Shanghai cricket team

The Shanghai cricket team was a cricket team that played various international matches between 1866 and 1948. With cricket in the rest of China almost non-existent, for that period they were the de facto Chinese national side.Encyclopedia of World Cricket by Roy Morgan, SportsBooks publishing, 2007]

History

The Shanghai Cricket Club was formed in 1851, though the first recorded match did not take place until April 1858. The Shanghai team travelled to Hong Kong in 1866 to play against the Hong Kong cricket team, the first match in a series that lasted until 1948. In 1893, occasional matches against Kobe, Yokohama and Hangzhou began.

Home matches were played on the present day People's Park. In addition to the matches mentioned in the previous paragraph, regular matches were also played against the Straits Settlements and Malaya.

Following the last match against Hong Kong in 1948, political unrest meant that the cricket playing community dwindled, and cricket disappeared for around thirty years. Recently China has become a member of the International Cricket Council and the government is investing in the sport. Shanghai is today host to the Shanghai Sixes, a Sixes tournament involving teams from around the world.

Players

The following players played for Shanghai and also played first-class cricket:

*Howard Parkes - played for Warwickshire in 1898 and for London County in 1900. [ [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31879/31879.html Howard Parkes] at CricketArchive]
*Edward Barrett - played for Hampshire between 1896 and 1925 [ [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/6/6468/6468.html Edward Barrett] at CricketArchive]
*John Mayhew - played for Oxford University between 1929 and 1931 [ [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31345/31345.html John Mayhew] at CricketArchive]
*Robert Melsome - played for Gloucestershire between 1925 and 1934 [ [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/31/31417/31417.html Robert Melsome] at CricketArchive]
*Livingstone Walker - played for London County and Surrey between 1900 and 1904 [ [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/33/33570/33570.html Livingstone Walker] at CricketArchive]
*Leslie Crockwell - played for the Europeans in India in 1920 [ [http://www.cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Players/13/13241/13241.html Leslie Crockwell] at CricketArchive]

ee also

*China national cricket team

References