The 1997 cricket season was the 98th in which the County Championship has been an official competition. The season centred on the six-Test Ashes series against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. England won the first, at Edgbaston, by the decisive margin of nine wickets, and the rain-affected second Test at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

was drawn, but any English optimism was short-lived. Australia won the next three games by huge margins to secure the series and retain The Ashes, and England's three-day victory in the final game at The Oval was little more than a consolation prize. It was the 68th test series between the two sides with Australia finally winning 3-2 The three-match

ODI ODI may refer to: * Object Design, Incorporated, a defunct database software company * One Day International, cricket match * Open Data Institute, a UK not-for-profit company promoting open data * Open Data-Link Interface, an implementation of th ...

series which preceded the Tests produced a statistical curiosity, with England winning each match by an identical margin, six wickets. The Britannic Assurance County Championship went to

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

for the first time since

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

, by a margin of just four points from Kent. The combination of captain Matthew Maynard and Steve James' batting and Waqar Younis' and

Steve Watkin Steven Llewellyn Watkin (born 15 September 1964) is a former Welsh cricketer who played for Glamorgan County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. A reliable seam bowler who never suffered serious injury despite several lesser niggles, h ...

's bowling propelled them to the title, although the matter was not settled until the final match of the season, when Glamorgan's maximum-points thrashing of Somerset at Taunton ensured that Kent's own victory over

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

was irrelevant. In one-day cricket, Warwickshire won the AXA Life League by two points from Kent, but were themselves thrashed by nine wickets by Essex in the final of the NatWest Trophy. The honours in the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

went to

, who beat Kent by eight wickets in the final. Ali Brown's 203 for Surrey in the AXA Life League against Hampshire in July remains the only double century ever scored in a 40-over

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

match.

Honours

* County Championship -

* NatWest Trophy - Essex * Sunday League - Warwickshire *

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

- Devon * MCCA Knockout Trophy - Norfolk *Second XI Championship - Lancashire II *Wisden - Matthew Elliott,

Stuart Law Stuart Grant Law (born 18 October 1968) is an Australian-born cricket coach and former cricketer. He played one Test and 54 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for Australia. Law also captained Queensland to five Sheffield Shield titles and two one ...

Glenn McGrath Glenn Donald McGrath (; born 9 February 1970) is an Australian former international cricketer who played international cricket for 14 years. He was a fast-medium pace bowler (cricket), bowler and is considered one of the greatest international ...

, Matthew Maynard, Graham Thorpe

Statistical highlights

First-class

* Highest team total: 631/7 dec by Warwickshire v Hampshire at Southampton, 29–30 May * Lowest team total: 31 by

v Middlesex at Cardiff, 14 June * Highest individual innings: 303* by Graeme Hick ( Worcestershire) v Hampshire at Southampton, 18–19 September * Most runs in season: 1,775 by Steve James (

) * Best innings bowling: 9-64 by Melvyn Betts ( Durham) v Northamptonshire at

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

, 28 August * Most wickets in season: 83 by Mike Smith ( Gloucestershire and England)

List A

* Highest team total: 371/6 (50 overs) by

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

v Scotland at

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, 28 April * Lowest team total: 53 by Ireland v Yorkshire at Leeds, 24 June * Highest individual innings: 203 by Ali Brown (

) v Hampshire at

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, 20 July * Most runs in season: 1,088 by

( Essex) * Best innings bowling: 7-24 by Mushtaq Ahmed ( Somerset) v Ireland at Taunton, 2 May * Most wickets in season: 53 by

Allan Donald Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...

( Warwickshire)

Ashes tour

County Championship

Sunday League

NatWest Trophy

Benson & Hedges Cup

Averages

First-class

Batting

''Qualification: eight innings''

Bowling

''Qualification: ten wickets''

List A

Batting

''Qualification: eight innings''

Bowling

''Qualification: ten wickets''

References

External sources

CricketArchive – season and tournament itineraries

England Domestic Season 1997
at

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

Annual reviews

* Playfair Cricket Annual 1998 * Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1998 {{International cricket tours of England English cricket seasons in the 20th century English Cricket Season, 1997

Cricket season Cricket seasons are the times of the year when cricket is played. Because top-class cricket is almost always played outdoors, on uncovered pitches, and rain prevents play, the seasons in each country are geared to coincide with the driest months ...

Welsh cricket in the 20th century