Inventarnummer
M.2015.633
Titel
Major Warton's English Cricketing Team, 1888-1889
Datum
1888 - 1889
Hersteller
Material
Umfang
Beschreibung
Black and white, group portrait, mounted on card. Three rows of gentlemen dressed in cricket whites and some with heights including caps and boaters. Located in park-like setting with trees in background. First row sit on the grass with their knees up, the second and third rows are seated behind them on a two-tier wooden bench.
In 1888-89 the first official side to tour
South Africa was organised by Major R
Gardener Warton, an army officer who
had been stationed as part of the General
Staff in the Cape since 1883. At the farewell
luncheon, its captain Charles Aubrey Smith
commented on the balance of the team ‘a
combination of professionals and amateurs
in sympathetic touch…showing an example
to all sportsmen’ – and emphasised that
its strength was not intended ‘to crush the
germs of cricket’ developing in South Africa.
The publicity surrounding the tour was
continuous and considerable with every
inconsequential detail remarked upon and
written about in great detail. The side played
some terrifically entertaining cricket in
response to an enthusiastic welcome and
in Kimberley, the visitors were said to have
been entertained far into the night and gone
straight out to play without heading to bed.
Wisden reported that the tour did not cover
its expenses but its backers had ensured it
was underwritten by Cecil Rhodes.
For 2017 South Africa Exhibition
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