History News Archive

South American Championships: Argentina gambles and wins at successful tournament

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• 4th South American Cricket Championship 2000 (12 December 2000)
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Argentina profile

History
There is evidence of cricket having been played in Argentina as early as 1806. In the early nineteenth century Englishmen poured into the newly-recognised republic and by 1823 there were some two to three thousand British subjects in Buenos Aires. With them came cricket and the first local reference to the game is to be found in the issue of October 22 of the British Packey - an English language newspaper founded in 1826 -which reported that the Buenos Aires Cricket Club had been formed by about 25 members who `have lately played some excellent games at that manly exercise ... and who might not be ashamed to take up a bat, even by the side of the men of Kent'.

The Buenos Aires Cricket Club ground at Palermo Park was the chief focus of cricket, as of other sports. It was inaugurated in 1864 with a cricket match against a team from HMS Bombay, the home team winning by 9 wickets. Six days later the ill-fated Bombay caught fire off the coast of Uruguay and sank with great loss of life. Ironically, the cricket dub suffered a somewhat similar fate; in 1948, Evita Peron had the clubhouse burnt down in a fit of rage at the Englishmen's obstinate refusal to give up the ground in favour of some wild welfare scheme of hers.

The gradual influx of British capital with its staff spread out all over the country following the railway lines, and packing houses soon followed suit, concentrating mostly to the south of the city of Buenos Aires. One important concentration was to be found around the city of Tucuman, 750 miles northwest where cricket friendlies were played against Cordoba and Jujuy. In 1891 those cricket centres got together and challenged Buenos Aires and its suburbs to an annual encounter; the match was played on the BACC ground and North won the first match. Thus began the most important cricket fixture in the local cricket calendar, which still survives.

As Argentines gradually took over the specialized jobs of Englishmen, the latter moved south and the headquarters of the North committee moved to Rosario, some 200 miles northwest of Buenos Aires. The South committee had always resided in Buenos Aires. As the migration of cricketers flowed south, the dividing line between these two teams was moved right into Buenos Aires until today it has become a trial of strength between the local clubs, with Belgrano and Lomas forming South and Hurlingham, St Andrew's and BACRC (who since losing their club in 1948 moved out to Don Torcuato in the northwest and included rugby in their name) forming North. The game is played over three days at the end of the season on one of the three grounds, Hurlingham, Lomas or Belgrano.

The Argentine Cricket Association was formed in 1913 but it was only 20 years later that it took complete control of all organised cricket in the country. The period between 1900 and 1939 is regarded as the golden age of cricket in Argentina in terms of quality and international profile, with tours by high-quality sides, including two visits by the MCC. After the war cricket continued but went into a slow decline, reaching its nadir in the early sixties. But a slow recovery, aided by success in the ICC Trophy, followed with the sport growing in popularity.

The highlight of the domestic season is the annual North v South match which is played over three days. Argentina first played international cricket against Uruguay in 1868 and up to WWII, 29 encounters took place, Argentina winning 21 and losing 6. Argentina's closest rivals remain Brazil - the series of matches between them dates back to 1888. Matches have also been played against Chile, the first in 1893, the team taking three and a half days to reach Santiago, crossing the Andes by mule.

Tours in which first-class matches (as defined by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians) were played by the following teams:

1911-1912 MCC (three first-class matches) - MCC were captained by Lord Hawke
1926-1927 MCC (four first-class matches)
1929-1930 Sir Julien Cahn's XI (three first-class matches)
1937-1938 Sir Theodore Brinkman's XI (three first-class matches)