The English Eleven Cricket Tour in Australia and New Zealand

The English Eleven, hand coloured full page lithograph from The Australasian Sketcher of 21st December 1878. Framed & glazed, overall 56 x 42 cm. An English cricket team captained by Lord Harris toured Australia and New Zealand in 1878?79 in a private tour organised by the Melbourne Cricket Club. The team's match against Australia in January 1879 was retrospectively given Test match status, making it the third Test ever and the third between Australia and England, though it was not part of The Ashes which began in 1882. Harris' tour party arrived in Australia just two months after the touring Australians had returned from England. They were scheduled to play five tour matches, two each against New South Wales and Victoria and one against the combined Australians. Whilst in Sydney, the notorious Sydney Riot of 1879 occurred as a result of the tourists match against New South Wales. The English team, which is sometimes referred to as Lord Harris' XI, also visited New Zealand where they played a single match in Christchurch.