England and Australia were the first teams to be granted Test status on 15 March 1877 and they gained full membership to the International Cricket Council (ICC) on 15 June 1909. England and Australia also took part in the first One Day International (ODI) on 5 January 1971. England are the current holders of the Ashes, which is the Test match series contest between England and Australia and which has been played since the 1882–83 Australian season.
As of 7 January 2011, England has won 321 of the 908 Test matches played (drawing in 326), and is ranked third in the ICC Test Championship.[3][4] England's One Day International record includes finishing as runners-up in 3 Cricket World Cups (1979, 1987 and 1992), and again as runners up in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004. The team is currently in fifth place in the ICC ODI Championship.
England's first international Twenty20 match was played on 13 June 2005 against Australia. The England team are the current ICC World Twenty20 champions having won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, beating Australia by seven wickets in the final.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the governing body of English cricket and the England cricket team. The Board has been operating since 1 January 1997 and represents England on the International Cricket Council. The ECB is also responsible for the generation of income from the sale of tickets, sponsorship and broadcasting rights, primarily in relation to the England team. The ECB's income in the 2006 calendar year was £77.0 million.
Prior to 1997 the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB) was the governing body for the English team. Apart from in Test matches, when touring abroad the England team officially played as MCC up to and including the 1976–77 tour of Australia, reflecting the time when MCC had been responsible for selecting the touring party. The last time the England touring team wore the bacon-and-egg colours of the MCC was on the 1996–97 tour of New Zealand.
England's kit is manufactured by Adidas, who replaced previous manufacturer Admiral on 1 April 2008.
When playing Test cricket, England's cricket whites feature red piping across the chest and trouser legs. The three lions badge is on the left of the shirt and the name and logo of the sponsor Brit Insurance is on the right. The Adidas logo features on the right sleeve. English fielders may wear a navy blue cap or sun hat with the ECB logo in the middle. Helmets are coloured similarly.
In limited overs cricket, England's ODI and Twenty20 shirts feature the Brit Insurance logo across the centre, with the three lions badge on the left of the shirt and the Adidas logo on the right. England wear a navy shirt with red trim and navy trousers. They have also used an all red kit in some Twenty20's and in the 2009 ODI series against Australia.
Until January 2010, Vodafone were the official shirt sponsor across all formats in a long-lasting deal.
The England cricket team represents England and Wales. However, under ICC regulations, players can qualify to play for a country by nationality, place of birth or residence, so (as with any national sports team) some people are eligible to play for more than one team.
ECB regulations state that to play for England, a player must be a British or Irish citizen, and have either been born in England or Wales, or have lived in England or Wales for the last four years. This has led to players of many other nationalities becoming eligible to play for England.
Of the current squad (see above), Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior, Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott, Craig Kieswetter and Michael Lumb are all South-African-born but qualify through British parentage (though they still had to fulfil residency requirements), whilst Eoin Morgan is an Irish citizen.
England have been captained by a Scot (Mike Denness), four South African-born players (Tony Greig, Allan Lamb, Andrew Strauss and Kevin Pietersen), three Indian-born players (Douglas Jardine, Colin Cowdrey and Nasser Hussain), Italian-born (Ted Dexter) and Australian-born (Gubby Allen). South African Cape Coloured player Basil D'Oliveira famously played for England during the Apartheid era, whilst other notable players of the past 20 years include Graeme Hick (Zimbabwe), Andrew Caddick (New Zealand) and Geraint Jones (Papua New Guinea/Australia).
Further, ICC regulations allow cricketers who represent associate (i.e. non-Test-playing) nations to switch to a Test-playing nation, provided nationality requirements are fulfilled. In recent years, this has seen Irish internationals Ed Joyce and Eoin Morgan switch to represent England, whilst Gavin Hamilton previously played for Scotland - though four years after his last appearance for England, he became eligible to play for Scotland again.
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