3-077-809 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Parsee Representative Cricket Team at Bombay - the Champion Team in India, 1890. 'The great match between the Parsees and Mr. Vernon's English Eleven was played in the presence of about 15,000 people at Bombay...There was a very exciting finish, and the Parsees won the match by 4 wickets and 1 run...To quote the words of the Times of India: "It may fitly stand as the greatest achievement yet done by the Parsee cricketers, that they should beat a team which has beaten the picked Elevens of Bengal and Northern India." The Parsee captain, Mr. J. M. Framjee Patel, comes of one of the highest families in the laud, and is the best all-round sportsman the Parsees have...Next to him comes Dr. Pauri, who at present is undoubtedly the best all-round Parsee cricketer...He is a bowler of very high order. Mr. D. D. Kanga is the Parsee Blackham...Messrs. Mody, Gagrat. and Machlimalla are rising young cricketers: they are sure to be favourably received by the English public if they go to England, as the Parsees mean to send a representative team in 1891...Mr. Vernon's team has played almost all the best teams in India... The only match it has lost is the one with the Parsee team, which may deservedly be called the champion team of India'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.