In the 1970 English cricket season, a scheduled South African tour was cancelled for political reasons. As this meant there would be no international cricket in England that season, a Rest of the World team was assembled to play a series of five-day matches against England. At the time, they were played as Test matches, but that status was later revoked by the International Cricket Conference (ICC) and they are now termed unofficial Tests, though still officially first-class matches.[1][2]
The World XI, captained by Garfield Sobers, convincingly won the first Test by an innings but the other four matches were keenly contested and England, captained by Ray Illingworth, performed to a high standard against opponents who were world-class in ability as well as name. The series result was a 4–1 win by the World XI.