K. A. Auty Cup

The K.A. Auty Cup Trophy is an international cricket series played between Canada and the United States, founded in 1963.^[1] It is a revival of a series that took place between 1844 and 1912, which was cricket's earliest international series.^[2][3]

K.A. Auty Cup Trophy

Countries	Canada  United States
Administrator	Cricket Canada USA Cricket
First edition	1963[1]
Latest edition	2017
Current trophy holder	United States

The Auty Cup has been played intermittently since 1963.^[3] It is hosted alternately by Cricket Canada and USA Cricket, previously the USACA.^[4][5] No matches were held between 1995 and 2011,^[3] and the series was last held in 2017.^[6]

The Auty Cup trophy is named after the engineer, writer and cricketer Karl Andre Auty, who was born in Dewsbury, England in 1881 and died in Chicago, Illinois in 1959,^[7][8] "who for many years had been a driving force in American cricket, mainly around the Chicago area".^[1]

Traditionally held as a single two-day match,^[9][10][11] the series between 2012 and 2017 included 50-over and Twenty20 matches.^[12][13]

Background

A Canadian cricket team visited Manhattan to play a tour match in 1844; the Anglo American explicitly reports the match as being St George's Cricket Club against "eleven players of all Canada",^[14] although it was billed as "United States of America versus the British Empire's Canadian Province".^[15] The match was arranged after the St George's team had arrived unexpectedly at the Toronto Cricket Club in 1840 because of a hoax invitation.^[16]

After the 1844 match, which the Canadians won by 23 runs,^[14] an American team traveled to play a return match in 1845 at McGill University in Montreal.^[2] The series was played regularly from 1853 but ended in 1912.^[17]

Cricket Canada has incorrectly claimed that the 1844 match was the first international sporting fixture,^[18] when many older international events existed in other sports.^[19][20][21]

History

In 1961, "the President of the USACA, John I. Marder was entertained by the CCA President Lewis J.H. Gunn." This meeting "agreed to revive the International Series and as a result the famous contest reappeared in the summer of 1963."^[1] The K.A. Auty trophy was presented by the USACA in 1963 to honour the memory of Karl Andre Auty.^[1][8]

The series ceased after the 1995 match,^[10] was revived in 2011,^[11] but was not played in 2014 or 2015.^[5]

The 2016 Auty Cup was won by Canada (retaining the Cup),^[22] in a series of three 50-over matches held on October 13, 14, and 16, in Los Angeles just before the 2016 ICC World Cricket League Division Four tournament. In 2017 the USA won, in a series of three 50-over matches played on September 12–14 in Toronto.^[5] There was no competition in 2018, as the two organizations were not able to finalize terms for the series.^[6] The series was scheduled to resume in July 2021, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[23]