On 23 June 1928 the West Indies played their first ever Test match, against England at Lord's. Bowled out for 177 and 166, they lost by an innings and 58 — but the team led by Karl Nunes and including the young Learie Constantine had crossed the threshold from regional cricket into Test cricket.
West Indian cricket had been organised through the inter-island competitions for decades, and English tours had visited the Caribbean since 1894-95. The 1923 tour to England had impressed observers (Challenor making 1,556 runs at 51.86), and the granting of Test status in 1928 was the formal recognition of a generation of Caribbean talent.
The West Indies had been admitted to Test status in May 1928, joining Australia, England and South Africa as a full member of the Imperial Cricket Conference. Their first Test took place at Lord's three weeks later. The team, captained by Jamaican Karl Nunes, included the great Learie Constantine, the gifted batsman George Challenor, and the wicketkeeper Tommy Scott.
England, captained by Percy Chapman with Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Hammond, Hendren and Tate in the side, won the toss and made 401 — Hammond 45, Tate 50, Chapman 50. The West Indies, batting in their first Test innings, were dismissed for 177 (Constantine 13, Challenor 29; Tate 4 for 28). Following on, they were bowled out for 166 (Constantine 0, Challenor 46; Maurice Tate again the destroyer with 4 for 47). England won by an innings and 58 inside three days.
The series, played as three Tests, was lost 0-3 by the West Indies. But the symbolic act — a West Indian XI walking out at Lord's in white flannels in a Test match — was the foundation of what would become, by the 1980s, the dominant force in world cricket. Constantine, who scored only 89 runs in the series at 14.83, would in 1928 also accept his first Lancashire League contract with Nelson, beginning the migration of Caribbean professionals to the English leagues that would shape West Indian cricket for the next half-century.
May 1928: West Indies admitted to Test status
23 Jun 1928: First Test begins at Lord's; England win toss
England 401; Tate 50, Chapman 50
West Indies 177 in their first ever Test innings
Following on, 166 all out; England win by an innings and 58
May 1928
West Indies granted Test status
23 Jun 1928
First Test begins at Lord's
25 Jun 1928
England win by an innings and 58
Aug 1928
Series ends 0-3 to England
“We had not played in conditions like Lord's before. The crowd was kind to us; the bowlers were not.”
The series was lost 0-3 (Old Trafford and the Oval also went England's way by an innings). But the experience produced the next generation: George Headley made his Test debut in early 1930, and by the mid-1930s the West Indies had become a genuinely competitive Test side. They won their first Test in 1930 in Georgetown.
Lord's, June 1928 was the founding Test of West Indian cricket — a heavy defeat in playing terms but the formal arrival of a new Test nation that would, within fifty years, become the most feared in the world.
Lord's 1928 is the foundational Test of West Indian cricket. Constantine, only modestly successful with bat and ball in his first Test, signed for Nelson in the Lancashire League the same summer — the start of the West Indian league-professional tradition that would carry through Sobers, Lloyd, Richards, Lara and Brian Lara.
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.