Cricket is a popular sport in Wales.
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Main article: County cricket |
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is the only Welsh participant in the England and Wales County Championship. They also play the one day National League, a one day knock out competition called the Friends Provident Trophy, and the short-form Twenty20 Cup.
A Wales team also plays in the English Minor Counties competition which is a season-long competition in England for county clubs that do not have first-class status.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was created on 1 January 1997 combining the roles of the Test and County Cricket Board (TCCB), the National Cricket Association (NCA) and the Cricket Council.
They are full members of the International Cricket Council.
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Main article: England cricket team |
England and Wales field a single representative team in international competition which is known as England, there is no separate Welsh team unlike in other sports such as Association football and rugby union.
England is a founding Test cricket, One-day International and Twenty20 nation. England played in the first ever Test match in 1877 (against Australia in Melbourne) and also the first ever One-day International in 1971 (also against Australia in Melbourne).
Each summer two foreign national teams visit England to play seven test matches and numerous one-day internationals. In the British winter the England team tours abroad. The highest profile rival of the England cricket team is the Australian team, with which it competes for The Ashes, one of the most famous trophies in British sport.
In 2005 the ECB concluded a commercial arrangement with BSkyB which gave Sky the exclusive television rights for live Test cricket in England for four years (the 2006 to 2009 seasons). This deal, which took live Test cricket for home England matches away from terrestrial television for the first time generated substantial future revenues for English cricket, but was criticised by many England cricket supporters and others.
The Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year is an annual award voted by the Cricket Writers' Club for the best young cricket player in England and Wales, and has been awarded since 1950.