The scuttling of the Parsi cricketers’ tour to Australia in 1893 indirectly promoted international matches between England and Australia
Gulu Ezekiel
The first cricketers from India to travel abroad in 1886, the Parsis were in fact also slated to tour Australia in the 1890s. This was revealed to this writer by Brisbane-based cricket follower Saumil Kapadia who passed on contemporary reports from the Australian media during the visit of Parsi cricketer M. D. Kanga in July 1893.
According to a report in The Australian Star dated July 27, 1893, Kanga met Harry Boyle, the former Test cricketer in Melbourne and discussed with him the prospect of bringing a team of Parsis to tour Australia in 1893-94 as Lord Sheffield, a benefactor of......