G. F. Vernon's cricket team in Ceylon and India in 1889–90

In the 1889–90 cricket season, an English team managed by George Vernon and captained by Lord Hawke toured Ceylon and India.

[notes 1] In all, they played thirteen matches from 28 November 1889 to 1 March 1890, starting with two games in Ceylon before moving on to Calcutta where the Indian part of the tour began in late December.

The matches were all played under the Laws of Cricket which prevailed in England at the time, including the compulsory follow-on and the recently introduced 5-ball over.

In the 21 March 1889 issue of Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game, the news section includes a piece about "the probable visit of a party of English amateurs to India at the fall of this year".

Lord Hawke and G. F. Vernon were the main organisers in England, and they had thus far extended invitations to J. G. Walker, Albert Leatham, J. H. J. Hornsby, H. E. Rhodes, Edward Beaumont-Nesbitt, F. L. Shand and H. W.

[5] In the 11 July issue, the news editor confirmed that the party would sail on the P&O steamer Bengal which was scheduled to leave London for Colombo, Madras and Calcutta on 31 October.

Madras would only be a short stopover so the intention was to begin the Indian matches in Calcutta, where it was hoped they would spend Christmas week.

[7] Most of the team met at Liverpool Street Station that day and travelled to Tilbury, to embark on the Bengal which had been lying off Gravesend.

Those heading for Tilbury were Vernon, Walker, Lawson-Smith, Hornsby, Philipson and three recent recruits: Arthur Gibson, George Hone-Goldney and Thomas Tapling.

Analysing the quality of Vernon's team, James Coldham in his biography of Hawke said they were a "useful" combination in that they had plenty of batting and most types of bowling.

[10] Ramachandra Guha concurs with this view, saying that Vernon's XI "could not be judged a first-class side (although) they played cricket of a quality not generally seen in India".

Twelve of their thirteen hosts had teams which comprised the typical combination of British expatriates who were mostly civil servants or soldiers.

The Parsis had a distinct community in Bombay and, having embraced British rule and culture, they were the real pioneers of Indian cricket and had sent two touring teams to Great Britain, in 1886 and 1888.

The Parsis needed 77 to claim a significant victory over their English opponents and, despite Hornsby's efforts, they accomplished it with four wickets to spare.

[30] There is no doubt that it was a significant victory because it sparked celebrations throughout Bombay and was acclaimed as "the greatest sporting contest in the city's history".

[31] Many saw it as "a blow to the prestige of Empire"[32] and the pro-Raj Bombay Gazette resorted to making speculative excuses such as: "Had Mr Vernon not been run out".

[31] There was little if any actual trouble and efforts were made to jointly celebrate the occasion but, as Guha commented, "it revealed the communal competitiveness that would drive the progress of cricket in colonial India".

[34] Four weeks later, when Cricket published the match report and scorecard, the magazine paid a glowing tribute to the Parsis saying their victory "cannot fail to give a fresh impetus to the practice of the game among the followers of that great community".

Hone-Goldney, Hornsby and Vernon himself had all succumbed to illness or injury and three local replacements – Hilliard, John and Maxwell – had to be drafted in.

Hoping for another convincing victory, Vernon's XI were frustrated by Troup (42) and John Waterfield (98), who forged a stubborn and time-consuming fourth wicket partnership.

On 27 March 1890, Cricket magazine reproduced an article in India's Pioneer Mail which praised Vernon's XI for "setting on foot an enterprise now sure to be repeated".

[39] It would not be long before it was repeated as another touring party arrived in 1892, this time led by Hawke and including F. S. Jackson, the future England captain, and Ledger Hill.

[40] Colynge Caple remarked that the tour had originated as "something in the nature of a pleasure trip" but in the end it forged "yet another link in the ever-growing chain of international cricket".

[43] Mihir Bose likened the popular acclaim of the Parsi team to that of a people who had lost their country long ago and suddenly rediscovered themselves on a cricket field.