English cricket tour of Australia, 1903/04

The England team aboard the RMS Orontes while en route to Australia.
Back row (l-r): Albert Relf, Ted Arnold, Wilfred Rhodes, Tom Hayward.
Third row (l-r): Len Braund, Arthur Fielder, George Hirst, Bert Strudwick, Albert Knight, Dick Lilley.
Second row (l-r): Tip Foster, Pelham Warner, Bernard Bosanquet. Front: Johnny Tyldesley.

The England men's cricket team toured Australia in the 1903/04 season, playing 20 matches. Five were Test matches against Australia, and another nine were first-class fixtures against Sheffield Shield state teams.[1] While the team was called England in the Tests, it was called Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in all its other matches. This was the first tour to be organised by MCC, and the club continued to run all England international tours until 1976/77.[2]

England were captained by Pelham Warner. They won the Test series with three wins and two defeats, meaning they recovered "The Ashes", which Australia had held since 1897. In the nine first-class matches, MCC won six and drew three. They were also unbeaten in their six matches against non-first-class teams, winning one and drawing five.[3][4] Warner wrote an account of the tour which he called How We Recovered The Ashes. It was first published by Messrs Chapman & Hall in 1904.[5]

Selection

After MCC agreed to form a team for the tour, they invited Stanley Jackson to be captain. He declined, and MCC turned to Warner, who accepted. A selection committee was then appointed, its members being Warner, Lord Harris, W. H. Patterson, A. G. Steel, and A. J. Webbe.[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Marylebone Cricket Club in Australia, 1903/04". CricketArchive. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  2. ↑ "First-Class Matches played by Marylebone Cricket Club". CricketArchive. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  3. ↑ "Statistics of the Tour". Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game. XXIII (652): 38. 31 March 1904.
  4. ↑ Warner 2004, pp. 330–331.
  5. ↑ "How We Recovered The Ashes (1903/04)". Abe Books. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
  6. ↑ Warner 2004, pp. 2–4.

Bibliography


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