THE OLDEST INTERNATIONAL CONTEST It is one of the curiosities that the oldest international rivalry is not, as many asume, England against Australia. That started in 1877, some 33 years after a side representing USA met a team from Canada, billed as United States of America versus the British Empires Canadian Province . The match took place between 24 and 26 September 1844 at the St. Georges cricket club, Bloomingdale Park in New York. It is believed that it is the worlds oldest international sporting rivalry, pre-dating the American cup by 7 years. There are some who dispute the validity of the claim that the game was an international. It was advertised locally as a meeting between USA and Canada even though the players were, in the main, drawn from two clubs.While the first contemporary reference to the sides being from USA and Canada did not come until 1853, it is generally acknowledged to have been an international. The game was scheduled for two days and the score after the first day saw Canada with 82, beating USAs 64 runs. On the second day, bad weather prevented play, so the game was extended to a third day when Canada scored 63 runs and the USA 58. So finally Canada won by 23 runs. The game was watched by between 10,000 and 20,000 spectators and around $120,000 worth of bets were placed. It was scheduled to start at 10 a.m. but the teams were in no hurry and eventually got underway at 11:40 a.m. The US player Wheatcroft arrived too late on the third day and was replaced by Alfred Marsh. Cricket was by far the biggest sport [ in USA ] in this period, Tim Lockley, an expert in American history said, Then the civil war started in 1861, just when it was reaching its peak of popularity. The sport became a victim of war. The USA-Canada contest continued intermittently. They last met in 2004 in the ICC international cup in Florida, the only occasion that the two have faced off in a first class match. (Compiled from wiki, espn cricinfo, Martin Williamson) A drawing of the match below. Tag : Amitava Das Sir
Posted on: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 19:45:52 +0000
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