Warwickshire (cricket)

Cricket probably reached the county of Warwickshire by the end of the seventeenth century. In 1738, the Warwickshire & Staffordshire Journal reported a London v Mitcham game at the Artillery Ground on 11 August. On 15 July 1751, Aris' Gazette carried a notice for a local match and that is the earliest known reference to cricket in the county. Later in the century, there was a club in Coventry which played against the Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club

Warwickshire County Cricket Club was founded on 8 April 1882 at a meeting in The Regent Hotel, Leamington Spa. The team became first-class in 1894 and joined the official County Cricket Championship as an expansion team in 1895. The club's home base since foundation is the Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham which has regularly staged Test matches since 1902. Warwickshire won their first County Championship in 1911 and have won the title seven times in all, most recently in 2012. They have also won twelve limited overs tournaments and one Twenty20 Cup.

Warwickshire's most famous player is probably Brian Lara who made the world record score of 501 when playing for them against Durham in 1994, a season in which Warwickshire won the championship and two limited overs tournaments. Other famous players have been batsman Mike Smith, who captained England in the 1960s, South African pace bowler Allan Donald, and the England players Dennis Amiss, Bob Barber, Ian Bell, Tom Cartwright, Eric Hollies, Bob Willis and Bob Wyatt.