Through the 1880s, three Nottinghamshire and Sussex professionals — Alfred Shaw, Arthur Shrewsbury and James Lillywhite — organised three private English tours of Australia (1881-82, 1884-85, 1886-87) outside MCC channels. They paid their own players, kept the gate receipts, and demonstrated that professionals could run international cricket as a business. Their model prefigured Packer's World Series Cricket nearly a century later.
The 1881 Notts strike forced Shaw and Shrewsbury out of county cricket for the late part of that season. The free time produced the first tour.
After the Notts strike of 1881 was settled, Shaw and Shrewsbury — barred from county cricket for part of the season — used the time to organise their own tour to Australia, sailing in October 1881. James Lillywhite, the Sussex professional and former English captain, joined as the third partner. They took an XI of professionals, paid match fees on a defined scale, and kept the rest of the gate.
The 1881-82 tour included four matches that have since been retrospectively granted Test status. Australia won 2-0 (with two draws). The trio cleared a substantial profit.
They returned in 1884-85 — the tour disrupted by the Australian player strike — and again in 1886-87. The 1886-87 tour was a five-Test affair (effectively the Ashes) that England won 2-0. Their model — selling tickets, paying players, organising travel — was a cricket precursor of every subsequent commercial sports tour.
The trio's success came at a price. They were viewed with suspicion by MCC and by the various colonial associations, who preferred the more familiar pattern of patron-financed amateur tours. The Lord Sheffield tour of 1891-92 — financed by an aristocrat with WG Grace as captain — was a deliberate counter-model, and Shaw-Shrewsbury-Lillywhite never organised another tour after 1888.
Oct 1881: Shaw/Shrewsbury/Lillywhite XI sails for Australia.
1881-82: Four Tests; Australia win 2-0 with two draws.
1884-85: Second tour; disrupted by Australian player strike.
1886-87: Third tour; England win Ashes 2-0.
1888: No tour; partnership effectively ends.
1891-92: Lord Sheffield organises rival amateur-led tour.
1881
Notts strike; Shaw and Shrewsbury barred from late county season.
Oct 1881
First Shaw/Shrewsbury/Lillywhite tour sails.
1884-85
Second tour, disrupted by Australian strike.
1886-87
Third tour, England win Ashes 2-0.
1903
Shrewsbury commits suicide aged 47.
1907
Shaw dies.
1929
Lillywhite dies, last survivor of inaugural 1877 Test.
“We professionals can run a tour as well as any amateur committee.”
Shrewsbury continued playing for Notts and England until 1893. He suffered from depression and hypochondria in retirement and shot himself at his home in Gedling, Notts, in 1903. Shaw lived until 1907; Lillywhite until 1929 (he was the longest-lived survivor of the inaugural 1877 Test).
The commercial model the trio established was eclipsed by MCC-organised tours from the 1900s onwards but resurfaced in modern form when Kerry Packer set up World Series Cricket in 1977.
The first commercially organised cricket tours by professionals — Shaw, Shrewsbury and Lillywhite ran 1880s Test cricket as a business and prefigured the Packer revolution by 95 years.
The Shaw-Shrewsbury-Lillywhite partnership demonstrated that professional cricketers could run international cricket as a business. The model anticipated Packer, the IPL and every modern player-led franchise system. Their three tours produced 12 retrospectively recognised Tests.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.