sport overseas. He became one of cricket's most prolific tourists, undertaking nine tours as a player between 1887–88 and 1911–12. These took him to Australia (1887–88), India and Ceylon (1889–90), North America (1891), India and Ceylon (1892–93), North America (1894), South Africa (1895–96), West Indies (1896–97), South Africa (1898–99) and Argentina (1911–12). Australia: 1887–88 Two English teams toured Australia in the winter of 1887–88. Wisden commented that "it is certain that such a piece of folly will never be perpetrated again" but the cause was rivalry between clubs in Melbourne and Sydney, who both wanted to promote an English team; and Wisden recorded that the Melbourne venture returned a significant loss of revenue. The team backed by the Sydney-based group was composed mainly of professionals under the management of Arthur Shrewsbury and called A. Shrewsbury's XI although it was captained on the field by one of its amateur members, usually C. Aubrey Smith. The other team, organised by George Vernon on commission by the Melbourne Cricket Club, was called G. F. Vernon's XI and its captain at the outset was the Hon. Martin B. Hawke. Hawke played in three first-class matches against South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. He had only moderate success, playing five innings in which he totalled 76 runs at 15.20 with a highest score of 48, and he held one catch. On Tuesday 6 December, at Richmond, New South Wales, Hawke received the news that his father had died and that he was now the 7th Baron Hawke of Towton. He relinquished the captaincy of the team to Walter Read and set sail for home. India and Ceylon: 1889–90 and 1892–93 Hawke toured India and Ceylon in the winter of 1889–90 as captain of an all-amateur team organised by George Vernon. It was the first time an English team had toured India but it played no first-class matches. Having played two matches in Ceylon, the team played eleven in India, including visits to Calcutta, Allahabad, Bombay and the Punjab. In the winter of 1892–93, Hawke formed his own all-amateur team to tour Ceylon and India. It was a useful side that included future England Test players Stanley Jackson and Ledger Hill. They started with three matches in Ceylon in November 1892 that were not first-class. Moving to India, the team played twenty matches between November and March, including four that are recognised as first-class. One