⭐Moderate
Major Warton's Tour — How the First English Side Got to South Africa, 1888-89
R.G. Warton's XI (England) v South African sides
1888-12-01
The first English cricket tour of South Africa was organised not by MCC or any official body but by a retired British army officer, Major Robert Gardner Warton, working with two Cape Town agents (Billy Simkins and William Milton) and underwritten by the shipping magnate Sir Donald Currie. Warton went to England in 1888 to recruit professionals; the resulting team — captained by the amateur C. Aubrey Smith — sailed in November and played the matches that were later, in 1903, given retrospective Test status as South Africa's first Tests.
#major-warton#south-africa#1888-89