West Indian cricket team in England in 1900

Infobox cricket series
series=West Indian cricket team in England in 1900
partof=1900 English cricket season
date=11 June, 1900 – 11 August 1900
place=United Kingdom
result=No representative matches played
team1=cr|West Indies
captain1=RSA Warner
SW Sproston (reserve)
runs1= CA Ollivierre (883)
PI Cox (755)
LS Constantine (610)
wickets1= WT Burton (78)
J Woods (72)
WH Mignon (30)

The West Indian cricket team toured England in the 1900 season. The team played 17 matches between 11 June and 11 August 1900.

There had been three tours by teams of English Amateurs to the West Indies in the mid 1890s and the idea of sending a combined West Indies team to England had gradually developed. Unfortunately a few of the leading West Indies players were unavailable and the team that eventually sailed for England was a little weaker than had been anticipated. Despite the fact that it was known that earlier English touring sides had been of very modest standard, the opponents that were arranged for the 1900 tourists were in general of too high a standard, with 12 of the 17 being of first-class standard. The result was that the West Indians suffered a series of heavy defeats in the early games, a situation not helped by them losing the toss of most occasions. Eventually, because of a combination of the tourists improving and the opponents fielding much weaker sides, the games became much more competitive and by the end of the tour 5 matches had been won compared to 8 losses. The post-tour comments were that the tour had been, "as an experiment", successful. In reality the early defeats had meant that the general interest in the tour was very limited.

Aucher Warner, who was Plum Warner's brother was the official captain of the team but he played in only 7 matches because of Malarial Fever, losing the toss on all 7 occasions. The two black Professionals, Float Woods and Tommie Burton, did the lion's share of the bowling. The batting honours were shared with Charles Ollivierre, Lebrun Constantine, Percy Cox and Percy Goodman being the most successful. The lack of a genuine wicket-keeper, the poor running between the wickets and the weakness of the fielding were widely commented on.

Touring team

There had been an idea for a tour to England for some time and following the twin tours of Lord Hawke and Priestley to the West Indies in 1896-97 this idea was further developed and in June 1899 a combined West Indian eleven was invited to visit England. Lord Hawke was the author of this invitation and he then arranged a series of matches for the summer of 1900. The initial selection of the West Indies team took place after the 1899-1900 Inter-Colonial Tournament in January 1900.

The 15 players that eventually made up the team consisted of:

Woods bowled 5 no balls and 1 wide. Burton 1 no ball, Cox 1 no ball and 1 wide, Mignon 7 wides, Constantine 1 wide.

References

External sources

* [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Seasons/ENG/1900_ENG_West_Indies_in_England_1900.html CricketArchive]
* [http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/293274.html Cricinfo - The first West Indians] (from The Cricketer June 1988)

Annual reviews

* Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 1901 (pages xciv to xcvii and 426 to 444)

Further reading

* "Cricket" magazine – "A Weekly Record of the Game", 1900
* L S Smith, "West Indies Cricket History and Cricket Tours of England 1900, 1906 and 1923", 1923
* Peter Wynne-Thomas, "The Complete History of Cricket Tours at Home & Abroad", 1989