In the 1889–90 cricket season, an English team managed by George Vernon and captained by Lord Hawke toured Ceylon and India. It was a pioneering tour being the first visit by an English team to India and the second to Ceylon, following the stopover by Ivo Bligh's team to Australia in 1882–83. Vernon's team, known as G. F. Vernon's XI, was entirely composed of players with amateur status and, in the absence of professionals, none of its matches have been recognised as first-class. 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.
Of the thirteen matches, Vernon's XI won ten (six by over an innings) and drew two. They were defeated only once, by the Parsis in a match which had great significance for the native communities living under the rule of the British Raj. 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. The tour was a success and it made a significant contribution to the growth and development of cricket in the sub-continent.
Preparations
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". Arrangements were reported to be "progressing most satisfactorily" with contacts in Calcutta saying the idea of the tour "seems to be universally popular throughout India". The team was expected to set sail end of October and spend Christmas in Calcutta. 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. Forster.
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. The planned schedule was to play two matches in Ceylon during the stopover at Colombo. 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. No definite match arrangements could yet be confirmed, however, and they did not expect to finalise a fixture list until they arrived in India. They intended to terminate the tour around the end of February. Hawke and Vernon continued to organise things from England. They had received acceptances from Walker, Leatham, Hornsby, Rhodes and Shand, who were all mentioned in March; additional acceptances had been received from Hylton Philipson and E. M. Lawson-Smith. Beaumont-Nesbitt had apparently declined; Forster was said to have accepted but nevertheless did not make the trip. The organisers had also invited Francis Lacey, but his availability was uncertain and, eventually, he did not join the team.
The arrangements seemed to be progressing well until the sudden death on 10 September of H. E. Rhodes, who accidentally fell from a hotel balcony in Dover. Cricket magazine paid tribute to him on 31 October, the same day the team was due to depart. 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. Two more, Ernest de Little and F. L. Shand would meet them in Colombo. Rhodes' replacement was A. N. Curzon who would join the team in January. Reserve wicket-keeper Tapling, who was both an eminent philatelist and the MP for Harborough, sailed on the Bengal as far as Naples where a close friend was taken ill. Tapling opted to stay with him, thereby missing the Ceylonese leg of the tour. He arrived in India just before Christmas 1889 and played in six matches between then and the end of February.
Also missing from the Bengal was Hawke who had left a week earlier and gone to Bombay as he wanted to do some big-game hunting. This venture backfired somewhat because, while he was staying in Gwalior, he was struck down with a serious attack of gastritis. That not only stopped him from killing animals but also from meeting his teammates in Calcutta, as he had planned. It was not until February, when nine of the thirteen matches had been played, that Hawke was able to rejoin the team.