Canadian cricket tours of England

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Canadian cricket tours of England have taken place only sporadically and few matches of first-class status have been played.

The first two Canadian teams to visit England arrived in the 1880s. In the 1880 season they played 17 minor matches with a 5-6 win/loss record; while the 1887 team played 19 minor matches with a 5/5 record.

The next visit was after World War One in the 1922 season when the Canadians played 11 minor matches, won none and lost four. The 1936 team fared much better: they won 7 and lost only 1 with 7 drawn, all the games again being minor.

In the 1954 season, the Canadians played 15 matches in all but four of them were first-class. Overall, they won four and lost three but in the four first-class matches they could only manage two draws and two defeats.

In 1979, Canada visited England to take part in the ICC Trophy, the one-day limited overs (on this occasion 60 overs a side) competition for non-Test playing countries, held in late May and early June. Canada won three of their four group matches, played on club grounds in the west Midlands, beating Bangladesh, Fiji and Malaysia, but losing to Denmark. They finished second in their group and, as the second-placed team with the best record, qualified for the semi-finals. On June 6 at Burton upon Trent, they beat Bermuda by 6 wickets. In the final, at Worcester on June 21, they lost to Sri Lanka by 60 runs. However as finalists they had already qualified for the World Cup, held between the dates of the ICC Trophy semi-finals and final.

Canada were rather out of their depth in the World Cup, losing all three of their group matches: to Pakistan by 8 wickets at Headingley on June 9, to England by 8 wickets at Old Trafford on June 14, when they were bowled out for 45 (though lasting 40.3 overs), and to Australia at Edgbaston by 7 wickets. John Valentine, a left-arm medium-pace bowler, dismissed Majid Khan, Mike Brearley and Rick Darling, returning figures of 9-3-18-1, 7-2-20-1 and 3-0-28-1.

[edit] References

• Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians - various publications
• From the Weald to the World by Peter Wynne-Thomas
• The Hamlyn A-Z of Cricket Records by Peter Wynne-Thomas
• Wisden Cricketers Almanack (annual)