Canada Cricket

Canada

Founded

1968

The Canada national cricket team is the men's team that represents the country of Canada in international cricket. The team is organised by Cricket Canada, which became an Associate Member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 1968. With the United States, Canada was one of the two participants in the first ever international cricket match, played in New York City in 1844. The annual Canada–U.S. fixture is now known as the Auty Cup. Canada's first international match against a team other than the U.S. came in 1932, when Australia toured. As with the ICC associate members, the team's first major international tournament was the 1979 ICC Trophy in England, where they qualified for the 1979 World Cup after placing second to Sri Lanka. After that, Canada did not make another World Cup until 2003, although they remained one of the leading associate teams. From 2006 to 2013, Canada had both One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International status, making appearances at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups. However, since the introduction of the new World Cricket League divisional structure, the team has been less successful – they placed amongst the bottom teams at the 2014 World Cup Qualifier and the 2015 WCL Division Two tournaments, and were consequently relegated to the 2017 Division Three event. In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Canada and other ICC members since 1 January 2019 have been full T20I matches.

New Zealand Cricket

New Zealand

Founded

1930

The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in international cricket. Nicknamed the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 New Zealand had to wait until 1956, more than 26 years, for its first Test victory, against the West Indies at Eden Park in Auckland. They played their first ODI in the 1972–73 season against Pakistan in Christchurch. The current captain in all formats of the game is Kane Williamson, who replaced Brendon McCullum after the latter's retirement in December 2015. The national team is organised by New Zealand Cricket. The New Zealand cricket team became known as the Black Caps in January 1998, after its sponsor at the time, Clear Communications, held a competition to choose a name for the team. This is one of many national team nicknames related to the All Blacks. As of 14 July 2019, New Zealand have played 1319 international matches, winning 502, losing 597, tying 12 and drawing 165 matches while 43 matches ended yielding no result. The team is ranked 2nd in Tests, 3rd in ODIs and 6th in T20Is by the ICC. New Zealand defeated South Africa in the semi final of the 2015 World Cup, which was their first win in the a world cup semi final and hence they made their maiden appearance in a World Cup Final, but they ultimately lost to Trans-Tasman rivals Australia. In the next World Cup in 2019, New Zealand again reached the final which they agonisingly lost to the hosts England on boundary count after the match and the subsequent Super over both ended as ties.