Warwickshire County Cricket Club

Warwickshire County Cricket Club
One-day name: Warwickshire Bears
Twenty20 name: Birmingham Bears
Captain: Ian Bell
Coach: Dougie Brown
Overseas player(s): Jeetan Patel
Luke Ronchi
Founded: 1882
Home ground: Edgbaston
Capacity: 25,000
First-class debut: Nottinghamshire
in 1894
at Trent Bridge
Championship wins: 7
Pro40 wins: 4
FP Trophy wins: 5
Twenty20 Cup wins: 1 (2014)
Official website: Edgbaston.com
2015 season

Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Warwickshire. Its 50 overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears and its T20 team the Birmingham Bears. Founded in 1882, the club held minor status until it was classified as an unofficial first-class team by substantial sources in 1894;[1][2] classified as an official first-class team from 1895 by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the County Championship clubs;[3] classified as a List A team since the beginning of limited overs cricket in 1963;[4] and classified as a major Twenty20 team since 2003.[5] Warwickshire's kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor is Gullivers Sports Travel. The club's home is Edgbaston Cricket Ground in south Birmingham, which regularly hosts Test and One Day International matches.

Honours

First XI honours

Division Two (1) – 2008
Division Two (1) – 2009

Second XI honours

Earliest cricket

Cricket may have reached Warwickshire by the end of the 17th century. The Warwickshire & Staffordshire Journal was certainly aware of the sport in 1738 for it carried a report of a London v Mitcham game at the Artillery Ground on 11 August (London won by 1 wicket).

The earliest confirmed reference to cricket in the county is a match announcement in Aris’ Gazette on 15 July 1751.

There was a prominent club in Coventry towards the end of the 18th century which played two well-documented matches against Leicester in 1787 and 1788. Reports of both games are included in Fresh Light on 18th Century Cricket by G. B. Buckley. Leicester won both games by 45 and 28 runs respectively.

Club history

Warwickshire CCC was officially founded on 8 April 1882 at a meeting in The Regent Hotel, Leamington Spa. The club developed so well that by the time of the first official County Championship in 1890 it was playing some of the top first-class counties such as Surrey and Yorkshire. Warwickshire became first-class themselves in 1894 and surprised the cricket world with wins over Surrey at The Oval and Nottinghamshire. They competed in the County Championship from 1895 but despite being strong in batting, their bowling was, until the arrival of Sam Hargreave and Frank Field in 1899, very weak. From 1900 to 1906 they were strong enough to be in the upper-middle reaches of the table, but the decline of their bowling from 1907 returned them to the lower reaches of the table late in that decade.

Frank Foster, who first played as an amateur left arm pace bowler in 1908 but improved greatly in 1910 as a result of slowing his pace to gain accuracy, still stands as Warwickshire's greatest all-rounder. In 1911 he headed both batting and bowling averages and, along with a fully fit Frank Field, enabled Warwickshire to take the Championship from the "Big Six"[6] for the only time between 1890 and 1935. Foster and Field took between then 238 wickets, but in Wisden nobody doubted that Warwickshire's win was largely caused by an abnormally dry summer, and the following three years saw them return to mid-table although Foster in 1914 displayed all-round form equal to that of 1911.

In 1919, with Foster having had an accident that ended his short career, Warwickshire fell to last in the table. They did not improve a great deal until the 1930s when Bob Wyatt's captaincy and the bowling of Mayer, Paine and Hollies moved them to fourth in 1934, but as Paine rapidly declined, they fell away. When Wyatt left for Worcestershire after World War II, they declined even further despite Hollies' wonderful bowling in 1946 – with no support at all, he took 175 wickets for only 15 each. The acquisition of New Zealand speedster Tom Pritchard gave Hollies the necessary support and by 1948 they had one of the strongest attacks in county cricket. It was this bowling power, along with effective if not wonderful batting, that gave them the Championship in 1951. However, as with 1911, they fell off rapidly as their batting became unreliable over the rest of the decade. After Hollies' retirement in 1957, there were some very poor seasons (though they came fourth in 1959 due to Mike Smith's superb batting) until Tom Cartwright emerged as a top-class seam bowler in 1962. The county came second in 1964, but did not establish itself at the top until the late 1960s. In 1971 Lance Gibbs' magnificent bowling enabled them to come second, whilst brilliant batting gave them a clear Championship win in 1972.

Yet again, though, a Championship win was followed by a decline and the next twenty years saw the county almost always in the lower half of the table. In 1981 and 1982, with Bob Willis doing nothing for them whilst producing match-winning form for England, they averaged over 45 runs for each wicket they took – still a record. Only under the coaching of Bob Woolmer and captaincy of Dermot Reeve (with their allowed foreign player being one of Brian Lara, Shaun Pollock or Allan Donald) did the team become consistently successful. Although they had won the NatWest Trophy in 1989, it was their astonishing victory in the same competition in 1993, overhauling a record score posted by Sussex in the final, which launched their most dominant period in English cricket. In 1994 they secured a historic treble, winning the County Championship, Axa Equity & Law League (now National Cricket League) and Benson & Hedges Cup. In that season Lara set the world record for a first-class cricket score of 501 whilst playing for Warwickshire against Durham County Cricket Club; the team total of 810–4 declared in that match is also a club record. In 1995 they won the County Championship again, and also won the C&G Trophy. This was to be the last trophy of Dermot Reeve's captaincy with him stepping down during the 1996 season, Bob Woolmer also having moved on to coach South Africa. 1997 saw them lifting the AXA league trophy once again, but this proved to be a false dawn. Performances for the next few years were poor, including relegation to the second division of the County Championship and National Cricket leagues.

However they have since been promoted in both competitions (though relegated again in the National Cricket League), won the Benson & Hedges Cup in 2002 and strong performances with the bat saw the county reclaim the County Championship in 2004. Warwickshire were once again promoted in the national cricket league, and played in the top division of both competitions in 2006.

Until the year 2005, the club captain was Nick Knight, the coach was John Inverarity, and the Chief Executive was Dennis Amiss, though all three stepped down at the end of the season. Heath Streak was appointed as captain for the 2006 and 2007 seasons, but resigned after one game of the 2007 season on 25 April 2007, and Darren Maddy replaced Streak as captain.

The 2007 Championship season was a big disaster for Warwickshire, who were relegated to Division Two, after not winning a single game since they topped the table in early May. They also got relegated from Pro40 league, a matter made worse when local rivals Worcestershire CCC clinched the title.

Since the end of the disastrous 2007 season Warwickshire made several changes to the team and management staff. Controversial coach Mark Greatbatch was sacked and Ashley Giles replaced him as Director of Cricket. Former Warwickshire Bear and South Africa international Allan Donald joined the Bears' coaching staff. Fans favourite Dougie Brown also took up an Academy Coaching role. After a successful campaign in Division 2, the Bears were promoted back to the top flight after only a season's absence in September 2008.

Maddy stepped down from the captaincy in November 2008. Ian Westwood was announced as his replacement. In 2009 Indian seamer Sreesanth replaced Jeetan Patel, who was busy with national duties for New Zealand, to become the first Indian to join the club. Westwood in turn stepped down as captain at the end of the 2010 season. Jim Troughton took over as captain shortly after, before struggling with injury during the 2014 season. Varun Chopra stood in before Troughton retired from first class cricket in 2015, promoting Chopra to permanent captain.

Early in 2015, Varun Chopra resigned the captaincy in order to focus on batting, with Ian Bell taking over as captain. [7]

Twenty20 Cup history

2003

Warwickshire's first ever game in Twenty20 cricket was against Somerset at Taunton, where the Bears defeated the Sabres by 19 runs. This result was followed by wins over Worcestershire (by 20 runs), Glamorgan (by 68 runs), and Northamptonshire (by 54 runs). Gloucestershire, who finished first in the division, were the only team to beat the Bears when they won by 8 wickets at Edgbaston. This meant that Warwickshire finished second in the Midlands, West and Wales Division behind Gloucestershire, and qualified for the finals day as the best runner-up.

The finals day was held on 19 July at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. Warwickshire met Leicestershire in their semi-final, who they defeated by 7 wickets, with Trevor Penney top scoring for the Bears with 43 runs. Surrey claimed victory over Gloucestershire in their semi-final to set up a Surrey-Warwickshire final. Unfortunately, Warwickshire were unable to perform in the final, and only scored 115 runs. Surrey managed to score 119 runs in just 11 overs, and claimed victory.

2004

With expectations high at Edgbaston, Warwickshire entertained Somerset in the first clash of the 2004 season. The Bears secured victory by 7 wickets. After Warwickshire lost to Glamorgan (by 26 runs), things started to look bad for the Bears. Defeats against Worcestershire (by 3 wickets), and Northamptonshire (by 4 wickets), left the team in danger of not qualifying for the Quarter-Finals, but victory over Gloucestershire (by 2 wickets) on the last day, meant that Warwickshire qualified as one of the best third-placed team.

The Bears drew Glamorgan in the quarter-finals. Although they had managed to beat Glamorgan at Cardiff once, Warwickshire were not able to achieve victory again, and lost by 5 wickets to the Dragons, who progressed to the finals day, and eventually went out to the 2004 victors, the Leicestershire Foxes.

2005

With changes to the format for the 2005 season, Warwickshire now had to play 8 games in the group stage to qualify. Their first game of the season was against Worcestershire at New Road, where the Bears lost by only 1 run. This was followed by defeats to Northamptonshire (by 38 runs), and another 1-run defeat to Worcestershire. Warwickshire secured qualification from the MMW division in second after victories over Glamorgan (by 20 runs and by 4 runs) Somerset (by 47 runs) Northamptonshire (by 41 runs), and a no result against Gloucestershire.

Warwickshire bowed out of the competition in the quarter-final to Surrey. After sharing a nail biting draw (Surrey 149 (20 Overs), Warwickshire 115 (15 Overs)), a bowl off followed, with Surrey claiming victory 4–3. Surrey would go on to be defeated in the Semi-Final to Lancashire, who themselves lost in the final to Somerset.

2006

Warwickshire started the 2006 season by playing Northamptonshire at the County Ground, Northampton where the Bears won by 24 runs. This was followed by wins over Somerset (by 7 wickets), Northampton (by 20 runs), Worcestershire (by 11 runs; defeats to Glamorgan (by 6 wickets), Gloucestershire (by 3 runs), Worcestershire (by 4 runs), and a no result against Glamorgan. Warwickshire secured 3rd position in the table, but their record was worse than both Yorkshire and Kent (who both finished third in their respected leagues), so did not qualify for the quarter-final.

The final's day was once again controlled by Leicestershire, who beat Nottinghamshire in a spectacular final that lasted to the last over of the game.

2007

Warwickshire recruited the services of twice winner, and Twenty20 expert Darren Maddy for the 2007 season, and his expertise helped the team to once again reach the quarter-finals of the competition. The Bears started with a victory over Somerset by 7 runs. This was followed by wins against Glamorgan (by 3 runs and by 9 runs) Northamptonshire (by 12 runs), Gloucestershire (by 27 runs), defeats against Northamptonshire (by 4 wickets), Worcestershire (by 13 runs), and no results against Worcestershire. The Bears qualified as the MMW leaders, with 11 points from 8 games.

In the quarter-final, Warwickshire hosted Lancashire in an entertaining game. After Lancashire set the Bears 194 to win, Warwickshire were able to claw back to 187 for 7, and lost by 7 runs. It was Lancashire who would go through to face Gloucestershire, Sussex, and Kent on the Finals day, held at Edgbaston in August.

2012

Warwickshire finished 4th of 6 teams in the Midlands/Wales/West division, failing to make the quarter-finals.

2013

Warwickshire finished 4th of 6 teams in the Midlands/Wales/West division, failing to make the quarter-finals. After the season, Warwickshire changed their name to Birmingham Bears for T20 competitions. The Bears has been synonymous with the team for many years and will continue to play under the Warwickshire banner in the other two competitions.

2014

The Birmingham Bears came 4th in the North Group (behind Lancashire Lightning, Nottinghamshire Outlaws and Worcestershire Rapids) to qualify for the knockout stages. They faced Essex in the quarter finals which they won by 19 Runs, to reach finals day at their home ground. On Finals Day, having beaten Surrey in the semi final, they went on to beat Lancashire by 4 runs to win their first T20 title.

List of captains

Daes Name
1882–1883England D. Buchanan
1884–1886England H. Rotherham
1887–1901England H. W. Bainbridge
1902England H. W. Bainbridge and England T. S. Fishwick
1903–1906England J. F. Byrne
1907England T. S. Fishwick and England J. F. Byrne
1908–1909England A. C. S. Glover
1910England H. J. Goodwin
1911–1914England F. R. Foster
1919England G. W. Stephens
1920–1929England F. S. G. Calthorpe
1930–1937England R. E. S. Wyatt
1938–1947England P. Cranmer
1948England H. E. Dollery and England R. H. Maudsley
1949–1955England H. E. Dollery
1956England W. E. Hollies
1957–1967England M. J. K. Smith
1968–1974England A. C. Smith
1975–1977England D. J. Brown
1978–1979England J. Whitehouse
1980–1984England R. G. D. Willis
1985–1987England N. Gifford
1988–1992England T. A. Lloyd
1993–1996England D. A. Reeve
1997England T. A. Munton
1998Trinidad and Tobago B. C. Lara
1999–2000England N. M. K. Smith
2001–2003England M. J. Powell
2003–2005England N. V. Knight
2006–2007Zimbabwe H. H. Streak
2007–2008England D. L. Maddy
2009–2010England I. J. Westwood
2011-2014England J. O. Troughton
2014England V. Chopra
2015 to dateEngland I. R. Bell

    Players

    Current squad

    No. Name Nationality Birth date Batting Style Bowling Style Notes
    Batsmen
    3 Varun Chopra*  England 21 June 1987 Right-handed Right arm off break
    4 Ian Bell* double-dagger  England 11 April 1982 Right-handed Right arm medium Club captain
    9 Jonathan Trott* double-dagger  England 22 April 1981 Right-handed Right arm medium
    10 William Porterfield* double-dagger  Ireland 6 September 1984 Left-handed Right arm off break
    12 Jonathon Webb  England 12 January 1992 Right-handed Right arm medium
    16 Sam Hain  England 16 July 1995 Right-handed Right arm off break
    21 Freddie Coleman double-dagger  Scotland 15 December 1991 Right-handed Right arm off break
    22 Ian Westwood*  England 13 July 1982 Left-handed Right arm off break
    23 Andrew Umeed  Scotland 19 April 1996 Right-handed Right arm leg break
    32 Laurie Evans  England 12 October 1987 Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
    — Ed Pollock  England 10 July 1995 Left-handed Right arm off break
    All-rounders
    13 Keith Barker*  England 21 October 1986 Left-handed Left arm medium
    17 Ateeq Javid  England 15 October 1991 Right-handed Right arm off break
    19 Chris Woakes* double-dagger  England 2 March 1989 Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
    26 Aaron Thomason  England 26 June 1997 Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
    81 Rikki Clarke* double-dagger  England 29 September 1981 Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
    Wicket-keepers
    11 Tim Ambrose* double-dagger  England 1 December 1982 Right-handed —
    15 Alex Mellor  England 22 July 1991 Left-handed —
    — Luke Ronchi double-dagger  New Zealand 23 April 1981 Right-handed — Overseas player (T20 only)
    Bowlers
    5 Jeetan Patel* double-dagger  New Zealand 7 May 1980 Right-handed Right arm off break Overseas player
    14 Josh Poysden  England 8 August 1991 Left-handed Right arm leg break
    20 Oliver Hannon-Dalby  England 20 June 1989 Left-handed Right arm medium-fast
    25 Richard Jones  England 6 November 1986 Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
    27 Mark Adair  Ireland 27 March 1996 Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
    30 Boyd Rankin* double-dagger  Ireland[lower-alpha 1] 5 July 1984 Left-handed Right arm medium-fast
    31 Chris Wright*  England 14 July 1985 Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
    44 Recordo Gordon  England 12 October 1991 Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
    58 Sunny Singh  England 3 May 1996 Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox

      Notable Warwickshire players

      England

      India

      Ireland

      Kenya

      New Zealand

      Pakistan

      Scotland

      South Africa

      Sri Lanka

      West Indies

      Zimbabwe

      For a full list of Warwickshire players see List of Warwickshire CCC players.

      Records

      First-class runs

      Qualification: at least 20,000 runs[8]

      PlayerRuns
      Dennis Amiss 35,146
      Willie Quaife 33,862
      Mike Smith 27,672
      Tom Dollery 23,458
      Bob Wyatt 21,687

      First-class wickets

      Qualification: at least 1,000 wickets[9]

      PlayerWickets
      Eric Hollies 2,201
      Sydney Santall 1,207
      Jack Bannister 1,181
      Joseph Mayer 1,142
      Tom Cartwright 1,058
      David Brown 1,005

      Other records

      Record name Record value Record Holder Opposition Location Year
      Team totals
      Highest total for 810-4 dec v Durham Birmingham 1994
      Highest total against 887 v Yorkshire Birmingham 1896
      Lowest total for 16 v Kent Tonbridge 1913
      Lowest total against 15 v Hampshire Birmingham 1922
      Batting
      Highest score1 501* BC Lara Durham Birmingham 1994
      Most runs in season 2417 MJK Smith 1959
      Most runs in career 35,146 DL Amiss 1960–1987
      Best partnership for each wicket
      1st 377* NF Horner
      K Ibadulla       		Surrey The Oval 1960
      2nd 465* JA Jameson
      RB Kanhai       		Gloucestershire Birmingham 1974
      3rd 327 SP Kinneir
      WG Quaife       		Lancashire Birmingham 1901
      4th 470 AI Kallicharran
      GW Humpage       		Lancashire Southport 1982
      5th 335 JO Troughton
      TR Ambrose       		Hampshire Birmingham 2009
      6th 327 LJ Evans
      TR Ambrose       		Sussex Birmingham 2015
      7th 289* IR Bell
      T Frost       		Sussex Horsham 2004
      8th 228 AJW Croom
      RES Wyatt       		Worcestershire Dudley 1925
      9th 233 IJL Trott
      JS Patel       		Yorkshire Birmingham 2009
      10th 214 NV Knight
      A Richardson       		Hampshire Birmingham 2002
      Bowling
      Best bowling 10–41 JD Bannister Combined Services Birmingham 1959
      Best match bowling 15–76 S Hargreave Surrey The Oval 1903
      Wickets in season 180 WE Hollies 1946
      Wickets in career 2201 WE Hollies 1932-1957
      Notes
      1. ^ Brian Lara's 501* in 1994 is a current world record.

      Notes

      1. ↑ Rankin has also played international cricket for England.

      References

      Footnotes

      1. ↑ ACS (1981). A Guide to Important Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles 1709 – 1863. Nottingham: ACS.
      2. ↑ ACS (1982). A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
      3. ↑ Birley, p. 145.
      4. ↑ "List A events played by Warwickshire". CricketArchive. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
      5. ↑ "Twenty20 events played by Warwickshire". CricketArchive. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
      6. ↑ Yorkshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Middlesex, Kent and Surrey.
      7. ↑ "Chopra stands down as Bears Captain with Bell appointed successor". edgbaston.com. Warwickshire County Cricket Club. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
      8. ↑ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 2013-05-04.
      9. ↑ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 2013-05-04.

      Bibliography

      External links

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