Our History

With a lengthy history of cricket in the county already behind it, a Public Meeting at the Shire Hall, Chelmsford on 14th January 1876 rubberstamped the formation of Essex County Cricket Club. 

Essex’s first home was at Brentwood but crowds were small and in 1885 they moved to Leyton, then the fastest-growing suburb in the country. The ground cost £10,000 (over £1m in the 2020s) and was always a financial liability.

Essex played the first county match against Suffolk the following June, With a formidable bowling attack, which included the likes of Henry Pickett, Walter Mead and Charles Kortright, Essex had built up a strong case to become a first-class county. So, it was in 1895 that Essex took its place in the County Championship. While rarely threatening to win the title, Essex proved themselves a more than capable addition to the red-ball gameprior to the First World War.

Tom Pearce was appointed captain after the Second World War and so began a period of strong leadership on and off the field. Spearheaded by Pearce, Doug Insole, Trevor Bailey and Brian Taylor, the Club worked its way into a position from which it could finally challenge seriously for honours. A chance meeting led to Bailey agreeing an interest-free loan from the Warwickshire Supporters’ Association, to enable Essex to purchase the Chelmsford ground at New Writtle Street in 1966. The start of a new one-day league competition (sponsored for many years by John Player) kick-started Essex’s push to break the trophy duck. In the first nine years of the tournament Essex finished in the top four on seven occasions, though top spot remained elusive. By this point, overseas players were now lighting up the county game and Essex’s Keith Boyce was one of the finest of the lot during the first half of the ‘70s. Keith Fletcher took over as captain in 1974, with the dawning of a golden era on the horizon.

Graham Gooch’s glorious career at Essex ended in 1997, with more than 30,000 first-class runs for the county under his belt, as well as in excess of 16,000 runs in the three main one-day competitions. That was also the first year Essex won a trophy without Gooch’s presence by defeating Warwickshire in the NatWest Trophy Final. Another title was claimed the following year in 1998 when Leicestershire were bowled out for just 76 in the Benson & Hedges Cup Final. A fallow period then ensued with Essex starting life in Division Two of the new two-division County Championship in 2000. By this point, Ronnie Irani had been appointed skipper in place of Nasser Hussain – who was in the process of leading England out of the doldrums. Irani steered Essex to promotion in 2000 and 2002 but their stay in the top-flight only lasted one season on each occasion.

Better fortunes were to be found in the one-day arena, however, as Essex was crowned one-day league champions in both 2005 and 2006 (sponsored by totesport and NatWest respectively). Meanwhile, youngsters Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara were making the England selectors sit up and take notice with their promising displays.   

This was also a time of huge significance for the Essex Women’s team as they joined the Women’s County Championship in 2001.

Ahead of the 2016 season a change of regime took place with Ryan ten Doeschate and Chris Silverwood appointed as captain and coach, respectively. Spending a sixth consecutive season in Division Two of the County Championship meant there was plenty of work to do by the duo in order to revive the Club’s fortunes. With ten Doeschate leading from the front with the bat and Graham Napier and David Masters once more among the wickets in their final campaigns before retirement, Essex secured the only promotion spot available by winning the Division Two crown.

Rather than just establish themselves in Division One the following year, Essex won the County Championship by an astonishing 72 points from second-placed Lancashire. New signing Simon Harmer and the emerging Jamie Porter took 147 wickets between them as Essex went through the 14-match campaign unbeaten. Another County Championship followed in 2019, with Anthony McGrath moving from Assistant to Head Coach after Chris Silverwood took the vacant position at England. now coach. The season would end in dramatic fashion with a double title secured as Essex won a first Vitality Blast title, led by T20 captain Harmer.

Tom Westley replaced ten Doeschate as skipper ahead of the 2020 Coronavirus-impacted season but Essex’s dominance in the first-class game continued unabated, winning the Bob Willis Trophy (substitute four-day competition introduced during a truncated season).

In April 2024, Essex were one of eight counties to be awarded a professional women's team in a landmark transformation for the domestic game. The 2025 campaign marked the beginning of new Women's Vitality Blast and Metro Bank One Day Cup competitions with Essex playing all home games at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground.