England and Wales Cricket Board

Cricket traces its origins back to England in the 16th Century. It was England's national sport by the end of the 18th century, and the game was expanded to the colonies. England played in the first ever Test match in 1877 against Australia in Melbourne, and is also responsible for introducing over arm bowling and one-day cricket - however inadvertently, and credit must also be shared with Australia. It also came up with the idea of professional Twenty20 matches - introduced in 2003 to the counties in England and Wales - which went on to take the world by storm.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) supports six national teams with their women’s and men’s teams earning the rare honour of being simultaneously crowned as 50-over world champions after both teams won dramatic ICC Cricket World Cup finals at Lord’s in 2017 and 2019 respectively.England boasts a further four successful national teams with England Visually Impaired, England Disability, England Deaf and England Learning Disability teams competing across the world.In 2020, the ECB launched its new five-year strategy ‘Inspiring Generations’ to grow the game of cricket and inspire more people to pick up a bat and ball and say cricket is a game for them.The new and exciting The Hundred competition will provide fresh innovation with women’s and men’s cricket promoted on the same stage and with equal prizemoney on offer. The competition aims to showcase cricket’s modern-day appeal to a wider audience as well as traditional fans with the best women’s and men’s players from across the world gathering to compete in the new 100-ball countdown format.