In cricket terms, Rhodesia was always tied to South Africa. The first recorded match in Rhodesia took place near Fort Victoria (modern Masvingo) on 16 August 1890, on a wicket of a bare twenty two yards of earth, shortly after Cecil Rhodes' Pioneer Column had formed a settlement. In the mid-1890s, the most important match of the Rhodesian domestic cricket season was Salisbury v Bulawayo. The first English representative team, led by Lord Hawke, visited in 1898–99, with the match played on a matting wicket.