Teams That Play Cricket

Teams That Play Cricket

The official Test Cricket nations are currently: England, Australia, West Indies, South Africa, India, Pakistan, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, and Bangladesh.
The West Indies is actually a consortium of Caribbean countries: Barbados; Jamaica; Guyana; The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; Antigua and Barbuda; St. Kitt's-Nevis; Dominica; St. Lucia; St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Montserrat; and Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique.
Minor cricketing nations (which do not play Test cricket, but do compete for a place in the World Cup One-Day competition) include: Ireland, Kenya, Fiji, Canada, The Netherlands, USA.
The most famous Test cricket Series is The Ashes, played every two years between Australia and England. The Ashes trophy is a small urn containing "the ashes of English cricket" (in reality the ashes of a set of bails), which "died" in a match in 1882 when Australia beat England for the first time. The Ashes are currently held by Australia, although the physical trophy is kept permanently in a room at Lord's Cricket Ground in London.
The most infamous event in cricket was the 1932-33 English tour of Australia - the Bodyline tour. The English team used a new tactic to get batsmen out, by bowling at their bodies and placing many fielders in short fielding positions backward of square leg. As the batsmen fended the ball away in an effort to protect themselves, the ball often flew off the edge of the bat into the waiting hands of the fielders, getting the batsman out caught. The English referred to this tactic as "Leg Theory", but the Australians, angry that the English bowlers were aiming at their bodies, christened it "Bodyline".
Several Australian batsmen were injured because of this, some seriously. The English tactics cause a diplomatic row between the countries. After the tour was over, cricket officials introduced the rules against dangerous bowling, and the restriction of no more than two fielders backward of square leg.