In the months of January and February of 1930, there was the rarest event in international cricket when a team had played two different Test matches in the different continents on the same days. It is the only incident in the international cricket history till date where an ICC member played two official matches on the same days.
The team was England, who was involved in that rarest international cricketing incident. England had played against New Zealand at Christchurch (10, 11 and 13 January 1930; 12 January was the rest day) and against West Indies at Barbados (11, 13, 14, 15 and 16 January 1930; 12 January was the rest day). As the second day (11th January 1930) was washed out by rain in the Christchurch Test (New Zealand vs England), 13th January 1930 was the first instance where an ICC member (England) had played two matches on the same day.
The next such instances were during the 4th Test (last Test of that Test series) of the New Zealand series at Auckland (21, 22 and 24 February 1930; 23 February was the rest day) and 3rd Test of the West Indies series at Georgetown (21, 22, 24, 25 and 26 February 1930; 23 February was the rest day). The rarest significant thing in that Test was that when the day 2 started (22nd February) in the New Zealand Test, there was still running the last session of the first day’s play on the Caribbean soil (it was still 21st February at Georgetown). It was the less than two hours action when both English teams had simultaneously played in the same time.
Despite some of those Tests had met in the same dates, due to the time differences and weather conditions there was only possible once when both England squad had simultaneously played the both Tests at the same time. It was the only occasion in international cricket history when an ICC member played simultaneously two different international matches and those too were in different continents.
It was New Zealand’s first ever Test match after gaining Test status that year; while West Indies team was a little older in the international cricket than New Zealand who had earned Test status just 2-year earlier (1928) compared to New Zealand.
It was the 4-match Test series in the both tour, but the no.of days play for each Test in the both tours had been scheduled differently. The times all the Test matches of New Zealand tour had been scheduled to play for 3 days each (excluding a rest day) while first 3 Tests of West Indies tour had been scheduled to play for 5 days each (excluding a rest day) and the last Test of West Indies tour was a timeless Test match.
Meanwhile, the remaining Tests of both series had been played in different dates.
The decision was taken by the MCC, who governed the England cricket and had sent the team aboard (till 1996, before the formation of ECB), to promote the new teams.
For the New Zealand tour, the England team was very new side as six English cricketers had made debut in the first Test. The debutant Harold Gilligan had led the team while, Indian-born K. S. Duleepsinhji was included in the English squad. England had won the first Test quiet easily by 8 wickets and the next other three Tests were drawn as England had won that series by 1-0.
Meanwhile in the other series, the Caribbean team was a very strong team despite being whitewashed (3-0) in their first and only Test series (in 1928) before that series, which was also against England. The 1930 Test series was the first international series in West Indies and the first match of that series was the first international cricket match on the Caribbean soil. This England side was stronger than the simultaneously-running New Zealand series, though two English players had made debut in the first Test of that series and debutant Freddie Calthorpe had led that English side. The first and last Test had drawn while England and West Indies had won the second (by 167 runs) and the third Test (by 289 runs) respectively as resulted the Test series had been drawn at the end by 1-1.
It was the only instances in the international cricket where an ICC member had played two international matches on the same day and both were in different continents. It was the rarest incident of international cricket and it will be very hard to replicate this in the future, especially in Tests.