#private tour

2 incidents tagged

Shaw, Shrewsbury & Lillywhite — The 1880s Private Tour Trio

Private English XI v Australia

1881-09-15

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.

#alfred-shaw#arthur-shrewsbury#james-lillywhite

😂Mild

W.G. Grace's Honeymoon Tour of Australia — 1873-74

England (W.G. Grace's XI) in Australia

1873-10-01

Two weeks after marrying Agnes Day in October 1873, W.G. Grace took her on his honeymoon by sailing to Australia at the head of a private cricket tour. He was paid £1,500 — the equivalent of well over £100,000 today — for what was effectively a privately organised England side. The tour played 15 matches across Australia and laid the groundwork for the Test era that followed three years later.

#wg-grace#honeymoon-tour#1873