Warwickshire County Cricket Club
One Day nameWarwickshire
Twenty20 nameBirmingham Bears
Personnel
CaptainTBA
CoachMark Robinson
Overseas player(s)Hasan Ali
Team information
Founded1882
Home groundEdgbaston
Capacity25,000 approx.
History
First-class debutNottinghamshire
in 1894
at Trent Bridge
Championship wins8
One-Day Cup/Pro40/Sunday League wins5
FP Trophy wins5
B&H Cup wins2
T20 Blast wins1
Bob Willis Trophy wins1
Official websiteedgbaston.com

First-class

One-day

T20

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.

Founded in 1882, the club held minor status until it was elevated to first-class in 1894 pending its entry into the County Championship in 1895. Since then, Warwickshire have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England.[1]

Warwickshire currently competes in four main competitions. In the County Championship, they compete in Division One (the top division), and last won it outright in 2021 (for a total of eight championship wins). The 50 over Royal London One Day Cup they compete as 'Warwickshire', but for other short-format cricket, they are named differently. For the T20 Blast they are the Birmingham Bears, and they compete in The Hundred (cricket) as Birmingham Phoenix.

Warwickshire's kit colours are all white with a dash of navy blue for the county championship, and for short-format cricket, they use navy blue and gold. Shirt sponsors include Scrivens Opticians (County Championship), Talbots Law (T20 Blast), and Butterkist (The 100). The club's home is Edgbaston Cricket Ground in central Birmingham, which also regularly hosts Test and One-Day International matches.

Honours

First XI honours

Division Two (2) – 2008, 2018
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"[2] 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 (later the National Cricket League and Pro40) 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 2016, Varun Chopra resigned the captaincy in order to focus on batting, with Ian Bell taking over as captain.[3]

At the end of the 2016 season despite winning the Royal London Cup earlier in the season, Director of Cricket Dougie Brown was replaced by Jim Troughton as Head Coach with former Director of Cricket Ashley Giles returning to Edgbaston to take responsibility for all cricket associated with Warwickshire. Bell resigned as captain on 20 August 2017.

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 third 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 fourth of six teams in the Midlands/Wales/West division, failing to make the quarter-finals.

2013

Warwickshire finished fourth of six 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 fourth 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
2015–2017England I. R. Bell
2018–2019New Zealand J. S. Patel
2020 to dateEngland W. M. H. Rhodes

    Players

    Current squad

    • No. denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt.
    • ‡ denotes players with international caps.
    •  *  denotes a player who has been awarded a county cap.
    No. Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Notes
    Batters
    3Amir Khan England15 September 2005Left-handedRight-arm off break
    12Chris Benjamin South Africa29 April 1999Right-handed—UK Passport
    15Hamza Shaikh England29 May 2006Right-handedRight-arm leg break
    16Sam Hain* ‡ England16 July 1995Right-handedRight-arm off break
    17Rob Yates England19 September 1999Left-handedRight-arm off break
    35Will Rhodes* England2 March 1995Left-handedRight-arm medium
    All-rounders
    1Moeen Ali ‡ England18 June 1987Left-handedRight-arm off breakCaptain (T20);
    England central contract;
    White ball contract
    2Jacob Bethell England23 October 2003Left-handedSlow left-arm orthodox
    19Chris Woakes* ‡ England2 March 1989Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumEngland central contract
    30Ed Barnard England20 November 1995Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
    80Dan Mousley England8 July 2001Left-handedRight-arm off break
    —George Garton ‡ England15 April 1997Left-handedLeft-arm fast
    Wicket-keepers
    11Kai Smith United Arab Emirates28 November 2004Right-handed—UK passport
    61Michael Burgess* England8 July 1994Right-handed—
    71Alex Davies* England23 August 1994Right-handed—
    Bowlers
    14Danny Briggs* ‡ England30 April 1991Right-handedSlow left-arm orthodox
    18Craig Miles England20 July 1994Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
    20Oliver Hannon-Dalby* England20 June 1989Left-handedRight-arm fast-medium
    22Chris Rushworth* England11 July 1986Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
    23Jake Lintott England22 April 1993Right-handedSlow left-arm unorthodox
    24Liam Norwell England27 December 1991Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
    27Michael Booth South Africa12 February 2001Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumUK passport
    32Hasan Ali Pakistan2 July 1994Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumOverseas player
    99Che Simmons Barbados18 December 2003Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumUK passport

      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[4]

      PlayerRun
      Dennis Amiss35,146
      Willie Quaife33,862
      Mike Smith27,672
      Tom Dollery23,458
      Bob Wyatt21,687

      First-class wickets

      Qualification: at least 1,000 wickets[5]

      PlayerWickets
      Eric Hollies2,201
      Sydney Santall1,207
      Jack Bannister1,181
      Joseph Mayer1,142
      Tom Cartwright1,058
      David Brown1,005

      Other records

      Record nameRecord valueRecord holderOppositionLocationYear
      Team totals
      Highest total for810-4 decv. DurhamBirmingham1994
      Highest total against887v. YorkshireBirmingham1986
      Lowest total for16v. KentTonbridge1913
      Lowest total against15v. HampshireBirmingham1922
      Batting
      Highest score1501*B. C. LaraDurhamBirmingham1994
      Most runs in season2417M. J. K. Smith1959
      Best partnership for each wicket
      1st377*N. F. Horner
      K. Ibadulla      		SurreyThe Oval1960
      2nd465*J. A. Jameson
      R. B. Kanhai      		GloucestershireBirmingham1974
      3rd327S. P. Kinneir
      W. G. Quaife      		LancashireBirmingham1901
      4th470A. I. Kallicharran
      G. W. Humpage      		LancashireSouthport1982
      5th335J. O. Troughton
      T. R. Ambrose      		HampshireBirmingham2009
      6th327L. J. Evans
      T. R. Ambrose      		SussexBirmingham2015
      7th289*I. R. Bell
      T. Frost      		SussexHorsham2004
      8th228A. J. W. Croom
      R. E. S. Wyatt      		WorcestershireDudley1925
      9th233I. J. L. Trott
      J. S. Patel      		YorkshireBirmingham2009
      10th214N. V. Knight
      A. Richardson      		HampshireBirmingham2002
      Bowling
      Best bowling10–41J. D. BannisterCombined ServicesBirmingham (M&B)1959
      Best match bowling15–76S. HargreaveSurreyThe Oval1903
      Wickets in season180W. E. Hollies1946
      Notes
      1. ^ Brian Lara's 501* in 1994 is a current world record.

      Birmingham Bears

      Birmingham Bears
      Personnel
      CaptainMoeen Ali[6]
      CoachMark Robinson
      Overseas player(s)Glenn Maxwell
      Paul Stirling
      Team information
      Founded2003
      Home groundEdgbaston
      Capacity25,000
      History
      Twenty20 debutv. Yorkshire, 23 May 2014, Edgbaston, Birmingham
      Natwest T20 Blast wins1
      Official websiteedgbaston.com/bears/

      T20I kit

      Birmingham Bears are a T20 cricket team located in Birmingham, founded as Warwickshire Bears in 2003 and rebranded as Birmingham Bears in 2014.[7][8] They are a part of Warwickshire County Cricket Club and play at Edgbaston Cricket Ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. They have won one Natwest T20 Blast, the 2014 t20 Blast, beating Lancashire Lightning in the final at Edgbaston.[9] Their playing squad and coaching staff are the same as the Warwickshire first-class and List A team, although an additional overseas player is granted for the T20 Blast.[10]

      Under the guidance of Dougie Brown and captained by Jim Troughton Birmingham won 7 of their 14 group games, finishing fourth in the North Group and qualifying for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals they defeated Essex by 19 runs, qualifying for Finals Day. In their Finals Day semi-final, they defeated Surrey by 16 runs, setting up a final with Lancashire. In the Final they defeated Lancashire by 4 runs, securing them their first Twenty20 title. The overseas players were Shoaib Malik and Jeetan Patel, who finished the season as leading wicket-taker with 25 wickets.

      This season captained by Varun Chopra Birmingham won 10 of their 14 group games, finishing top of the North Group and qualifying for the quarter-finals. Once again they met Essex in the quarter-finals, defeating them again by 24 runs. At Finals Day however they lost their semi-final to Northamptonshire who would go on to win the title. Jeetan Patel returned as an overseas player, but was this year joined by fellow New Zealander Brendon McCullum. The Bears also set the highest team score of the competition, scoring 242/2 against Derbyshire in the group stages, with McCullum scoring 158 not out in this game.

      Once again under a new captain in Ian Bell Birmingham performed poorly, finishing sixth in the North Group winning just 6 of their 14 games. Jeetan Patel returned as overseas player for a third season, this year joined by wicketkeepers Luke Ronchi and Matthew Wade who both played half the tournament each.

      Under new leadership for the fourth season, this time by former New Zealand international Grant Elliott and new coaching in former player Jim Troughton the Bears improved on their previous season, winning 8 of their 14 group games, finishing third in the North Group qualifying them for the quarter-finals. In the quarter-final they met Surrey defeating them by 6 wickets in a high-scoring game, qualifying them for Finals Day. In the semi-final they met Glamorgan, winning by 11 runs qualifying them for the Final. However, they lost the final to Nottinghamshire by 22 runs. Patel returned as overseas player for a fourth season, this year joined by Colin de Grandhomme, with captain Elliott qualifying as a Kolpak player due to being born in South Africa.

      Under the same captain and same coaching, with the same overseas players, the Bears missed out on the quarter-finals for just the second time in their history, winning just 6 of their 14 group games. Former England international Ian Bell though finished as third top run-scorer, finishing the season with 580 runs from his 14 games.

      Notes

        References

        Footnotes

        1. ↑ ACS (1982). A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham: ACS.
        2. ↑ Yorkshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Middlesex, Kent and Surrey.
        3. ↑ "Chopra stands down as Bears Captain with Bell appointed successor". edgbaston.com. Warwickshire County Cricket Club. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
        4. ↑ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
        5. ↑ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
        6. ↑ "Moeen Ali to lead Bears in 2023 Vitality Blast campaign". Edgbaston. 21 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
        7. ↑ "Ali backs Twenty20". Skysports. 10 June 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2022.
        8. ↑ "Birmingham experiment in the balance". ESPNCricinfo. 15 January 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
        9. ↑ "Woakes denies Flintoff as Birmingham win Blast". ESPNCricinfo. 23 August 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
        10. ↑ "Mens - Birmingham Bears". Birmingham Bears. Retrieved 28 September 2018.

        Bibliography

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