ShreyasIyer

While two other English teams had toured Australia since the first led by HH Stephenson in the early 1860s, it was James Lillywhite�s tour of Australia in 1876/77 that has since been recognized as providing the start of Test cricket. As with all English teams that toured Australia prior to the M.C.C.�s involvement in 1903, Lillywhite�s side was organized privately and was not considered an official English representative side when it left. Lillywhite, a left hand slow-medium pace bowler and lower order batsman, had previously toured North America in 1868 and was a member of W.G. Grace�s 1873/74 side to Australia. He was a member of a well-respected family within English cricketing circles. Although he was the son of a bricklayer, John Lillywhite, his uncle Frederick and cousins James snr. and John Lillywhite also all played first class cricket in England professionally. The family�s Lillywhite Cricketers� Annual rivalled Wisden as the pre-eminent �bible� of the game for many years. By ...