cricket test match

There are currently ten Test-playing teams, the majority of which are individual nations.

Test status is conferred upon a country or group of countries by the International Cricket Council. Teams that do not have Test status can only officially play a shortened version of cricket, except in events such as the ICC Intercontinental Cup, which was specifically designed to allow non-Test teams to play under conditions similar to Tests. The teams are listed below with the date of each team's Test debut:

Order	Test team	Date of first Test Match	Notes
1	Australia	15 March 1877
	England		Consists of players from England and Wales.
3	South Africa	12 March 1889	Did not participate in international cricket between 10 March 1970 and 18 April 1992 due to the international reaction to apartheid.
4	West Indies	23 June 1928	Consists of players from a number of Caribbean nations and dependencies.
5	New Zealand	10 January 1930
6	India	25 June 1932	Before partition of India in 1947, consisted of territory that are now Pakistan and Bangladesh.
7	Pakistan	16 October 1952	Before Bangladeshi independence in 1971, included territory that is now Bangladesh.
8	Sri Lanka	17 February 1982
9	Zimbabwe	18 October 1992	Suspended from involvement in test cricket between 10 June 2004 and 6 January 2005, and currently since 18 January 2006.
10	Bangladesh	10 November 2000

In 2003, the ICC announced its intention to confer Test status upon Kenya in the near future, but Kenyan cricket has been through difficulties since then and no date for Kenya's promotion is likely to be set in the near future.