Morgan wins ECB increment contract

The ECB has announced that Middlesex batsman Eoin Morgan, who scored his maiden one-day international century for England against Bangladesh yesterday, has been awarded an incremental contract for 2009-10.

The 23-year-old left-hander qualifies for the award by virtue of having played in six ODIs up to and including yesterday’s match against Bangladesh, along with four Twenty20 internationals over the current contract period.

Non-contracted players can earn an England increment contract via a points system. Five points are awarded for a Test appearance and two for a T20 or ODI appearance, with an increment contract being awarded automatically once the player reaches 20 points during the 12-month contract period.

Hugh Morris, ECB managing director - England Cricket, said: “Eoin has made excellent progress since making his England debut against West Indies last summer and is now an established member of our one-day and T20 sides.

“He has fully justified the faith the selectors have shown in him and has the potential to develop his game still further.”

Morgan played 23 ODIs for Ireland and scored his first century against Canada in Nairobi in 2007.

For England Cricket Premierevents pledges to provide the cheapest event tickets online.No commission, transaction charges or hidden booking fees. By law, we must charge VAT, but the price you see is the price you pay.We ensure their safe and prompt delivery to our customer.Buy England Cricket tickets with full trust!

Kieswetter makes instant impression

Craig Kieswetter cracked a thrilling century on his England debut to set up a 112-run win over a Bangladesh Cricket Board XI in the opening tour game in Fatullah.

The Johannesburg-born opener was a last-minute addition to the one-day touring party after some eye-catching displays for England Lions, and announced his senior credentials in the most emphatic fashion with 143 off 123 deliveries.

The innings was not without its good fortune, containing as it did four dropped catches and a botched stumping, but the natural timing he showed surely adds to team director Andy Flower’s options at the top of the order ahead of the one-day series.

Vice-captain Paul Collingwood was also in fine form, crashing a carefree 109 off 74 deliveries as England wracked up a mammoth 370 for seven in 50 overs.

Skipper Alastair Cook also prospered - he made a fluent 56 - while off-spinner Graeme Swann impressed with the ball, picking up 4-44 as the home side closed on 258 for nine.

Having set such a formidable target, England were never in any real danger of losing, and Ajmal Shahzad can be pleased with the scalp of Test batsman Shahriar Nafees in the fifth over of the BCB's reply.

Shahzad, who removed both Pakistan openers in the first over of his England debut in the final Twenty20 international last week, burnished his reputation by bowling captain Shahriar for eight.

Things did not improve for the BCB when Swann removed Mahmudul Hasan for 22 in his second over courtesy of a diving catch by Luke Wright.

Nasiruddin Faroq dug in alongside Raqibul Hasan to take his side to three figures, but Swann changed ends and promptly had Faroq lbw for 37, leaving the home side 107 for three.

James Tredwell, hit for a straight six by Naeem Islam earlier, accounted for Raqibul, who made 41, before Swann trapped Naeem Islam lbw and removed Ariful Hoq after twice being lifted over long-on.

Wright took one wicket at the end, while Liam Plunkett picked up two, including top-scorer Sharifullah, in the final over.

It capped a pleasing outing for Cook, leading England for the first time in a 50-over contest.

He had earlier shared an opening stand of 127 with Kieswetter, working the ball around well to make a composed 56 before falling lbw to Alauddin Babu.

Kevin Pietersen was trapped in front by Babu’s next delivery, and Wright benefited from three drops on his way to 25.

Tapash Baisya recovered from a poor start to remove Collingwood, who had hit six sixes, and Matt Prior, who made just eight, in quick succession.

But Kieswetter, who qualified to play for England only a week ago, undeniably stole the show: he struck 14 fours and six sixes, five of which were hit over the bowler’s head, in a graphic illustration of his immense talen

For England Cricket Premierevents pledges to provide the cheapest event tickets online.No commission, transaction charges or hidden booking fees. By law, we must charge VAT, but the price you see is the price you pay.We ensure their safe and prompt delivery to our customer.Buy England Cricket tickets with full trust!

England : One-Day International cricket records

Team records

• Highest team total: 391–4 (50 overs) v Bangladesh at Nottingham in 2005
• Lowest team total: 86–10 (32.4 overs) v Australia at Manchester in 2001

Individual records

• Most matches: 171 – Paul Collingwood
• England is one of only two Test-playing nations (the other being Bangladesh) to have no players over the 200-cap milestone in ODIs
• Longest Serving Captain: 60 matches – Michael Vaughan

Batting

• Most runs: 4677 – Alec Stewart
• Best average: 45.41 – Kevin Pietersen (as of 29 Nov 2009)
• Highest individual score: 167* – Robin Smith v Australia at Birmingham in 1993
• Record partnership: 226 – Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss v West Indies at Lord's in 2004
• Most centuries: 12 – Marcus Trescothick

Bowling

• Most wickets: 234 – Darren Gough
• Best average: 19.45 – Mike Hendrick
• Best bowling: 6/31 – Paul Collingwood v Bangladesh at Nottingham in 2005
• Best strike rate: 32.2 – James Anderson
• Best economy rate: 3.27 – Mike Hendrick

Wicketkeeping

• Most dismissals: 184 – Alec Stewart
• Most dismissals in a match: 6 – Alec Stewart v Zimbabwe at Manchester in 2000; Matt Prior v South Africa at Nottingham in 2008

For England Cricket Premierevents pledges to provide the cheapest event tickets online.No commission, transaction charges or hidden booking fees. By law, we must charge VAT, but the price you see is the price you pay.We ensure their safe and prompt delivery to our customer.Buy England Cricket tickets with full trust!

England Cricket in 21st Century

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This victory has left England in fifth place in the ICC rankings but it had the effect of demoting Australia from first to fourth. England's next series is away to South Africa, who have taken over the top ranking.

Buy England cricket tickets throughout the UK and Europe from premierevents.co.uk. Tickets for all cricket matches of England are available at Premierevents,every England Cricket transaction is 100% guaranteed to be safe and secure.

The Ashes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tickets for England cricket are available at Premierevents which is a secure platform to purchase tickets of different events all over the world.

History

The first recorded incidence of a team with a claim to represent Englandcomes from 9 July 1739 when an "All-England" team which consisted of eleven gentlemen from any part of England, exclusive of Kent. This team played against 'the Unconquerable County' of Kent and lost by a 'very few notches'. Such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of the century.

In 1846 William Clarke formed the All-England Eleven. This team would eventually compete against a United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1857 to 1866. These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season, if judged by the quality of the players.

Early tours

The first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England going to North America. This team had six players from the All-England Eleven and six from the United All-England Eleven, and was captained by George Parr. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned to Australia and New Zealand with the inaugural tour of Australia taking place in 1861–2. England would visit New Zealand in 1863–64 with the tour being the first to be organised by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC). Most tours prior to 1877 were played "against odds", meaning the opposing team was permitted to have more than 11 players (usually 22) in order to make for a more even contest.As a result these matches were not considered first-class matches and were organised purely for commercial reasons.

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

Buy England cricket tickets throughout the UK and Europe from premierevents.co.uk.Tickets for all cricket matches of England are available at Premierevents,every England Cricket transaction is 100% guaranteed to be safe and secure.