United All-England Eleven

The United All-England Eleven was an English cricket team formed in 1852 by players breaking away from William Clarke's All England XI. Key United All-England Eleven players included John Wisden and Jemmy Dean, who became joint Secretaries of the team.

The team was part of a movement in cricket that used Clarke's idea of professional teams touring the country on the newly created railways. Railways meant that for the first time in history, cricket teams found touring a realistic possibility. Together with Clarke's team, the United All-England Players monopolized the best cricket talent until the rise of county cricket [Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports by Tony Collins. Routledge, 2005. ISBN 041535224X] .

The idea soon caught on and between 1850 and 1880. 19 such teams were formed including the United South of England XI and the United Midlands XI. Although games were held irregularly, these teams introduced a professional element to the game by charging game organisers for their services who recouped costs through a paying audience [Encyclopedia of Traditional British Rural Sports by Tony Collins. Routledge, 2005. ISBN 041535224X] .

By 1859, the "New York Times" could say that the first English team to tour overseas was composed of players from "the two leading professional elevens of England" [The International Cricket Match. New York Times, October 3, 1859] when a team composed of players from both the All-England and United All-England Elevens visited Canada and the USA that September.

References

Further reading

* H S Altham, "A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914)", George Allen & Unwin, 1926
* Derek Birley, "A Social History of English Cricket", Aurum, 1999
* Rowland Bowen, "Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development", Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
* Arthur Haygarth, "Scores & Biographies, Volumes 3-9 (1841-1866)", Lillywhite, 1862-1867
* John Major, "More Than A Game", HarperCollins, 2007 – includes the famous 1859 touring team photo taken on board ship at Liverpool