There were seven Test matches played in England in 2005. The first two were against Bangladesh, the bottom-ranked test team. England started this series ranked second in the LG ICC Test Championship table.
The Australia national cricket team landed in England on 6 June 2005. Over the course of the summer, they played one Twenty20 International, a triangular ODI tournament with both Bangladesh and England, a one-day tournament with England, and five Test matches, the outcome of which would decide The Ashes. With Australia the top-ranked team in the World Test table, and England the second-ranked, this was the most eagerly anticipated Ashes series since the 1980s.
Thirteen One Day Internationals were played in England in 2005 - 10 in the NatWest Series between England, Bangladesh and Australia, and three between England and Australia in the NatWest Challenge immediately following the Series.
The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors. The final result was a 2–1 series win for England, who succeeded in their biennial attempt to win the urn.
The England cricket team toured Pakistan from October to December 2005. England were looking to maintain the form that had taken them to second place in the ICC Test Championship, and to victory in the 2005 Ashes series at home to Australia, but they suffered a sharp reversal of fortune, losing the Test series 2–0 to Pakistan. Pakistan also won the one day series by 3–2. This would be England's last tour of Pakistan until 2022.
The English cricket team toured India during February, March and April 2006. The English cricket team was aspiring to maintain the form that took them to second place in the ICC Test Championship and helped them to win the 2005 Ashes series at home to Australia. This goal was substantially hindered by an injury to the captain Michael Vaughan; the swing bowler Simon Jones and the absence of Ashley Giles who missed the tour for an operation. As well as this, stand-in captain Marcus Trescothick flew home for "personal reasons", not wishing to divulge further, leaving Andrew Flintoff, who missed the birth of his son, to take on the title of skipper for the first time having to captain two maiden international cricketers on the English side: Alastair Cook and Monty Panesar. Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla and Munaf Patel made their debuts for the home team.
Sri Lanka toured England for cricket matches during the 2006 international cricket season. England were back home for the first time since September and looked to maintain their Test standards, which saw them keep their second place in the ICC Test Championship in India, and the teams were also competing for sixth place in the ICC ODI Championship as both England and Sri Lanka were coming off the back of two lost ODI tours on the Asian sub-continent, against India and Pakistan respectively. To add to problems, both teams were likely to be missing some key members of the team as England were without some of their squad for their previous tour and, two days before Sri Lanka departed for England, it was revealed that skipper Marvan Atapattu would stay at home for the tour due to back problems that had forced him to skip his previous tour too. Jehan Mubarak was brought in as his replacement.
The Pakistan national cricket team toured England in 2006 for a four-match Test series, a five-match One Day International series and a single Twenty20 International. After a drawn first Test, England won the next two matches before being awarded the final match in controversial circumstances; on the fourth day, Pakistan's players were penalised for ball tampering and refused to resume play after the tea interval, leading the umpires to award England the match and a 3–0 series victory. In 2008, the ICC controversially declared the result of the final Test as a draw, altering the scoreline to 2–0; however, after criticism, not least by the MCC, this was subsequently reversed in February 2009 and the result restored as an England victory.
The 2006–07 cricket series between Australia and England for The Ashes was played in Australia from 23 November 2006 to 5 January 2007. Australia won the series and regained the Ashes that had been lost to England in the 2005 series. The five Tests of the series were played at Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney. In winning, Australia completed a 5–0 "whitewash", the first time this had happened in an Ashes series since 1920–21. The series was also notable for the retirement of four significant Australian players, namely Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne. Ricky Ponting was named Player of the Series.
The 2009 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia, and was part of the Australian cricket tour of England in 2009. Starting on 8 July 2009, England and Australia played five Tests, with England winning the series 2–1. England thus reclaimed The Ashes from Australia, who had won the previous series in 2006–07. Andrew Strauss became just the second England captain in 20 years, alongside Michael Vaughan in 2005, to win the Ashes.
The India national cricket team toured England from 19 July to 8 September 2007. The tour included 3 Tests and 7 ODIs. During the Test series, the Pataudi Trophy, a prize commissioned by the MCC to commemorate the 118th anniversary of India's Test debut, was competed for. This was designed and created by Jocelyn Burton, Holborn, London.
The South African national cricket team toured England during the 1907 cricket season, playing three Tests and twenty four first-class matches. South Africa's quartet of bowlers, Reggie Schwarz, Aubrey Faulkner, Bert Vogler and Gordon White were praised for the quality of their googly bowling, and two of the four—Schwarz and Vogler—were recognised as Wisden Cricketers of the Year the following year.
The West Indian cricket team toured England from 12 May to 7 July 2007 as part of the 2007 English cricket season. The tour included four Tests, two Twenty20 international matches and three One Day Internationals. While England dominated the Test series 3–0, including a record victory over the West Indies, the latter took the ODI series 2:1.
The England cricket team toured Sri Lanka from 28 September to 22 December 2007. England made two trips to Sri Lanka in this tour with the ODI team arriving on 25 September before returning to England on 15 October. The Test team arrived on 15 November and stayed there for the remainder of the tour. The tour included three Test matches and five ODIs.
The Indian cricket team toured England from 21 July to 16 September 2011. The tour consisted of one Twenty20 International (T20I), five One Day Internationals (ODIs) and four Test matches, as well as a number of matches against English county sides. The opening Test at Lord's was the 2,000th Test. England's victory in the Third Test put them number one in the world rankings.
The 2007 Cricket World Cup, which was played in the West Indies from 13 March to 28 April 2007, featured 16 teams, who were divided into four groups. Group C featured full ICC members England and New Zealand, and associate members Canada and Kenya. New Zealand beat England by 6 wickets in their opening match before beating Canada and Kenya by more than 100 runs each to finish top of the group, while England also managed comfortable wins against the two associate nations to join New Zealand in qualifying for the Super Eights. Kenya finished in third place by virtue of their opening victory over Canada.
The New Zealand cricket team toured Australia from 18 November – 13 December 2011. The tour consisted of two Tests played for the Trans-Tasman Trophy.
The England and Pakistan national cricket teams toured the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from 7 January to 27 February 2012. The tour included three Tests, four One Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) between England and Pakistan. The matches were meant to be held in Pakistan, but ongoing security problems in the country meant that the series was moved to the UAE.
The 2003 NatWest Series was a One Day International cricket tri-series sponsored by the National Westminster Bank that took place in England between 26 June and 12 July 2003. The series involved the national teams of England, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Ten matches were played in total, with each team playing one another thrice during the group stage. The teams which finished in the top two positions following the group stages qualified for the final, which England won by defeating South Africa at Lord's on 12 July by 7 wickets. Preceding the series, England played Zimbabwe in a two Test series, while following the series, South Africa played England in a Test and One Day International series.
The 2013–14 Ashes was a Test cricket series between England and Australia. The five venues for the series were the Brisbane Cricket Ground, the Adelaide Oval, the WACA Ground, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Sydney Cricket Ground.
