The West Indies cricket team toured England in the 1900 season. The team played 17 matches between 11 June and 11 August 1900.

There had been three tours by teams of English Amateurs to the West Indies in the mid-1890s and the idea of sending a combined West Indies team to England had gradually developed. Several of the leading West Indies players were unavailable and the team that eventually sailed for England was a little weaker than had been anticipated. Despite the fact that it was known that earlier English touring sides had been of very modest standard, the opponents that were arranged for the 1900 tourists were in general of too high a standard, with 12 of the 17 being of first-class standard. The result was that the West Indians suffered a series of heavy defeats in the early games, a situation not helped by them losing the toss of most occasions. Eventually, because of a combination of the tourists improving and the opponents fielding much weaker sides, the games became much more competitive and by the end of the tour 5 matches had been won compared to 8 losses. The post-tour comments were that the tour had been, "as an experiment", successful. In reality the early defeats had meant that the general interest in the tour was very limited.

Aucher Warner, who was Plum Warner's brother was the official captain of the team but he played in only 7 matches because of Malarial Fever, losing the toss on all 7 occasions. The two black Professionals, Float Woods and Tommie Burton, did much of the bowling. The batting honours were shared with Charles Ollivierre, Lebrun Constantine, Percy Cox and Percy Goodman being the most successful. The lack of a genuine wicket-keeper, the poor running between the wickets and the weakness of the fielding were widely commented on.

Touring team

There had been an idea for a tour to England for some time and following the twin tours of Lord Hawke and Priestley to the West Indies in 1896–97. This idea was further developed and in June 1899 a combined West Indian eleven was invited to visit England. Lord Hawke was the chairperson of the Sports Committee of the West Indian Club and sent out an invitation in their name. The response was favourable, so he then arranged a series of matches for the summer of 1900. The initial selection of the West Indies team took place after the 1899–1900 Inter-Colonial Tournament in January 1900.

The 15 players that eventually made up the team consisted of:

Name R.S.A. Warner (c) Trinidad W. Bowring Barbados W.T. Burton British Guiana L.S. Constantine Trinidad P.I. Cox Barbados L.S. D'Ade Trinidad P.A. Goodman Barbados D.C.S. Hinds Barbados M.M. Kerr Jamaica G.V. Livingston Jamaica G.C. Learmond British Guiana W.H. Mignon Grenada C.A. Ollivierre St. Vincent S.W. Sproston British Guiana J. Woods Trinidad

Burton and Woods were regarded as Professionals. W. C. Nock of Trinidad was the manager. Sproston acted as captain in the absence of Aucher Warner. P.F. Warner played in 1 match. R.S.A. Warner and P.F. Warner were brothers. It appears that the wicket-keeping was shared between Constantine and Learmond.

Cricket gives what is presumably the original list of 14 selections and 4 reserves.Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game, 1900 page 44 The selections includes H.A. Cole (Barbados) and G.B.Y. Cox (Barbados). Of the reserves P.I. Cox and Livingston made the final team, the other reserves being W.E. Goodman (British Guiana) and F.L. Pearce (Jamaica). R.S.A. Warner is not mentioned.

Cricket has an anonymous letterCricket: A Weekly Record of the Game, 1900 page 130 giving further details following a meeting in Barbados on 17 April. A letter had been received from British Guiana indicating that Sproston was unable to accompany the team, although this eventually turned out not to be the case. A letter was received from Jamaica suggesting that Livingston should go in Cole's place, this being agreed to. Further a letter was received from Mr. Aucher Warner offering his services as captain in accordance with the West Indies Cricket Committee in London. This offer was accepted and Bowring the original captain was to tour as an ordinary member. The team given also excludes P.I. Cox who did eventually take part in the tour.

H.B.G. Austin was unable to tour as he was fighting in South Africa.

The majority of the team was white. Burton and Woods were, of course, black as were Constantine, Hinds and Ollivierre amongst the Amateurs.

Preliminaries

The Trinidad contingent sailed from Port of Spain on 24 May on R.M.S. Eden where they met the other tourists. On the day of their departure they were entertained at luncheon at the Ice House by the Barbados Committee. They left Barbados on R.M.S. Trent on 26 May and after a record journey arrived in Southampton on 6 June.

The tourists had a few days practice on the Hampshire ground and then travelled up to London to start their first match on 11 June.

Matches

Status

The M.C.C. ruled that none of the matches were first-class. "It was perhaps, a pity that it was deemed advisable not to consider the West Indian matches as first-class, but it is difficult to see how this could be avoided; for on the form shown during the early part of the tour, the team would have been hopelessly out of the running, while, when the turn of the tide came, it was far too late to make any changes".Cricket: A Weekly Record of the Game, 1900 page 347

Of the 17 matches, 10 were against teams in the County Championship and they also played London County and the M.C.C. who were also first-class teams at that time. The remaining 5 matches were against minor teams, three were Minor Counties and while one match was against a combined Minor Counties team this was not at all representative. Liverpool and District were not regarded as first-class at this time.

Match 1 v London County

WG Grace had collected together a strong side to meet the West Indians in their first match. The tourists made a bad start when Aucher Warner lost the toss and WG and James Gilman added 135 for the first wicket. Tommie Burton then dismissed both openers and with Float Woods bowling Len Braund cheaply the West Indians were in a better position. Jack Mason however then scored 126 in 125 minutes and with useful scoring by Albert Lawton they reached 432/8 at the close.

A thunderstorm made the pitch easy for a while and Howard Parkes and Edward Berridge took the score to 538. The tourists were quickly 29/4 in reply with Charles Ollivierre being run out before Percy Goodman and Percy Cox added 113 together. Mason then took cheap wickets and left the side 176/8 at the close.

On the third day, Warner and Woods added 59 for the last wicket to take the total to 237. Following-on, they were dismissed for just 103 with Grace and Mason taking five wickets each. Ollivierre and Warner top scored with 20 each.

Match 2 v Worcestershire

Bowring, Hinds and Kerr replaced D'Ade, Mignon and Warner. Sproston lost the toss and Worcestershire, who had 9 professionals in the team, batted and scored 307 in about 4 hours with Harry Foster top scoring with 79. Float Woods took 5/77 but otherwise the bowling was ineffective. The tourists made a poor start in reply and were 85/6 at the end of the first day with Frederick Pearson taking 4 cheap wickets. Pearson was only 19 and still qualifying for Worcestershire and so was only available for non-Championship matches in 1900.

Rain had affected the pitch overnight and despite a useful stand of 74 between Stanley Sproston and Percy Cox the West Indians were dismissed for 187 with Pearson taking 6/73. Worcestershire then made 257 with Pearson top scoring with 88 not out and Charles Ollivierre taking 4/37. The visitors were 61/4 at the close.

Fitz Hinds and Sproston added useful runs on the third day but after they were out the match was over soon after lunch. Pearson, who took another 4 wickets to make his match figures 10/108 to go with 100 runs for once out, was the star of the match.

Match 3 v Warwickshire

Warner and Mignon returned to the side and Livingston made his debut. Burton was left out together with Constantine and Kerr. Warner lost the toss and by the end of the first day Warwickshire were 456/9 with Dick Lilley scoring 55 in an hour and John Hill scoring 145 in 200 minutes.

On the second day the Warwickshire team were soon dismissed for 456 which included 35 byes and 14 leg-byes. Tourists reached 233 with Charles Ollivierre and Percy Cox adding 109 useful runs for the second wicket. Cox top scored with 79. Both Percy Goodman and Gilbert Livingston were run out. Following-on they were dismissed cheaply for 122 on a showery third day.

Match 4 v Gentlemen of M.C.C.

The tourists left out Hinds, Kerr, Livingston and Mignon for their first match at Lord's. There was no play on the first day due to rain. Warner lost the toss and WG Grace and Andrew Stoddart opened the batting on the second day. The tourists had early success but an innings of 118 from Arthur Somerset and other useful performances by the tail gave the M.C.C. over 200 for the last 4 wickets and a good total.

The West Indies struggled in reply and were 190 all out, George Learmond making 52 and adding 75 in 30 minutes with Charles Ollivierre. WG took 5 wickets. Following-on they were again in trouble at 132/8 and heading for an innings defeat. However Lebrun Constantine scored a magnificent 113 in 90 minutes. Assisted by Tommie Burton they added 162 for the 9th wicket in 65 minutes. Burton eventually made 64* and left the M.C.C. a target of 107 in a little over 2 hours. Stoddart took 7 wickets, all clean bowled. The two Professionals bowled well to reduce the M.C.C. to 36/4 but they reached their target with 5 minutes to spare for the loss of only one further wicket.

Match 5 v Minor Counties

Hinds, Kerr and Mignon replaced D'Ade, Goodman and Warner. The Minor Counties side was not at all representative and had 7 Northamptonshire players joined by Creber and Lowe from Glamorgan, Williams from Berkshire and Elliott from Durham. Sproston won the toss for the first time and the tourists made 206 with Charles Ollivierre making 69 in 2 hours. George Thompson took 7/84.

In reply the Minor Counties made 261 with Tommie Burton taking 6/55. Batting again the West Indians were in trouble but with 68 from Fitz Hinds and 30s from Percy Cox and William Bowring they set a target of 116. The Minor Counties were then dismissed for just 54 with Float Woods (4/31), Burton (3/11) and William Mignon (2/5) doing all the bowling and giving the tourists their first victory.

Match 6 v Gloucestershire

Goodman and Warner replaced Cox and Kerr. Gloucestershire won the toss and batted. The tourists had a good start taking 3 quick wickets but Stanley Brown scored a useful 60 and was out at 90/4. Charlie Townsend then joined Harry Wrathall and the pair added 209 for the fifth wicket, Gloucestershire then being 299/5. Gilbert Jessop then joined Townsend. Jessop reach his 50 in 20 minutes, 83 in 30, 102 in 43 and was out for 157 scored in an hour. He added 201 with Townsend in the hour taking the total to 500/6. His innings contain 29 4s. At this time a 6 was awarded only for hits out of the ground, so an unknown number of these 4s could have been modern-day 6s. Jessop hit Float Woods for five fours and a three in one over. Gloucestershire reached 518/7 at the close. Woods had strained himself in the previous match and could not bowl comfortably. In addition Tommie Burton damaged his foot at lunchtime and didn't bowl for the rest of the day.