The West Indian Club was a gentlemen's club established in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1898 which provided a social space for members who shared an interest in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grena ...

and

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

. One of its aims was "To afford facilities for organising, in connection with the West Indies and British Guiana, annual cricket matches and other kindred amusements recognised by our English Universities and Public Schools". – to which end a Sports Committee was founded.

West Indian cricket team

The sports Committee was formed with

Lord Hawke Martin Bladen Hawke, 7th Baron Hawke (16 August 1860 – 10 October 1938), generally known as Lord Hawke, was an English amateur cricketer active from 1881 to 1911 who played for Yorkshire and England. He was born in Willingham by Stow, near Ga ...

as chairperson. In June 1899 he circulated a letter to the Cricket clubs in the West Indies proposing a team drawn from these clubs be formed. He envisaged it having 14 members who would sign up for three months. They could then play against

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

and the leading

county cricket club Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

s. He estimated this would cost about £2,500 including travel costs and the fees for the professional players. He suggested that the West Indian Club would be able to raise the money and requested that the clubs reply before November 1899 – when the MCC organised the schedule of matches for the following year, so that the plan could be brought to effect in 1900. Thus the first tour of a

West Indies cricket team The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a multi-national men's cricket team representing the mainly Commonwealth Caribbean, English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West I ...

was organised. In the end the team consisted of 15 players, ten white and five non-white.

References

{{reflist 1898 establishments 1890s in London Gentlemen's clubs in London History of the British West Indies Cricket in the West Indies