An English team raised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) toured New Zealand from December 1935 to March 1936 and played eight first-class matches including four against the New Zealand national cricket team. MCC also played the main provincial teams, Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago, and ten non-first-class matches against teams from minor cricket associations.
The MCC team was captained by Errol Holmes. The overall tour included a short stopover in Ceylon, where a single minor match was played, and six first-class matches in Australia between October and December 1935.
The team
In order to limit the expense of the tour, MCC chose only six professionals (Barber, Hardstaff, Langridge, Parks, Sims and Smith), and there was no manager. The team was the youngest-ever English touring team, with an average age of 26. Holmes judged his team to be "just about representative of England's second XI at the time".
Lyttelton, later known as Viscount Cobham, returned to New Zealand as Governor-General between 1957 and 1962.