administration of the series. In the mid-1970s, the Australian television industry was at a crossroads, agitation for more Australian-made programming gained impetus from the TV, Make it Australian campaign in 1970. This led to a quota system in 1973. The advent of colour transmissions in 1975 markedly improved sport as a spectacle and, importantly. However, sports administrators perceived live telecasts to have an effect on attendances. The correlation between sports, corporate sponsorship and television exposure was not evident to Australian sports administrators at the time. After the death of his father Sir Frank in 1974, Kerry Packer had assumed control of Channel Nine, one of the media interests owned by the familys company Consolidated Press Holdings. With Nines ratings languishing, Packer sought to turn the network around via a strategy that included more sports programming. Firstly, he secured the rights to the Australian Open golf tournament and he spent millions of dollars revamping The Australian Golf Club in Sydney as a permanent home for the tournament. Jack Nicklaus was hired to redesign the course and to appear in the tournament, Packer was a fan of cricket, which was undergoing a resurgence in popularity during the mid-1970s. In 1976, Packer sought the rights to televise Australias home Test matches and he approached the ACB with an offer of A$1.5 million for three years, yet he was rebuffed. The ACB felt loyal to the ABC, which had broadcast the game for twenty years when the networks showed little interest in the game. Packer believed that there was a network element to the decision. The government-funded ABC could not hope to match a commercial networks bid, determined to get some cricket on Channel Nine, Packer put an offer to the Test and County Cricket Board to telecast the Australian tour of England scheduled for 1977. His interest was stimulated by a proposal to play some televised exhibition matches. Robertson managed several high-profile Australian cricketers such as Dennis Lillee, Packer took this idea, then fleshed it out into a full series between the best Australian players and a team from the rest of the world
26.
Waverley Park
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Waverley Park was an Australian rules football stadium in Mulgrave, Victoria, Australia. For most of its history, its purpose was as a neutral venue, however, during the 1990s it became the home ground of both the Hawthorn and St Kilda football clubs. It was later replaced by Docklands Stadium and it is currently used as a training venue by Hawthorn. The main grandstand and oval are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, the seating capacity is now 2,000, down from a peak of 72,000. Waverley Park was first conceived in 1959 when delegates from the 12 VFL clubs requested the league to find land that was suitable for the building of a new stadium, in September 1962, the VFL had secured a 212-acre block of grazing and market garden land in Mulgrave. This area was chosen because it was believed that with the effects of urban sprawl and the building of the South-Eastern freeway. The VFL reportedly lobbied the government to construct a train connection to the stadium. The original plans were for a stadium catering for up to 157,000 patrons, to accommodate the large number of patrons the members stand was to be extended around the whole ground. Hence, no development ever occurred and the capacity was set at just over 100,000 patrons. The playing surface of 200 metres long and 160 metres wide was the biggest in the league and this caused some controversy and the boundary lines were repainted and goals were relocated to make the playing area a similar size to the MCGs playing surface. Under the direction of architect Reginald E. Padey, work was started at the site on 5 January 1966 when the VFL President Sir Kenneth Luke turned the first sod. On construction of the stadium, a total of 378,000 cubic yards of topsoil was excavated, the soil was used to form the banks for some sections of the stadium. The foundations for the K. G. Luke stand were laid in 1969, finally, on 18 April 1970, Fitzroy and Geelong played the first game at Waverley Park, to a crowd of 25,887. However, the stadium was far from completed, in fact the only section of the actual grandstand that was built was the first level of the K. G. Luke Stand. The rest of the stadium had only completed on the ground level. The Public Reserve Stands encircling the rest of the stadium were finished at a cost of $4.5 million in 1974, lighting was added in May 1977, at a cost of $1.2 million, for the first of the 1977 night series televised matches. In 1982 a monochrome video matrix scoreboard was in operation at Waverley Park for the first time in VFL history, in 1984 the arena was re-turfed and the drainage system upgraded. Two years later a mosaic mural perpetuating many great names of VFL football was installed on the facade above the members entrance
27.
Melbourne
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Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in Australia and Oceania. The name Melbourne refers to an urban agglomeration spanning 9,900 km2, the metropolis is located on the large natural bay of Port Phillip and expands into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon mountain ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 4,641,636 as of 2016, and its inhabitants are called Melburnians. Founded by free settlers from the British Crown colony of Van Diemens Land on 30 August 1835, in what was then the colony of New South Wales, it was incorporated as a Crown settlement in 1837. It was named Melbourne by the Governor of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. It was officially declared a city by Queen Victoria, to whom Lord Melbourne was close, in 1847, during the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, it was transformed into one of the worlds largest and wealthiest cities. After the federation of Australia in 1901, it served as the interim seat of government until 1927. It is a financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region. It is recognised as a UNESCO City of Literature and a centre for street art, music. It was the host city of the 1956 Summer Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the main passenger airport serving the metropolis and the state is Melbourne Airport, the second busiest in Australia. The Port of Melbourne is Australias busiest seaport for containerised and general cargo, Melbourne has an extensive transport network. The main metropolitan train terminus is Flinders Street Station, and the regional train. Melbourne is also home to Australias most extensive network and has the worlds largest urban tram network. Before the arrival of settlers, humans had occupied the area for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years. At the time of European settlement, it was inhabited by under 2000 hunter-gatherers from three indigenous tribes, the Wurundjeri, Boonwurrung and Wathaurong. The area was an important meeting place for the clans of the Kulin nation alliance and it would be 30 years before another settlement was attempted. Batman selected a site on the bank of the Yarra River. Batman then returned to Launceston in Tasmania, in early August 1835 a different group of settlers, including John Pascoe Fawkner, left Launceston on the ship Enterprize
28.
Nine Network
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The Nine Network is one of three main free-to-air commercial networks in Australia. The Nine Network is one of the two highest-rating television networks in Australia, along with the Seven Network and ahead of Network Ten, ABC, and SBS. The Nine Network was overtaken in the ratings in 2007 by its rival, the Seven Network, as a result, Nines slogan Still the One was discontinued. Since 2009, the slogan has been Welcome Home. After a few years in decline, with a period plagued by mass sackings, programme cancellations, and budget cuts. TCN-9 launched on 16 September 1956, john Godson introduced the station and Bruce Gyngell presented the first programme, This Is Television. Before its formation, TCN-9 was then affiliated with HSV-7, by the late 1960s, the network had begun unofficially calling itself the National Nine Network, and became simply the Nine Network in 1989. In 1967, the New South Wales Rugby Football League grand final became the first football final of any code to be televised live in Australia. The Nine Network paid $5,000 for the broadcasting rights, in the late 1980s, STW-9 Perth, which opened in 1965, became a Nine Network owned-and-operated station when Bond Media purchased the network. In 2011 GTV9 Melbourne moved from 22 Bendigo Street, Richmond, to 717 Bourke Street,22 Bendigo Street started out as the Wertheim Piano Factory, then became the Heinz Soup Factory, then GTV9. The building in Bendigo Street still stands, now as luxury apartments, Nine began using the slogan Let Us Be The One in 1977 and became the number-one free-to-air network in Australia, its National Nine News became the most-watched news service. In 1978, Nine switched its slogan to Still the One, during the 1980s, Nines ratings peaked. From 1999 to 2001, the network began losing ground to the Seven network in news and entertainment, the death of CEO Kerry Packer in 2005 triggered more problems for the network. Digital terrestrial television was introduced on 1 January 2001, Nine stayed strong throughout 2004, but was hit hard when Seven introduced a new line-up in 2005, though Nine finished ahead of Seven that year. Meanwhile, National Nine News was overtaken by Seven News, while Today was beaten by Sevens Sunrise, in 2006, Nine continued on its downward trend, losing most news weeks to Seven News and just winning the year thanks to its coverage of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. To try to revitalise the network in its 50th anniversary, Nine adopted a new, but critically received, logo removed the nine dots. In May 2007, Nine partially reintroduced the Nine dots, which resulted in the square logo changing into a cube that rotates. After a period of declining ratings, David Gyngell returned to the job of executive officer in October 2007
29.
Batting (cricket)
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In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of ones wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, the term specialist batsman is also used generically to describe players who specialise in batting, and the term bowler is also used in this context. The latter term can, however, refer to any player during their turn at bat, in womens cricket, the term batswoman is sometimes encountered, as is batter, but the male form is widely used in both mens and womens cricket. Cricketers have to adapt to various conditions when visiting international pitches, therefore, batsmen have to also have a good sense of decision making. During an innings two members of the side are on the pitch at any time, the one facing the current delivery from the bowler is denoted the striker. When a batsman is out, he is replaced by a teammate and this continues until the end of the innings or until 10 of the team members are out, where upon the other team gets a turn to bat. Batting tactics and strategy vary depending on the type of match being played as well as the current state of play, the main concerns for the batsmen are not to lose their wicket and to score as many runs as quickly as possible. Virat Kohli is an example of a batting legend who can adapt to all round conditions. As with all other cricket statistics, batting statistics and records are given much attention, the main statistic for batting is a players batting average. This is calculated by dividing the number of runs he has scored, not by the innings he has played, but by the number of times he has been dismissed. Sir Donald Bradman set many batting records, some as far back as the 1930s and still unbeaten, over time a standard batting technique has been developed which is used by most batsmen. Technique refers to the batsmans stance before the ball is bowled as well as the movement of the hands, feet, head, the movement of the batsman for a particular delivery depends on the shot being attempted. Shots may also be described as vertical bat shots, in which the bat is swung vertically at the ball, or horizontal or cross-bat shots and these textbook shots are standard material found in many coaching manuals. The advent of limited overs cricket, with its emphasis on rapid run-scoring, has led to increasing use of shots to hit the ball into gaps where there are no fielders. Unorthodox shots are typically—but not always— more high-risk than orthodox shots due to aspects of good batting technique being abandoned. The stance is the position in which a batsman stands to have the ball bowled to him, an ideal stance is comfortable, relaxed and balanced, with the feet 40 centimetres apart, parallel and astride the crease. Additionally, the front shoulder should be pointing down the wicket, the head facing the bowler, the weight equally balanced and the bat near the back toe. As the ball is about to be released, the batsman will lift his bat up behind up in anticipation of playing a stroke, by doing this he is ready to move swiftly into position to address the ball once he sees its path out of the bowlers hand
30.
Twenty20
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Twenty20 cricket, sometimes written Twenty-20, and often abbreviated to T20, is a short form of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board in 2003 for the inter-county competition in England. In a Twenty20 game the two teams have a single innings each, which is restricted to a maximum of 20 overs, a typical Twenty20 game is completed in about three hours, with each innings lasting around 75–90 minutes and a 10–20-minute interval. This is much shorter than previously-existing forms of the game, and is closer to the timespan of other team sports. It was introduced to create a form of the game which would be attractive to spectators at the ground. Since its inception the game has very successful resulting in its spread around the cricket world. On most international tours there is at least one Twenty20 match, the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 was played in South Africa in 2007 with India winning by five runs against Pakistan in the final. Pakistan won the tournament in 2009, and England won the title in the West Indies 2010. West Indies won in 2012, with Sri Lanka winning the 2014 tournament, West Indies are the reigning champions, winning the 2016 competition, and in doing so, became the first nation to win the tournament twice. When the Benson & Hedges Cup ended in 2002, the ECB needed another one day competition to fill its place, cricketing authorities were looking to boost the games popularity with the younger generation in response to dwindling crowds and reduced sponsorship. It was intended to deliver fast paced, exciting cricket accessible to thousands of fans who were put off by the versions of the game. Stuart Robertson, the manager of the ECB, proposed a 20 over per innings game to county chairmen in 2001. The first official Twenty20 matches were played on 13 June 2003 between the English counties in the Twenty20 Cup, the first season of Twenty20 in England was a relative success, with the Surrey Lions defeating the Warwickshire Bears by 9 wickets in the final to claim the title. Thirteen teams from different parts of the participated in Pakistans inaugural competition in 2004. On 12 January 2005 Australias first Twenty20 game was played at the WACA Ground between the Western Warriors and the Victorian Bushrangers and it drew a sell-out crowd of 20,000, which was the first time in nearly 25 years the ground had been completely sold out. Starting 11 July 200619 West Indies regional teams competed in what was named the Stanford 20/20 tournament, the event was financially backed by billionaire Allen Stanford, who gave at least US$28,000,000 funding money. It was intended that the tournament would be an annual event, guyana won the inaugural event, defeating Trinidad and Tobago by 5 wickets, securing US$1,000,000 in prize money. On 5 January 2007 Queensland Bulls played the New South Wales Blues at The Gabba, a crowd of 11,000 was expected based on pre-match ticket sales
31.
Club cricket
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Club cricket is a mainly amateur, but still formal, form of the sport of cricket, usually involving teams playing in competitions at weekends or in the evening. There is a deal of variation in game format although the Laws of Cricket are always observed. Club cricket is played all over the world. Club cricket is played in league or cup format. Games are limited by time or overs. A less common, but more traditional, format is limiting the game by time only, games can range from a few hours in the evening to two days long. Saturday league cricket is the most serious format of club cricket and this format of cricket covers teams that vary in standard between occasional players in the lower divisions to professional and ex-professional players in the highest leagues. Friendly cricket often takes place on a Sunday and these games tend to follow the more traditional format of declaration cricket in which a time limit or number of overs - typically 80 to 120 - is set for the whole match. It is then up to the team batting first to declare their innings early enough to give time to bowl the opposition out. The widest variety of cricket is generally seen in this format, with teams batting second either aggressively chasing a total or attempting to bat conservatively, evening cricket is the least formal format of club cricket, and the route by which many new players are introduced to the game. It tends to follow the 20-20 version of the game, with time saving measures such as using 15 8-ball overs. Finally, in Australia and New Zealand two day matches are played over both Saturday and Sunday, or, alternatively, over successive Saturdays. These matches usually have two innings per side, most players are amateur, but often cricket clubs employ the services of professionals as coaches and players. Many of these have played first-class or Test cricket. C, standards of play can vary from semi-professional to occasional recreational level. This is particularly true in England where the between-innings teas and post-match beer are as important as the result, however, this may vary depending on the standard. In the higher leagues, umpires are appointed by the local association to preside over the game and receive a fee. However, as the number of umpires available is typically less than the number of games scheduled. In this scenario, members of the side not currently involved in the action take it in turns to take on the umpiring responsibilities
32.
History of cricket
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The sport of cricket has a known history beginning in the late 16th century. Having originated in south-east England, it became the national sport in the 18th century and has developed globally in the 19th and 20th centuries. International matches have been played since 1844 and Test cricket began, retrospectively recognised, Cricket is the worlds second most popular spectator sport after association football. Governance is by the International Cricket Council which has one hundred members although only ten play Test cricket. The origin of cricket is unknown, the first definite reference is dated Monday,17 January 1597. There have been speculations about the games origins including some that it was created in France or Flanders. The earliest of these references is dated Thursday,10 March 1300 and concerns the future King Edward II playing at creag. It has been suggested that creag was an Olde English word for cricket but expert opinion is that it was a spelling of craic, meaning fun. It is generally believed that cricket survived as a game for many generations before it was increasingly taken up by adults around the beginning of the 17th century. Possibly cricket was derived from bowls, assuming bowls is the older sport, a 1597 court case in England concerning an ownership dispute over a plot of common land in Guildford, Surrey mentions the game of creckett. A 59-year-old coroner, John Derrick, testified that he and his friends had played creckett on the site fifty years earlier when they attended the Free School. Derricks account proves beyond doubt that the game was being played in Surrey circa 1550. The first reference to cricket being played as a sport was in 1611. In the same year, a dictionary defined cricket as a boys game, a number of words are thought to be possible sources for the term cricket. In the earliest definite reference, it was spelled creckett, the name may have been derived from the Middle Dutch krick, meaning a stick, or the Old English cricc or cryce meaning a crutch or staff, or the French word criquet meaning a wooden post. The Middle Dutch word krickstoel means a low stool used for kneeling in church. According to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of the University of Bonn, cricket derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, equally, there is little evidence of the rampant gambling that characterised the game throughout the 18th century. It is generally believed, therefore, that village cricket had developed by the middle of the 17th century but that county cricket had not and that investment in the game had not begun
33.
History of cricket to 1725
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The earliest definite reference to cricket is dated Monday,17 January 1597. Derricks testimony makes clear that the sport was being played c.1550, All that can be said with a fair degree of certainty is that its beginning was earlier than 1550, somewhere in south-east England within the counties of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. Therefore, forest clearings and land where sheep had grazed would have been suitable places to play, the sparse information available about the early years suggests that it may have been a childrens game in the 16th century but, by 1611, it had become an adult pastime. The earliest known organised match was played c.1611, a year in other significant references to the sport are dated. From 1611 to 1725, less than thirty matches are known to have been organised between recognised teams, similarly, only a limited number of players, teams and venues of the period have been recorded. The earliest matches played by English parish teams are examples of village cricket, although village matches are now considered minor in status, the early matches are significant in crickets history simply because they are known. There were no reports of matches until the end of the seventeenth century and so the primary sources are court records and private diaries. During the reign of Charles I, the took a increased interest as patrons. Its patrons staged lucrative eleven-a-side matches featuring the earliest professional players, meanwhile, English colonists had introduced cricket to North America and the West Indies, and the sailors and traders of the East India Company had taken it to the Indian subcontinent. In the first quarter of the 18th century, more information about cricket became available as the newspaper industry took an interest. The sport noticeably began to spread throughout England as the century went on, by 1725, significant patrons such as Edwin Stead, Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sir William Gage were forming teams of county strength in Kent and Sussex. The earliest known great players, including William Bedle and Thomas Waymark, were active, Cricket was attracting large, vociferous crowds and the matches were social occasions at which gambling and alcoholic drinks were additional attractions. As early as c.1611, a match was recorded at Chevening in Kent between teams representing the Downs and the Weald. A number of words in use at the time are thought to be possible sources for the name cricket. In the earliest known reference to the sport in 1598, it is called creckett, in what may be an early reference to the sport, a 1533 poem attributed to John Skelton describes Flemish weavers as kings of crekettes, a word of apparent Middle Dutch origin. In Samuel Johnsons Dictionary of the English Language, he derived cricket from cryce, Saxon, in Old French, the word criquet seems to have meant a kind of club or stick, though this may have been the origin of croquet. Another possible source is the Middle Dutch word krickstoel, meaning a long low stool used for kneeling in church, according to Heiner Gillmeister, a European language expert of the University of Bonn, cricket derives from the Middle Dutch phrase for hockey, met de sen. Gillmeister believes the sport itself had a Flemish origin but the jury is out on the matter
34.
Laws of Cricket
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The laws of cricket are a set of rules established by the Marylebone Cricket Club which describe the laws of cricket worldwide, to ensure uniformity and fairness. Cricket is one of the few sports for which the principles are referred to as Laws rather than as Rules or Regulations. However, regulations to supplement and/or vary the laws may be agreed to for particular competitions as required and those applying for international matches can be found on the ICCs website. The origins of cricket are debatable, but it probably derived from numerous games, in the eighteenth century, it expanded to become a betting game especially popular with the British aristocracy. The earliest laws were drawn up in that context, to regulate a game on which large sums of money were being staked. The earliest existing known Code of cricket was drawn up by certain Noblemen and Gentlemen who used the Artillery Ground in London in 1744, however, these laws were not universally followed, with different games played under different guidance. On 30 May 1788, the Marylebone Cricket Club, which had formed by the leading noblemen and gentlemen playing the game just one year before. Whilst the MCCs version of the Laws were not accepted fully immediately, or applied consistently, finally, a new method of dismissing a batsman was introduced. Previously, as cricket uses a ball and leg-pads were not used. As batsmen started to wear pads, they became willing to cover their stumps with their legs to prevent the ball hitting the stumps, therefore, a leg before wicket rule was introduced so that a batsman preventing the ball hitting his stumps with his legs would be out. In 1829 the Length of stumps increased from 24 to 27 inches, for the first time, the thickness of stumps was mentioned. A new Code of Laws was approved by the MCC Committee on 19 May 1835, in the 1884 laws the number of players was formalised for the first time, and the size of the ball was formalised for the first time too. This was in response to the problem that to win a game a side needed to dismiss their opposition twice, as cricket is a time-limited game, it meant that sides that dominated the opposition could be forced to draw rather than win games. The initial follow-on rule was faulty, though, as it required a side to follow-on when it was behind, a side could deliberately concede its last wickets in the first innings in return for being able to bowl last on a deteriorating pitch. Later the follow-on rule was changed so that a team sufficiently ahead of its opposition has the option on whether to enforce it or not, in 1947 a new Code was approved by the MCC on 7 May. In 1979 after a number of revisions of the 1947 Code. This is known as the 1980 code, amongst other changes, imperial units are now followed by metric units in the specifications. In 1992 a second edition of the 1980 Code was produced, in 2000 a new Code, which for the first time included a Preamble defining the Spirit of Cricket was approved on 3 May
35.
Coin flipping
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Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is the practice of throwing a coin in the air to choose between two alternatives, sometimes to resolve a dispute between two parties. It is a form of sortition which inherently has only two possible and equally likely outcomes, the historical origin of coin flipping is the interpretation of a chance outcome as the expression of divine will. Coin flipping as a game was known to the Romans as navia aut caput, as some coins had a ship on one side, in England, this game was referred to as cross and pile. The expression Heads or Tails results from heads and tails being considered opposite body parts, during a coin toss, the coin is thrown into the air such that it rotates edge-over-edge several times. Either beforehand or when the coin is in the air, an interested party calls heads or tails, the other party is assigned the opposite side. Depending on custom, the coin may be caught, caught and inverted, when the coin comes to rest, the toss is complete and the party who called correctly or was assigned the upper side is declared the winner. It is possible for a coin to land on its edge, however, even on a flat surface it is possible for a coin to land on its edge, with a chance of about 1 in 6000. Angular momentum typically prevents most coins from landing on their edges unsupported if flipped, such cases in which a coin does land on its edge are exceptionally rare and in most cases the coin is simply re-flipped. The coin may be any type as long as it has two sides, it need not be a circulating coin as such. Larger coins tend to be more popular than smaller ones, most high-profile coin tosses use custom-made ceremonial medallions. Three-way coin flips are also possible, by a different process – this can be either to choose two out of three, or to choose one out of three. To choose two out of three, three coins are flipped, and if two coins come up the same and one different, the different one loses, leaving two players. To choose one out of three, either reverse this, or add a regular two-way coin flip between the players as a second step. Note that the flip is 75% likely to work each time it is tried. A legacy of this coin flip was to reduce the use of coin flips to break ties in Texas sports, Coin tossing is a simple and unbiased way of settling a dispute or deciding between two or more arbitrary options. In a game theoretic analysis it provides even odds to both involved, requiring little effort and preventing the dispute from escalating into a struggle. Factors such as direction, the position of the sun. In team sports it is often the captain who makes the call, a competitive method may be used instead of a toss in some situations, for example in basketball the jump ball is employed, while the face-off plays a similar role in ice hockey
36.
Bowling (cricket)
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In the sport of cricket bowling is the action of propelling the ball toward the wicket defended by a batsman. A player skilled at bowling is called a bowler, a bowler who is also a competent batsman is known as an all-rounder, Bowling the ball is distinguished from throwing the ball by a strictly specified biomechanical definition which restricts the angle of extension of the elbow. A single act of bowling the ball towards the batsman is called a ball or a delivery, bowlers bowl deliveries in sets of six, called an over. Once a bowler has bowled their over, one of their mates will bowl an over from the other end of the pitch. The Laws of Cricket govern how a ball must be bowled, if a ball is bowled illegally, an umpire will rule it a no ball. If a ball is bowled too wide of the striker for the batsman to be able to play at it with a cricket shot. A spin bowler delivers the ball quite slowly and puts spin on the ball. In the early days of cricket, underarm bowling was the method employed. Many theories exist about the origins of cricket, one suggests that the game began among shepherds hitting a stone or a ball of wool with their crooks and, at the same time, defending the wicket gate into the sheep-fold. A second theory suggests the name came from a low stool known as a cricket in England, there is also a reference to criquet in North-East France in 1478 and evidence that the game evolved in South-East England in the Middle Ages. In 1706 William Goldwyn published the first description of the game and he wrote that two teams were first seen carrying their curving bats to the venue, choosing a pitch and arguing over the rules to be played. They pitched two sets of wickets, each with a milk-white bail perched on two stumps, toss a coin for first knock, the called play and the leathern orb was bowled. They had four-ball overs, the umpires leant on their staves, the first written Laws of Cricket were drawn up in 1744. They stated, the principals shall choose from amongst the present two umpires who shall absolutely decide all disputes. The stumps must be 22 inches high and the bail across them six inches, the ball must be between 5 &6 ounces, and the two sets of stumps 22 yards apart. There were no limits on the shape or size of the bat and it appears that 40 notches was viewed as a very big score, probably due to the bowlers bowling quickly at shins unprotected by pads. The worlds first cricket club was formed in Hambledon in the 1760s, during the 1760s and 1770s it became common to pitch the ball through the air, rather than roll it along the ground. This innovation gave bowlers the weapons of length, deception through the air and it also opened new possibilities for spin and swerve
37.
Wicket
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In the sport of cricket, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The wicket is guarded by a batsman who, with his bat, the origin of the word is from wicket gate, a small gate. Historically, cricket wickets had only two stumps and one bail and looked like a gate, the third stump was introduced in 1775. Through metonymic usage, the dismissal of a batsman is the taking of a wicket, and the cricket pitch is sometimes called the wicket. The size and shape of the wicket has changed several times during the last 300 years and its dimensions and placing is now determined by Law 8 in the Laws of Cricket, thus, Law 8, the wicket consists of three wooden stumps that are 28 inches tall. The stumps are placed along the crease with equal distances between each stump. They are positioned so they are 9 inches wide, two wooden bails are placed in shallow grooves on top of the stumps. The bails must not project more than 0.5 inches above the stumps, there are also specified lengths for the barrel and spigots of the bail. There are different specifications for the wickets and bails for junior cricket, the umpires may dispense with the bails if conditions are unfit. Further details on the specifications of the wickets are contained in Appendix A to the laws, losing a wicket refers to a batsman getting out. If dismissed by a bowler, the bowler is said to have taken his wicket, the number of wickets taken is the primary measure of a bowlers ability. For a batsman to be dismissed by being bowled, run out, stumped or hit wicket, what this means is defined by Law 28 of the Laws of cricket. Crickets wicket is put down if a bail is removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the grounds by the ball, the strikers bat, the strikers person. The wicket is put down if a fielder pulls a stump out of the ground in the same manner. If one bail is off, removing the remaining bail or striking or pulling any of the three out of the ground is sufficient to put the wicket down. A fielder may remake the wicket, if necessary, in order to put it down to have an opportunity of running out a batsman. The sequence of time over which two particular batsmen bat together, a partnership, is referred to as a specifically numbered wicket when discriminating it from other partnerships in the innings. The first partnership is from the start of the innings until one of the first two batsmen gets out, the second wicket partnership is from when the third batsman gets in until a second batsman gets out
38.
1992 Cricket World Cup
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The 1992 Cricket World Cup was the fifth staging of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council. It was held in Australia and New Zealand from 22 February to 25 March 1992, the 1992 World Cup was the first to feature coloured player clothing, white cricket balls and black sightscreens with a number of matches being played under floodlights. The 1992 World Cup was also the first to be held in the Southern hemisphere, the format was changed from previous tournaments in that a complete round-robin replaced the use of two qualifying groups. The initial draw was released with eight competing countries and 28 round-robin matches, in late 1991, South Africa were re-admitted to the International Cricket Council after long years of apartheid and the draw was amended to include them. The revised draw included 36 round-robin matches plus the two semi-finals and the final, the rule for calculating the target score for the team batting second in rain-affected matches was also changed. The previous rule simply multiplied the run rate of the team batting first by the number of available to the team batting second. This rule was deemed to be too much in favour of the team batting second, in an attempt to rectify this, the target score would now be calculated by the highest scoring overs formula. In this system, if the team batting second had 44 overs available, West Indies Steve Bucknor and Englands David Shepherd were chosen as the umpires for the first semi-final, while New Zealands Brian Aldridge and Australias Steve Randell were chosen for the second. Bucknor and Aldridge were chosen for the final, two referees were also selected to supervise the semi-finals and final. Australias Peter Burge supervised the first semi-final and the final, while New Zealands Frank Cameron supervised the second semi-final, co-hosts New Zealand proved the surprise packet of the tournament, winning their first seven games to finish on top of the table after the round-robin. The other hosts, Australia, one of the pre-tournament favourites lost their first two matches and they recovered somewhat to win four of the remaining six, but narrowly missed out on the semi-finals. The West Indies also finished with a 4–4 record, but were just behind Australia on run-rate, South Africa made a triumphant return to international cricket with a win over Australia at the SCG in their first match. They and England had solid campaigns and easily qualified for the semis, despite losses to Sri Lanka. India had a tournament and never looked likely to progress beyond the round-robin. Sri Lanka were still establishing themselves at the highest level and beat only Zimbabwe, New Zealand were defeated only twice in the tournament, both times by Pakistan, in their final group match and in the semi-final. Inzamam-ul-Haq smashed a 37 ball 60 in the run chase to achieve the target one over remaining. According to the late Bill Frindall, had the Duckworth–Lewis method been applied at that rain interruption, five runs more than they were set under the most productive overs rule. In a thrilling final, Pakistan beat England by 22 runs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, late flourishes from Inzamam-ul-Haq and Wasim Akram took Pakistan to a total of 6 for 249
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1996 Cricket World Cup
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The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup after its official sponsors, ITCs Wills brand, was the sixth Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council. It was the second World Cup to be hosted by Pakistan and India, the tournament was won by Sri Lanka, who defeated Australia in the final at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. The Wills World Cup was played in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka, in addition to offering maximum security to the teams, questioned the validity of citing security concerns when the International Cricket Council had determined it was safe. After extensive negotiations, the ICC ruled that Sri Lanka would be awarded both games on forfeit, as a result of this decision, Sri Lanka automatically qualified for the quarter-finals before playing a game. India hosted 17 matches at 17 different venues, while Pakistan hosted 16 matches at 6 venues, all the test playing countries participated in the competition including Zimbabwe who following the last world cup became the 9th Full Test status member of the ICC. The Three Associate teams to qualify through the 1994 ICC Trophy also made their World Cup debuts in 1996, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands lost all of their five matches while the U. A. E. only beat the Dutch. Kenya, however, recorded a victory over the West Indies in Pune. Against Kenya, Sri Lanka made 398 for 5, a new record for the highest team score in a One Day International that stood until April 2006, gary Kirsten scored 188 not out against United Arab Emirates at Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Sri Lanka won the first semi-final over India at Eden Gardens, chasing Sri Lankas innings of 251 for 8, India had slumped to 120 for 8 in the 35th over when sections of crowd began to throw fruit and plastic bottles onto the field. The players left the field for 20 minutes in an attempt to quieten the crowd, when the players returned for play, more bottles were thrown onto the field and fires were lit in the stand. Match referee Clive Lloyd awarded the match to Sri Lanka, the first default ever in a Test or One Day International, in the second semi-final in Mohali, Australia recovered from 15 for 4 to reach 207 for 8 from their 50 overs. The West Indians had reached 165 for 2 in the 42nd over before losing their last 8 wickets for 37 runs in 50 balls. Sri Lanka won the toss in the final and sent Australia in to bat despite the team batting first having won all five previous World Cup finals, mark Taylor top scored with 74 in Australias total of 241 for 7. Sri Lanka won the match in the 47th over with Aravinda de Silva following his 3 for 42 with an unbeaten 107 to win the Player of the Match award and it was the first time a tournament host or co-host had won the cricket World Cup. Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field, mark Taylor and Ricky Ponting shared a second-wicket partnership of 101 runs. When Ponting and Taylor were dismissed, however, Australia fell from 1/137 to 5/170 as the famed 4-pronged spin attack of Sri Lanka took its toll, despite the slump, Australia struggled on to 241. Cricket World Cup 1996 Scorecards in CricketFundas Cricket World Cup 1996 from ESPNCricinfo Refresh the Memories of Cricket World cup after 18 years with Lankan Cricket Champions 1996
Australia (5 January 1971)
England (5 January 1971)
New Zealand (11 February 1973)
Pakistan (11 February 1973)
West Indies (5 September 1973)
India (13 July 1974)
Sri Lanka (13 February 1982)
South Africa (10 November 1991)
Zimbabwe (25 October 1992)
Bangladesh (10 October 1997)
Afghanistan (5 December 2017)
Ireland (5 December 2017)
Scotland (from 27 June 2006, until the 2022 Cricket World Cup Qualifier)
United Arab Emirates (from 1 February 2014, until the 2022 Cricket World Cup Qualifier)
Netherlands (after 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, until the 2022 Cricket World Cup Qualifier)
Nepal (after 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier, until the 2022 Cricket World Cup Qualifier)
Kenya (from 10 October 1997, until 30 January 2014)
Canada (from 16 May 2006, until 28 January 2014)
Bermuda (from 17 May 2006, until 8 April 2009)
Hong Kong (from 1 May 2014, until 17 March 2018)
Papua New Guinea (from 8 November 2014, until 17 March 2018)
East Africa (1975 World Cup)
Namibia (2003 World Cup)
United States (2004 ICC Champions Trophy)
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