History of The England Cricket Team From 1945 - 1990s

1990s

English cricket went on a slide during the 1990s. This was not helped by squabbles between key players and the chairman of selectors, Raymond Illingworth. They were more often than not beaten badly during the Ashes series, as they were spellbound by Shane Warne and later Glenn McGrath. They were declared the unofficial worst side in the world after the 1999 home series loss to New Zealand.

Under their new captain Graham Gooch at the beginning of the decade, England missed out on a historic victory against the all-conquering West Indian cricket team, by losing their final two test matches having gone into them with a 1-0 lead. The elevation to the position of captain for Gooch led to him reaching new heights as a batsman during the summer of 1990. The new captain broke the record for most number of runs in a match against India at Lord's with scores of 333 and 123. New team members such as Michael Atherton, Alec Stewart and Angus Fraser aided the new captain to victories against India and New Zealand yet the team were unable to regain the Ashes during the following winter, losing 3-0.

The team returned during 1991 to more successful ways, by defeating Sri Lanka and New Zealand and holding the West Indies to a drawn series. Another excellent innings from Gooch against the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh at Headingley helped the side to their first victory against the team in England for over two decades. Although England were not the best Test match side in the world, they could lay claim to holding that position in the one-day game. The 1992 Cricket World Cup saw England performing better than everyone else, with victories over Australia, the West Indies and South Africa led them to the final against Pakistan, where a side led and inspired by Imran Khan defeated Gooch's side.

Around this time, players such as Ian Botham, Allan Lamb and David Gower all came to the end of their international careers and specifically in the case of Botham, England had trouble replacing these players. Batsmen like Graeme Hick, Mark Ramprakash, Chris Lewis and Phil Tufnell all promised and sometimes delivered a great deal, yet the side often performed badly and disappointed its fans. Following their victory in New Zealand before the Cricket World Cup, they did not win again for another two and a half years, when the side again defeated the same opponents. During this period defeats to Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Australia culminated in Gooch stepping down in the summer of 1993 as captain, to be replaced by his partner at the top of the order, Michael Atherton.

The period of captaincy under Atherton was seen as one of disaster followed by more and more disappointment for England's fans. Selectoral differences between Atherton and Raymond Illingworth often meant that players such as Angus Fraser and Devon Malcolm would not get picked, against the captain's wishes. Teams would sometimes have too many batsmen, no spin bowler and the plethora of players who would come into the side and then quickly disappear, was symptomatic of a troubled side. The demands of county cricket often meant that injuries would deny Atherton key players and when compared with Australian cricket, it was seen as antiquated by many. Performances of great excellence would often crop up, amid the rubbish. These included two centuries in a test match at Port of Spain by Alec Stewart, nine wickets in an innings from Devon Malcolm against South Africa, seven wickets on debut by Dominic Cork against the West Indies and Michael Atherton and Jack Russell batting for ten hours to salvage a draw in Johannesburg. By 1997, calls for Atherton to step down were only put off by an exciting victory at The Oval against Australia, despite losing the series 3-2. On the following tour to the West Indies, a 3-1 defeat forced the beleaguered captain to step down, to be replaced by wicketkeeper-batsman Alec Stewart.

Stewart's first test series against South Africa in the summer of 1998 resulted in the side's first success in a five match test series since their last victory against Australia in 1986/1987. Bowlers such as Dominic Cork, Angus Fraser and Darren Gough now led the bowling attack with Nasser Hussain, Graham Thorpe and Mark Ramprakash supporting Stewart and Atherton in the batting. Yet the deficiencies in the system remained and a 3-1 defeat on their next Ashes tour and a humiliating exit in the first round of the 1999 Cricket World Cup which was hosted by England led to the exit of Stewart.

His replacement as captain, Essex batsman Nasser Hussain, was the unfortunate holder of the captaincy during the 1999 Test series against New Zealand when a 2-1 defeat resulted in the country which gave birth to the game, being officially ranked as the worst Test-playing nation in the world.