The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is the national governing body of cricket in England and Wales. It was formed on 1 January 1997 as a single governing body to combine the roles formerly fulfilled by the Test and County Cricket Board, the National Cricket Association and the Cricket Council. In April 1998 the Women's Cricket Association was integrated into the organisation. The ECB's head offices are at Lord's Cricket Ground in north-west London.
The England men's cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club since 1903. England, as a founding nation, is a Full Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) with Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) status. Until the 1990s, Scottish and Irish players also played for England as those countries were not yet ICC members in their own right.
The T20 Blast, currently named the Vitality Blast for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket competition for English and Welsh first-class counties. The competition was established by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003. It is the top-level Twenty20 competition in England and Wales.
Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship competitions played at different levels: the County Championship, a first-class competition which involves eighteen first-class county clubs among which seventeen are English and one is from Wales; and the National Counties Championship, which involves nineteen English county clubs and one club that represents several Welsh counties.
The Cardiff Wales Stadium, which is part of Sophia Gardens Cardiff, is a cricket stadium in Cardiff, Wales. It is located in Sophia Gardens on the River Taff. It is home to Glamorgan County Cricket Club and is listed as an international Test cricket venue.
Cricketers from Wales are currently represented by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and compete for the England cricket team. There have been some historical instances of a separate Welsh team in the 1920–30s, in the 1979 ICC Trophy, and in the British Isles Championship between 1993 and 2001, however Wales is not a separate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Alexander George Wharf is an English cricket umpire and former international cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-handed fast-medium bowler, who ended his career with the Welsh side Glamorgan County Cricket Club.
The Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers was established in 1953 by the umpire Tom Smith as the Association of Cricket Umpires, in order to provide training and advice to cricket officials. It had a membership exceeding 8,000 in countries all over the world before it was merged with the ECB Officials Association on 1 January 2008.
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in England, and has been played since the 16th century. Marylebone Cricket Club, based at Lord's, developed the modern rules of play and conduct. The sport is administered by the England and Wales Cricket Board and represented at an international level by the England men's team and England women's team. At a domestic level, teams are organised by county, competing in tournaments such as the County Championship, Metro Bank One-Day Cup, T20 Blast and the Women's Twenty20 Cup. Recent developments include the introduction of a regional structure for women's cricket and the establishment of The Hundred for both men's and women's cricket. Recreational matches are organised on a regional basis, with the top level being the ECB Premier Leagues.
Cricket is a popular sport in Wales; it started in the late 18th century, and has been played in Wales ever since. All cricket within Wales is regulated by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), making it effectively part of the English cricket system. Glamorgan County Cricket Club is Wales' only first-class county team, and Welsh players are eligible to represent England as Wales does not currently have its own Test cricket team or cricket body. Cricket is played within the Welsh schools system, and is considered one of the country's main summer sports.
Sport in Cardiff is dictated by, amongst other things, its position as the capital city of Wales, meaning that national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All of Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the country's sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top-quality venues have attracted world-famous sport events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales.
The ECB Premier Leagues are a series of regional cricket leagues organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) that form the top tier of club cricket in England and Wales. The ECB published "Raising the Standard" in 1997, the ECB Management Board Blueprint for the Future Playing Structure of cricket. This introduced the concept of ECB Premier Leagues, designed to raise the playing standard of the top tier of club cricket and to bridge the gap between recreational cricket and the First Class game. A national network of Premier Leagues was established, with funding from the ECB. The Leagues have to meet the published ECB assessment criteria and they receive accreditation on an annual basis.
The Association of Cricket Officials (ACO) is an organisation set up to represent and support cricket officials, especially umpires and scorers. It operates under the auspices of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and is often referred to as the "ECB ACO" or similar. Current membership is "near 8,000".
The Hampshire Cricket Board (HCB) was formed in 1996 and is the governing body for all recreational cricket in the historic county of Hampshire. Following a restructuring in January 2010, the HCB now operates as a limited company.
Chance to Shine is an independent charitable organisation in the UK that aims to help young people to play, learn and develop through cricket. As of October 2023 over 6 million children have taken part in their programmes in state schools and communities.
Richard Martin Cox is an English cricketer who has also worked as a coach and administrator. He played Minor Counties cricket for Herefordshire, and has served in various administrative roles, most notably as CEO of the Royal Dutch Cricket Board between 2009 and 2015.
The 2020 English cricket season was originally scheduled to run between 2 April and 25 September. It was planned to have first-class, one-day and Twenty20 cricket competitions throughout England and Wales and as well as the launch of a new franchised 100 ball competition, The Hundred; it would have been the 131st year in which the County Championship has been an official competition.
The Bob Willis Trophy was a domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales for the eighteen first-class counties, organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
