1911 was a pivotal year in Indian cricket as it marked the first time that a truly representative India side toured abroad. This episode tells the story of that tour and of the remarkable man who was India’s best player of the tour, Palwankar Baloo. As an untouchable, Baloo’s struggle for recognition in the game had wide social implications at a ti…

Newly installed as Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, Ranjitsinhji had hoped to find his troubles behind him, but he was to find himself in the wars both figuratively and literally. This episode tells of his off-field financial woes in the years leading up to the 1st World War, his service in the war, how an act of bravery in Yorkshire was to result in traged…

Ranji was still capable of playing as well as ever in the years 1901 to 1904 but his form became erratic as outside influences caught up with him. He was dogged by money worries and was increasingly drawn in to intrigues about the Nawanagar succession. His England career ignobly petered out although he was still able to excite crowds with his displ…

The story behind the first West Indies tour to England in 1900. Cricket had been played in the Caribbean for many years and in the second half of the 19th century inter-colonial matches began to be played between the various British colonies. The 1890s saw three visits by English touring sides which triggered the creation of a representative XI for…

As the nineteenth century drew to a close Ranji enjoyed a successful domestic season in which he consolidated his position as Sussex captain and the leading batsman in county cricket. Times were changing, on the field and off it, and this episode takes a brief look at the experiences of players like Hampshire’s Charlie Llewellyn and Derbyshire’s Ch…

As one of the leading run scorers in English county cricket, Ranji’s selection to play for England against Australia came as no surprise, but some voices were opposed to his inclusion in the team. Ostensibly this was because he was born overseas, but when it emerged that many England players had been born in the colonies and many Australian players…

Ranjitsinhji was born in Sarodar, Gujarat in 1872 and might well have been destined for a life of obscurity as a local landowner had he not been adopted as the heir to the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar at the age of six. As the future ruler of an Indian princely state he was sent away for an English style public school education to Rajkumar College, a boa…

The team which arrived in England in May 1886 was not the Parsees’ best having been largely selected on the basis of who could afford to pay his own way rather than cricketing merit alone. Robert Henderson’s friend the Surrey secretary and former England centre-forward Charles Alcock had arranged a packed programme for them which kept them playing …

This episode tells the story of how India’s rise as a cricketing nation was linked to a dynastic union between the English and Portugues royal families and reveals how the Parsi community of Bombay began playing cricket in the 1830s. We take a look at the earliest Indian cricket clubs and their struggles to be taken seriously as cricketers by the B…

The Aborigine cricket team remained in England from mid-May to mid-October on a punishing schedule that saw them play 47 matches, most of them two day games followed by a further day of athletics which included displays of Aboriginal hunting and fighting skills. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

When they finally arrived in Melbourne for their Boxing Day fixture in 1866 the Aborigines were perhaps somewhat overwhelmed by the size of the crowd. Several of the players performed below expectations and they were fairly easily defeated. However, while they lost the game they had captured the imagination of the public and offers soon came in for…

In 1868 the first Australian cricket team to tour England was composed of Aborigines. This podcast tells how the team was formed in rural Western Victoria two years earlier and its earliest matches in Edenhope and Hamilton. The story is all the more remarkable because it took place against a background in which the indigenous people of Australia we…

Cricket began to be played abroad from quite early in its history. English residents in Syria were playing the game in 1676 and colonists had introduced it to America and India by the early 1700s. This episode looks at the early history of cricket abroad, its rise and fall in America and arrival in Australia. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy …

The true origins of cricket are lost in the mists of time but it probably began sometime in the Middle Ages, most likely in the hills of Kent, Sussex and Surrey. This episode looks at how an obscure rustic pastime was adopted by the aristocracy and transformed into the basis for fashionable social events involving enormous wagers. Hosted on Acast. …

This episode looks at the main themes we’ve touched on in the series and talks about how sport, which Lord Harris and others saw as a cornerstone of Empire, unwittingly became a Trojan Horse for its downfall. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Av Andy Carter

This episode has less cricket and more social history. It tells the story of Learie Constantine's post cricket career, his contribution to the British War effort and the establishment of an independent Trinidad & Tobago and his twilight years in the late 1960s. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.…

The first of two episodes on the life of Learie Constantine, once Britain's highest paid sportsman, and later the first black member of the House of Lords. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Av Andy Carter

After Ranjisinhji's unsuccessful return to cricket in 1920, it was the turn of a new generation of Indian cricketers to try their luck in English cricket. This episode tells the story of Duleepsinhji and the two Nawabs of Pataudi. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.Av Andy Carter