Canada v United States at Bloomingdale Park — The First International Cricket Match, September 1844

Cricket was well established in both Canada and the United States by the 1840s. The Toronto Cricket Club had been founded in 1827; St George's Cricket Club of New York dated from 1838. Earlier informal Canada-USA matches had been played from the 1830s, but the 1844 fixture was the first to be formally arranged between representative national sides.

The fixture grew out of an 1843 dispute over an earlier informal match in which the United States had alleged that Canada had fielded an English professional. The 1844 contest was set up to be unambiguously between native players, with each side selecting from clubs in their own country.

The fixture had been agreed earlier in the summer through correspondence between the Toronto Cricket Club and the St George's Cricket Club of New York. Each side fielded eleven players. Canada batted first and made 82, with the New York-born George Wheatcroft bowling well for the United States; the United States replied with 64. Canada's second innings yielded 63, and the United States, set 82 to win, were dismissed for 58. The Canadian bowler David Winckworth took a haul of wickets across the two innings and was the player most commonly identified as the match-winner. The crowd, estimated at between 5,000 and 8,000 across the two days, included gamblers from both cities; contemporary newspapers reported that the wagering on the match exceeded $100,000 in side bets, an extraordinary sum for the period. The match was played on the St George's Cricket Club's ground at the corner of 30th Street and 1st Avenue (then on the outskirts of New York), an area developed for sport in the 1830s and 1840s.

“The match between the United States and the British Provinces of North America was decided yesterday in favour of the latter by 23 runs.”

An annual Canada v United States series began in 1845 and continued, with interruptions, into the twentieth century. It is the longest-running international cricket fixture and predates every Test match. The first official Test (England v Australia) followed in March 1877.