IPL 2012

Indian Premiere League

The 2012 Indian Premier League season, abbreviated as the IPL 5 or IPL 2012, will be the fifth season of the Indian Premier League, established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. Details about IPL television live telecast and online streaming.

England Cricket Series 2008

England cricket history

The first recorded incidence of a team with a claim to represent England comes from 9 July 1739 when an "All-England" team which consisted of eleven gentlemen from any part of England, exclusive of Kent. This team played against 'the Unconquerable County' of Kent and lost by a 'very few notches'. Such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of the century.
The first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England going to North America. This team comprised of six players from the All-England Eleven and six from the United All-England Eleven, and was captained by George Parr. With the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned to Australia and New Zealand with the inaugural tour of Australia taking place in 1861-2. England would visit New Zealand in 1863–64 with the tour being the first to be organised by the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC). Most tours prior to 1877 were played "against odds", meaning the opposing team was permitted to have more than 11 players (usually 22) in order to make for a more even contest. As a result these matches were not considered first-class matches and were organised purely for commercial reasons.
James Lillywhite led the England team which sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876. They would play a combined Australian XI, for once on even terms of 11 a side. The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground came to be regarded as the first Test match. The combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. At the time this match carried little significance and was classed as another tour match and was labelled as the James Lillywhite's XI v South Australia and New South Wales. The first Test match on English soil occurred in 1880 with England winning this series 1–0. The series was also the first for England to field a fully representative side with W.G. Grace being present in the team. England would lose their first home series 1–0 in 1882 with the Sporting Times famously printing an obituary on English cricket:
The 1930 Ashes series saw a young Don Bradman dominate the tour, scoring 974 runs in his seven Test innings. He scored 254 at Lord's, 334 at Headingley and 232 at the Oval. Australia regained the Ashes winning the series 3–1. As a result of Bradman's prolific run-scoring the England captain Douglas Jardine chose to develop the already existing leg theory into fast leg theory, or bodyline, as a tactic to stop Bradman. Fast leg theory involved bowling fast balls directly at the batsman's body. The batsman would need to defend himself, and if he touched the ball with the bat, he risked being caught by one of a large number of fielders placed on the leg side.
The early and middle 1960's were poor periods for English cricket. Despite England's strength on paper, Australia held the Ashes for the entire decade and the West Indies dominated England in the early part of the decade. England would the end the 60's on a high however regaining the Wisden Trophy in 1968 and drawing the Ashes series in the same year 1–1.
England carried their good form from the late 60's into the 70's regaining the Ashes in 1970 but then suffered a loss of form losing to India and a rising West Indian side. This culminated in a 4–1 defeat in the 1974 Ashes series. The inaugural 1975 Cricket World Cup saw England reach the semi-finals and was to be the turning point in England's fortunes. The results of the Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket were felt in Test cricket with Australia and Pakistan losing many of its star players. England replaced captain Tony Greig who had joined the league with Mike Brearley while Geoffrey Boycott returned from his England exile. England would defeat a divided Australian side 3–1 in the centenary Ashes series. This was followed by a comfortable 4–0 win against Pakistan and a World Cup final appearance against the West Indies.
England continued their decline during the 1990s. This was not helped by squabbles between key players and the chairman of selectors, Raymond Illingworth. Another reason for their poor performances were the demands of County Cricket teams on their players, meaning that England could rarely lead a full strength team on their tours. This would eventually lead to the ECB taking over the MCC as the governing body of England and the implementation of central contracts.
With the appointment of Duncan Fletcher as coach and Nasser Hussain as captain England began to rebuild their team. They won four consecutive Test series which included impressive wins against West Indies (a first in 32 years) and Pakistan. England were still left wanting against Australia however and lost the 2001 Ashes 4–1. Promising results against India and Sri Lanka gave England some positive sentiments towards their chances against Australia in 2002-2003, yet a 4–1 defeat showed that they were still falling short. This setback did not stop England’s resurgence however as they defeated the West Indies 3–0 and followed this up by whitewashes over New Zealand and the West Indies at home. A victory in the first Test against South Africa at Port Elizabeth meant England had won their eighth successive Test, their best sequence of Test match wins for 75 years. In 2005 England, under Michael Vaughan's captaincy and aided by Kevin Pietersen's batting contributions in his maiden series (most notably 158 at the Oval), and Andrew Flintoff's superb allround performances, defeated Australia 2–1 to regain the Ashes for the first time in 18 years.

England Cricket Series and Results

England vs Australia Cricket Series and Results
India vs England Cricket Series and Results
1911 to 2006
New Zealand vs England Cricket Series and Results
1927 to 2008
Canada vs Englamd Cricket Series and Results
1880 to 1979
Pakistan vs Englamd Cricket Series and Results
1956 to 2006
South Africa vs Englamd Cricket Series and Results
1907 to 2008
England vs West Indies Cricket Series and Results
1929 to 2004
Srilanka vs England Cricket Series and Results
1975 to 2006