CHAPTER IV
Australian Cricket
The first Australian eleven that visited England came over in 1878, and since that time there have been visits from elevens in 1880, 1882, 1884, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1893, 1896, and 1899—ten in twenty-one years. Previously to 1878 three English elevens had been to Australia, but the two first had invariably played against odds, and the colonial cricket had been of a very primitive nature. It is true that the third eleven, under the management of W. G. Grace, found the colonials vastly improved; still for all purposes of inquiry we may take 1878 as a starting-place. During the last twenty-one years, in fact, so many have been the visits exchanged between different elevens of England and Australia that international cricket has come to be a regular feature, and it is certain
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