The English cricket team is one of the oldest and best cricket teams in the world. England is regarded as the inventor of the sport of cricket and is the founding nation of both versions of the game - Test cricket as well as One-day international. England was one of the first nations to play in the first Test match against Australia in Melbourne in 1877, and also the first one-day international against Australia in 1971, this too at Melbourne. The England Cricket Team represents England and Wales, operating under the auspices of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The England cricket team is one of the most challenging and dominant cricket teams in the world, at present ranking second after Australia in the ICC Test cricket ratings. The team has done reasonably well in all cricket world cups, and reached to finals on three occassions in 1979, 1989 and 1992 but missed the cup by little margins. The England cricket team has played some of the world’s most outstanding players like Jim Laker, Mike Denness, Tony Greig, David Gower, Ian Botham, Graham Gooch, Alec Stewart, Graeme Hick, Allan Lamb, Michael Atherton, Nasser Hussian to name a few. The current English team plays some of the leading cricketers of the world, including the captain Michael Vaughan, Paul Collingwood, Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss. England is placed in Group C in the ICC World Cup 2007 groupings, along with New Zealand, Kenya and Canada. The team will start its World Cup campaign against New Zealand on March 16, 2007 in Saint Lucia.