G. F. Vernon's cricket team in Ceylon and India in 1889–90

In the 1889–90 cricket season, an English team managed by George Vernon and captained by Lord Hawke toured Ceylon and India.^[1] It was a pioneering tour being the first visit by an English team to India and the second to Ceylon, following the stopover by Ivo Bligh's team to Australia in 1882–83. Vernon's team, known as G. F. Vernon's XI, was entirely composed of players with amateur status and, in the absence of professionals, none of its matches have been recognised as first-class.^{[notes 1]} In all, they played thirteen matches from 28 November 1889 to 1 March 1890, starting with two games in Ceylon before moving on to Calcutta where the Indian part of the tour began in late December.

Of the thirteen matches, Vernon's XI won ten (six by over an

In the 21 March 1889 issue of Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game, the news section includes a piece about "the probable visit of a party of English amateurs to India at the fall of this year".[5] Arrangements were reported to be "progressing most satisfactorily" with contacts in Calcutta saying the idea of the tour "seems to be universally popular throughout India". The team was expected to set sail end of October and spend Christmas in Calcutta. Lord Hawke and G. F. Vernon were the main organisers in England, and they had thus far extended invitations to J. G. Walker, Albert Leatham, J. H. J. Hornsby, H. E. Rhodes, Edward Beaumont-Nesbitt, F. L. Shand and H. W. Forster.^[5]

In the 11 July issue, the news editor confirmed that the party would sail on the

The arrangements seemed to be progressing well until the sudden death on 10 September of H. E. Rhodes, who accidentally fell from a hotel balcony in

Also missing from the Bengal was Hawke who had left a week earlier and gone to Bombay as he wanted to do some big-game hunting.[7]^[9] This venture backfired somewhat because, while he was staying in Gwalior, he was struck down with a serious attack of gastritis. That not only stopped him from killing animals but also from meeting his teammates in Calcutta, as he had planned.^[10] It was not until February, when nine of the thirteen matches had been played, that Hawke was able to rejoin the team.^[10]

Cricket reported on 28 November that the Bengal had docked in Colombo two days earlier on schedule. The 27 December issue carried the first match report from the tour of the match in Kandy against "All Ceylon".^[11]

Itinerary and results

The tour began in

The precise names and locations of some venues cannot now be established and many of the team names were arbitrarily derived from their locations. With the single exception of the Parsis, all the home teams were composed of European colonials who were mostly British expatriates.^[13]

The matches were scheduled for either two or three days' duration. The two-day matches are noted as such in the table below; the rest were all scheduled for three days. There was no Sunday play and all the matches were arranged so that they would be completed on consecutive days with no Sunday break.

Tour summary

Playing standards

Analysing the quality of Vernon's team, James Coldham in his biography of Hawke said they were a "useful" combination in that they had plenty of batting and most types of bowling. They had, too, a very good wicket-keeper because Philipson later played for England. Coldham saw them as what he called a mix of regular county players, Oxbridge types and "first-rate club players" who would have been a good Minor Counties team. They were by no means first-class but, of their time, a real handful for any Ceylonese or Indian opposition.^[10] Ramachandra Guha concurs with this view, saying that Vernon's XI "could not be judged a first-class side (although) they played cricket of a quality not generally seen in India".^[27]

The general weakness of the Indian and Ceylonese opposition is evident in the number of wide winning margins achieved by Vernon's XI, six of the ten wins by an innings and plenty. Twelve of their thirteen hosts had teams which comprised the typical combination of British expatriates who were mostly civil servants or soldiers. The expatriate XIs were no better than English local club teams and so, for the most part, they were easily beaten by Vernon's XI.^[28]

The tourists arrived in

The only match in which Vernon's team faced an ethnic team with no Europeans was the low-scoring one at the end of January against the

It was a two-day match, 30 and 31 January. At the end of the first day, the Parsis were 80/9 in response to the tourists' 97 all out, which included 45 by Vernon. The Parsis added two more runs in the morning and Vernon's XI began their second innings with a lead of 15. The best Parsi player was their all-rounder M. E. Pavri who was a fast bowler. He had been successful in England on the 1888 tour. He now dismissed Vernon's XI for only 61, taking 7/34. The Parsis needed 77 to claim a significant victory over their English opponents and, despite Hornsby's efforts, they accomplished it with four wickets to spare.^[29] Pavri took 9/37 in the match and also top-scored with 21 in the Parsi second innings. He played for Middlesex a few years later and was known as the "Grace of the Parsis" because, like W. G. Grace, he was both an all-rounder and a doctor.^[30]

There is no doubt that it was a significant victory because it sparked celebrations throughout Bombay and was acclaimed as "the greatest sporting contest in the city's history".^[31] Many saw it as "a blow to the prestige of Empire"^[32] and the pro-Raj Bombay Gazette resorted to making speculative excuses such as: "Had Mr Vernon not been run out".^[31] There was little if any actual trouble and efforts were made to jointly celebrate the occasion but, as Guha commented, "it revealed the communal competitiveness that would drive the progress of cricket in colonial India".^[33] The Bombay Gazette called for a resurgence of European cricket while the Parsi newspaper Rast Goftar asked their players to bear in mind that Hindu and Muslim cricketers would be seeking to emulate their success, so they must themselves be ready to face challenges.^[34]

Four weeks later, when Cricket published the match report and scorecard, the magazine paid a glowing tribute to the Parsis saying their victory "cannot fail to give a fresh impetus to the practice of the game among the followers of that great community".

When Vernon's XI arrived in

In Meerut, the tourists again encountered Troup, this time playing for a team called Northern India. Vernon had recovered and his team totalled 304 in the first innings with seven batsmen making scores of between 23 and 54. Hoping for another convincing victory, Vernon's XI were frustrated by Troup (42) and John Waterfield (98), who forged a stubborn and time-consuming fourth wicket partnership. Although Northern India had to follow-on, there was not enough time left for the tourists to dismiss them again, and the match was drawn.^[28]

Soon afterwards, de Little broke a collarbone in a riding accident. The team had only eight fit players when they arrived in Lahore for the final match against a Punjab team; Vernon himself was again among the absentees. They recruited John Waterfield for this match along with Army officers Herman Bonham-Carter and Hugh Bateman-Champain. Vernon's XI won by an innings, the match and the tour ending on 1 March 1890.^[37]

The team's highest runscorers on the tour were Walker (515) and Vernon himself (478). Vernon's 128 in the opening match against Ceylon was the highest individual score; three other centuries were scored by Lawson-Smith (117), Walker (108) and Gibson (100). The leading bowlers by wickets taken were Hornsby (69), Gibson (67) and de Little (49).^[38]

Aftermath

The tour was a success and it made a significant contribution to the growth and development of cricket in the sub-continent. On 27 March 1890, Cricket magazine reproduced an article in India's