John Ashby Lester (August 1, 1871 – September 3, 1969) was an American cricketer, active in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and a teacher.

From 1897 until his retirement in 1908, Lester led the batting averages in Philadelphia and captained all the international home matches.

[3] As a student at Haverford, Lester excelled as an athlete and a scholar and played football, track, tennis, and soccer.

Though the results might have been less satisfactory than hoped for by its promoters, the tour was arranged mainly for educational purposes and few of those on the American side expected to win many matches.

[4] Previous tours had tended to involve amateur English sides as opponents, with a low level of competition.

While it initially aroused some curiosity, many English fans lost interest until John Lester and the Philadelphians met the full Sussex team at Brighton on June 17.

Behind a dominant bowling performance by Bart King,[5][6] Lester helped to seal the victory with his batting.

[8] Lester was the best batsmen on the Philadelphian side; beginning with 72 not out in his first match, he kept up his form all through the tour,[4] scoring 891 runs for an average 37.12.

[11] John Lester helped to lift Philadelphia cricket to the highest levels of international play with his leadership and understanding of the sport.