Cricket
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Cricket, in one form or another, has been around in England since before 1300. However, what with England's empire growing and growing throughout the following millenium, it was bound to catch on in other countries. With new countries playing it came more competition and before long an international council was formed to regulate matches played between countries and eventually a world cup was formed. However, the story of international cricket starts a short while before then in the middle of the 1800s.

Cricket Outside England

Possibly the first important affair in cricket, outside England, occured in 1840, with the foundation of Melbourne Cricket Ground the home of the first Test. The first landmark of international cricket, though, must surely be the first match played between nations. Somewhat surprisingly this match came in 1844 but not between two nations that one would normally associate with cricket.

When English colonialists settled in America, they took cricket with them and in 1741 a match was played between two teams who donned the guises of London and New York; despite the two cities being from different countries this match does not constitute a game between two actual countries. This honour comes over a Century later when Canada travelled south of the border to meet USA at St George's Cricket Club, Manhattan, NY for a contest between two countries. The details of the match are not full, other than the absence of an American, Wheatcroft, to bat in the second innings which gives rise to allegations of bribery bearing in mind the large wager set on the contest. However, the scorecard shows that play resulted in Canada's favour by 23 runs.

Another big break for international cricket was in 1859 when George Parr captained a team on tour in North America; having had an All-England XI formed from 1846 which had been playing against English counties, the team were in good stead to take on their Atlantic cousins. Five games were played on the continent, the first against Lower Canada which the touring team won by eight wickets before moving down to the United States; despite having a serious numerical disadvantage¹, the tourists won the next four games as well, concluded in Rochester, NY where a combined USA-Canadian XXII lost by an innings and 68 runs to some astonishing bowling by, among others, John Wisden who took six wickets in as many balls. As well as being a milestone in cricket for breaking international barriers, the floods of spectators who rushed to the games, around 25,000 attended the final match, shows how much interest the game was recieving abroad.

Anglo-Australian Rivalry

Very shortly after this, in 1861-2, the English cricket team ventured down to the southern hemisphere for the first time, essentialy by default. Spiers and Pond, a Melbourne catering company, invited Charles Dickens to tour the nation for their benefit, but owing to his uneasiness with travel he declined and so the company issued a subsequent invitation to a cricket team; the cricket team accepted because they were eager for another international tour, but the American Civil War had broken out and made playing there impossible. Only 12 members went over, seven of them from Surrey, but they were met with a huge welcoming from 10,000 fans on Christmas Eve. Popularity was so large that the team needed to travel many miles out of town to practice in peace, as if the forty-eight day boat trip didn't have them travelling far enough. Other than their first match, which was played against 18 Victorians due to the captain pleading tiredness due to the journey, the England XII played against teams of 22. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the best ground in the world at the time, 15,000 spectators showed up turned up to see the England side wearing hats, resembling helmets, to protect them from the colonial sun - they also wore sashes of various colours so that the audience could match them up against a legend on the scorecards. The game was won by an innings, the first of ten victories in the 12 match series; the games they lost were to a combined Victoria-New South Wales XXII and to the Castlemain XXII. As well as these games, there were some unofficial distractions in the form of a Surrey Vs The World match at the MCG and another game against the Castlemain locals, where three of the England team beat 11 in a single-wicket match. The tour made so much money that Spiers and Pond shared half the profits with the touring side and Charles Lawrence stayed behind to coach the Sydney team.

In 1863-4, George Parr returned as captain and took his team of twelve to Australia, this time venturing onto New Zealand as well for three matches. The team was much stronger, with only one amateur, EW Grace, with professionals such as 'Tear-Em' Tarrant the fast bowler, Julius Caeser the strong batsman and fielder and John 'Foghorn' Jackson, who gained his moniker by blowing his nose loudly every time he captured a wicket. Renegade Englishmen Charles Lawrence helped the New South Wales team make a tense match with only wicket in it, but the tourists just clinched victory.

Back home in Blighty, a team of Australian aborgines became the first international team to tour in England. Over the Summer of 1868 they played 47 matches, winning 14, drawing 19 and losing 15. Despite the success of the tour, the public attention it generated, for the conventional boomerang and spear throwing display at the end of each match as well as the matches themselves, and the good level of cricket sustained throughout, an official Australian national team would not play against England for a few more years yet. Domestic cricket, on the other hand, was becoming ever more competitive regulations restricting county qualifications were set up, which many often see as the start of the County Championship, though it was not officially constituted until 1890.

Despite the only team to tour the British Isles was the aborigines, England had no qualms about playing in Australia, even though there had been a twelve year gap since the previous tour. But in 1873-4, Dr. WG Grace formed a team demanding a fee of £1,500 plus expenses for himself, whereas the professionals only recieved £170 plus expenses. This was only the start of tension between the professionals and amateurs, the latter travelling on first class while the former travelled on second class. However, the tension was not enough to detract from some fine cricket playing, this time losing the opening game to a Victorian XVIII and two more of the fifteen game tour.

The First Test

While all this international cricket was good fun and things were going well, there was still a sense of something not quite right. There needed to be some regulations set in, some governing bodies organising the game instead of it being somewhat ad hoc and thus the next time a tour occured, something would be done about this. In 1867 both James Lillywhite and GF Grace, of the previous Australian tour, tried to organise a professional-only and mixed tour, respectively. Grace's amateur and professional tour fell through meaning that only Lillywhite's team sailed to Australia to meet a Combined Australia XI in what would later be realised as the first match of Test Cricket.

After a warm-up match in mid-January, billed as NSW Vs Lillywhite's XI at Sydney, the time came for the tourists to play at Melbourne Cricket Ground, which had initially been booked for Grace's team but Lillywhite seized the opportunity of the fallen tour and moved there from the original East Melbourne booking. On 15 March, 1877 at one o'clock in the afternoon, Alfred Shaw bowled the first ball to Charles Bannerman to open the first Test Match in a four ball over, timeless, two match series. After four days play - at this time there was still a break on Sunday - the Australian side were bowling against an English side chasing a deficit of 153 runs and despite having a near spotless record with outnumbered teams, they only managed to close the gap to 45 runs before losing all 10 wickets giving Australia the victory. Owing to the unprecedented success of this test, another was hurredly scheduled 12 days later the second test was played and Australia failed to maintain their form as Lillywhite's side beat them by 4 wickets. The 1-1 series draw was not quite the whitewash expected from most fans on both sides of the hemisphere and this added to the already growing notion that such meetings should be formally organised on a regular basis.

A Bigger Test

Despite the success down under, the returning tour of 1878, the first time an official Australian team toured the home of cricket, did not contain a match that was deemed a Test² though a 9 wicket defeat of WG Grace's MCC was a game that attracted much attention. The next Test was held once again in Australia in 1879, the home side won the single Test series by an extraordinary 10 wickets and their bowler Fred Spofforth took the first Test hat-trick, bowling Royle, Mackinnon and Emmett in the first innings on successive balls. Trouble started, though, five weeks after this match during the opposing side's tour.

After the Test, Lord Harris' XI faced Dave Gregory's XI in a match won by the home team. The second meeting of the teams took place in Moore Park³ on a Friday, where a controversial run out was given by England selected umpire George Coulthard⁴ on Saturday. sparking the pavilion, who could not see the crease properly but were already suspicious of Coulthard due to speculations he had made bad calls in the past, and rumours that he was betting on the game. Their unrest was further fueled by Gregory's decision not to send out annother batsman - when Harris went over to the pavilion he was met with the command to change umpire and his refusal met with a pitch invasion by the onlooking larrikans⁵. 2,000 spectators stormed the pitch, including Banjo Paterson who went on to write Waltzing Matilda, and some tried to attack umpire Coulthard. Harris had already gone back on to the pitch to defend Coulthard and was struck with a whip, the holder of the whip was then struck by amateur boxer and cricket player Monkey Hornby. Some players fought their way out with the stumps while being attacked, it was down to the other umpire, Barton, to defuse the situation. However, when the attempt to resume the match was executed, another two pitch invasions happened and the crowds stayed there until stumps were called. The final day, Monday, saw England win by an innings and 41 runs owing to a favourable spell of rain in the intervening day.

The riot put a big strain on international cricket, as unfavourable press reached England and few sides wanted to play an Australian touring side, let alone tour down under. The Australian press condemned the conduct and called it a humiliation, but put some blame down to the English professionals who referred to the home team as 'sons of convicts.' When an Australian team was assembled to tour England in 1880 most clubs turned away at the offer. The only county side that played against them was Yorkshire in an unnofficial match, but English sympathy and support with the tourists meant that they played many highly attended matches against poor teams, many of them sides of XVIII. Eventually Surrey County Cricket Club persuaded Lord Harris to lead an English XI, including all three Grace brothers, against the touring team in what is now recognised as the fourth Test match and the first on English soil. The match at The Oval saw Australia being beaten by five wickets, but more importantly Anglo-Australian cricket was secured.

The Ashes

A history of cricket could not be complete without a brief retelling of the infamous story of England's first domestic defeat. After the first Australian visit, England toured their cricketing counterparts with a fully professional squad over the Summer of 1881/2 which saw the first draw, and indeed another, as well as two wins for Australia in the middle. Clearly the Aussies were stepping up the pace with their cricketing format and this led to an 1882 tour of England. Monkey Hornby, who was part of the team during the Sydney Riot of 1879, was asked by the Sussex County Cricket Club to captain a team against Billy Murdoch's XI for a one-off Test match. It was the first to have a time limit⁶, though the three day match only ran to the second partly because Australian bowler Spafforth took 14 wickets for 90 runs and aided Australia's first victory on English soil by a narrow 7 runs. The Sporting Times printed a mock obituary signifying 'the death of English cricket' and informing that the ashes would be taken back to Australia. Given the unfair advantages of a stand-alone Test, three were organised for the retaliatory tour of Australia with the mission of 'reclaiming the ashes.' This time Hon. Ivo Bligh was the skipper of the English side that lost the first test, but won the next two, the first of which included England's first hat-trick by Willie Bates who took 14 wickets and was the first time a Test was won by an innings, not to mention the 27 runs. The planned series was won 2-1 by the English and thus Bligh was awarded with his sought after ashes⁷ but went on to lose a fourth Test.

Waning Interest

After the Ashes recovery the Australian side saw a disastrous spell, losing all but three of the 19 Test Matches played up until 1890 and only two were draws - the worst incident probably being in the 1884-85 series when the entire team who played in the first Test refused to contend in the second, much of the dispute was down to money matters. Due to the lack of competition, interest severely waned in Australia hitting a low point of 2,000 spectators to the 1887-88 sole Test. England did not return for another four years and that was only because Lord Sheffield paid WG Grace a substantial amount to come out of touring retirement for the first time in nearly 20 years. His presence garnered crowd support down under, reviving the spirit of both the nation and the home team who went on to win their first Test Series, the final result being 2-1 for the 1891-92. Competition revived over the course of the next decade as fortunes fluctuated between the two; however in leiu of taking a team to tour Australia over the four years, sponsors decided to capitalise by offering the team to tour another country and thus one more nation would, retrospectively, gain Test status.⁸

The Third Team

As with England's early tours of Australia, many matches were played against odds, the only two that were not went on later to be given Test Status. Both sides were weak, the South African's being inexperienced and the English side consisting of mostly county-standard players with a few star exceptions, but nonetheless the thrill of a side representing England playing against South Africa drew in the crowds even if the games were played on matting instead of real turf. 19 matches were played, 17 against odds, with the home team managing to win four and two being abandoned. The main problem for the home side was the bowling of Johnny Briggs who took 300 wickets during the tour, with an average of five per innings, but many other notable players toured with the team including English captain Aubrey Smith who went on to become a Hollywood star.

South Africa's inaugural Test was played on 12 March, 1889 in Port Elizabeth on matting rather than real turf. A marginal 3,000 spectators turned up for the first of a planned three day match but by half past three on the second day the game was over, England having thrashed the homeside by eight wickets. Both sides, though, had one bowler that took a five-wicket haul in the first innings - Smith for England and Albert Rose-Innes for South Africa. Likewise the second Test, in Cape Town, was cut short and resulted in a 202 run victory for the tourists on 25 and 26 March. Smith sufferred an injury before this Test and so Monty Bowden took over as a stand in skipper - the youngest English person to do so at the age of 23.

South Africa's fortune would take some time to change for over the course of the next decade they would lose a further three Test Series against England, their weak side not attracting enough attention to be sponsored for a tour. Their first non-loss occured in the 20th Century with a tour from Australia towards the end of 1902. The first of a three Test Series went to a draw at the Old Wanderers ground in Johannasburgh⁹ but the home team lost the next two Tests. The venue proved to be somewhat of a lucky mascot for them as over the first months of 1906, a four day series against England started with a one wicket victory by the home side. In fact only one Test would utilise the four day time limit, the third Test which was also one by the home side. In fact of the five Tests only one of them was not lost by England, but a draw meant that South Africa's first Test victory came with a first Test Series victory whitewash of 4-1.

Regulations

Up and until, and just after, the close of the Century, international cricket was mainly controlled by sponsors and thus privately organised. In the 1890s attempts were made to regulate international series with the foundation of the short-lived Australiasian Cricket Council and the English counterpart, the Board of Control. However, these made little impact as privately organised Test Series continued into 1901-02 when England's finest batsman, Archie Maclaren was disgraced with a 4-1 on tour due to a lack of suitable players. The next tour over the 1903-04 saw the English squad being picked by the MCC, a tradition that would carry on until 1977.

As the 1890s progressed Test tours lessened, instead of visiting eachother every two years, England and Australia reduced it to three years, but five-Test Series became the normal amount meaning that, while it took 19 years to play the first 50 Tests, the second 50 were racked up in just 12.

At The Olympics

Two things were to happen in the first decade of the 1900s that would bring attention back to international cricket. The first was in 1900 at the Paris Olympics. Though it was planned to have a cricket event in the 1896 inaugarul modern games in Athens, lack of sufficient entering teams made it impossible; yet four years later the sport was approved by the International Olympic Council despite only two nations playing. Originally Belgium and Holland were intended to play but they both dropped out meaning that Great Britain and France were the only contenders in this very odd case of affairs. The odd case of affairs was that the British side was in fact a touring Devon and Somerset county team, while the French side, the French Athletic Club Union, consisted mostly of members of the British embassy and the final oddity was that neither team realised the match was part of the Olympic games - the International Olympic Committee met in 1912 to compile a definitive list of all events taken part in up to that point. The game itself consisted of 12 players each side, due to a captain's agreement and lasted two days; with just half an hour to go Great Britain bowled the French team for 26 after declaring during their own second innings. Great Britain convincingly won the match, having more than doubled their opponents final score with a 158 run victory. In 1912 both teams were awarded Eiffel Tower statues as well as their silver and bronze medals¹⁰.