I read the other day that the first international sporting tour to New Zealand was the All England cricket tour in 1864.
This seems incredible to me. The trip here would have taken anywhere from 75 to 120 days back then. The trip was combined with a tour in Australia, but even so. Can you imagine as a young man spending a year of your life away from home just to play sport?
The relatives of one of the English players were worried that he was going to be eaten by aborigines, but the real perils lay on that two-month ocean passage. He “was a wretched sailor, and arrived in Melbourne a near skeleton.”
They played 14 matches in Australia between January and April, and five matches in New Zealand’s South Island in February. They won all their games in New Zealand, which were against provincial sides. There were a few irregularities in the games, such as New Zealand having 22 players in their team in order to make it a more competitive match, but it sounds like it was a very popular tour. As a NZ representative said at the official welcome:
”As humble imitators at these distant antipodes of your famous deeds in England we gladly hail the opportunity of witnessing the excellence to which your prowess has brought the manliest of English pastimes.”