History of the Australian cricket team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Please help improve this article by expanding this section.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.

The History of the Australian cricket team is rich and diverse. The team first competed as a combined New South Wales and Victorian team in 1877 when they took part in the first test match against England. The team traditionaly has a strong rivarly with England which started in 1882 with the famous Oval test match. Over 50 years Australia and England had many good natured contests but this all changed with the Bodyline series in 1931-32. From then until WWII ashes contests were sour battles, but after the war the series returned to their former good natured status.

Contents

[edit] The 1860s

In 1865, a match was arranged between a team of Aboriginal cricketers and European settlers from various pastoral stations; the indigenous team won. The playing of cricket by indigenous people of the Western District reflected their changing circumstances. At this time there were no formal associations.

The European population gave Aboriginal players nicknames; for example, Johnny Mullagh worked at the Mullagh station. Others were referred to by names like Bullocky, Sundown, Dick-a-Dick, and Red Cap. These trivial names demonstrate the poor attitude of the settlers towards the Aboriginal station workers and cricketers.

Thomas Wentworth Wills was a key figure in the development of colonial cricket and Australian rules football. In November 1866, Wills became the Captain and Coach of the indigenous cricket team. The very first Australian cricket team that played overseas was the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England.

[edit] The 1870s

1878 team
1878 team
1878 team
1878 team

The 1870s saw the first official matches between English and Australian teams. Due to the amount of time that it took teams to travel from England to Australia (and vice versa), these teams were generally not a true representation of the best players for each country. At the time, there was no significance placed on these matches - statisticians later called them "test matches" between England and Australia.

James Lillywhite's English side toured Australia in between January and April, 1877 and played the first two test matches after a drawn match against a New South Wales side.

England in Australia 1876/77. Match length: Timeless. Balls per over: 4. Series result: Drawn 1-1.

No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result
1 15,16,17,19 Mar 1877 Dave Gregory (AUS) James Lillywhite (ENG) Melbourne Cricket Ground (AUS) AUS by 45 runs
2 31 Mar,2,3,4 Apr 1877 Dave Gregory (AUS) James Lillywhite (ENG) Melbourne Cricket Ground (AUS) ENG by 4 wkts

Just over a year later, an Australian side visited England and played a match against the MCC. In what turned out to be a match that was completed in one day, only 105 runs were scored with the Australian side emerging the victors by nine wickets. This match however was not granted test status.

In 1879, Lord Harris led an English side down under between January and March. This tour schedule involved a single test match followed by two series of two matches against Victorian and New South Wales sides.

England in Australia 1878/79. Match length: Timeless. Balls per over: 4. Series result: Australia, 1-0.

No. Date Home captain Away captain Venue Result
3 2,3,4 Jan 1879 Dave Gregory (AUS) Lord Harris (ENG) Melbourne Cricket Ground (AUS) AUS by 10 wkts

[edit] The 1880s

1882 team
1882 team
See also: History of Test cricket (to 1883), History of Test cricket (1884 to 1889)

Australia toured England 5 times during the 1880s and played 27 Test matches. One of these matches was played in 1880, 1 in 1882 and 3 in 1884, 1886 and 1888 respectively. Losing a total of 15 matches. Note: Balls per over: 4. 16 of them were timeless matches while 11 were 3 day Test matches. During this time Percy McDonnell led the Australian scoring with 950 runs. Closely followed by Billy Murdoch on 860 and Alec Bannerman on 745. during this time Spofforth was the most prolific wicket taker with 94 wickets at an average of 18.41 runs per wicket. Palmer closely followed with 78 wickets at an average of 21.51 per wicket.

[edit] The 1890s

Please help improve this article by expanding this section.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.

Main article: History of Test cricket (1890 to 1900)

[edit] Test tours

Australia toured England 4 times during the 1890s and played 26 Test matches against them. (won 10, lost 10)

Note: Half the Tests had 5 balls per over and half had 6 balls per over. Half of them were 3 day Test matches and half were timeless Test matches.

[edit] List of Australian Test captains in the 1890s

  1. Murdoch
  2. Blackham
  3. Giffen
  4. Trott
  5. Darling

[edit] List of top Australian Test run scorers in the 1890s

  1. Darling 1139

[edit] List of top Australian Test wicket takers in the 1890s

  1. Giffen 74
  2. Trumble 63
  3. Jones 56
  4. Turner 51

[edit] 1900s

Australian team started touring other countries such as South Africa which had Test status (first tour in 1903) and New Zealand for the first time in 1905.

[edit] Test tours

Australia toured England 3 times between 1900-1909 and toured South Africa for the first time in 1903. Australia played 33 Test matches in this decade winning 16 of them and losing 9. Most of them were against England and only 3 of them were against South Africa. Test cricket had for the first time gone to Africa. All the Test matches had 6 balls per over. Most of them were 3 day Test matches while 15 of them were timeless Test matches.

  • 1902: 5 Tests in England
  • 1903: First tour of South Africa, 3 Tests
  • 1905: 5 Tests in England
  • 1909: 5 Tests in England

[edit] Australian Test captains

The two main Australian Test team captains during this period were Darling and Noble. Both of them had a good captaincy record.

[edit] List of top Australian wicket takers of the period

  1. Noble 89
  2. Saunders 79
  3. Trumble 78

[edit] The 1910s

Australia were visited in the first two summers of this decade by South Africa and England respectively. In 1912 the Australian team toured England and played in the 1912 Triangular Tournament with their hosts and South Africa.

Australia toured USA and Canada in June to August 1913, playing five matches, four in Philadelphia and one in Toronto.

Needless to say, this was the decade of World War I. After the last match of the Triangular series in August 1912, Australia did not play another Test match until December 1920 when England, as the Marylebone Cricket Club toured Australia in a five Test series.

[edit] The 1920s

[edit] Test tours

Australia toured England twice and South Africa once during this decade. Australia played 28 Test matches during this decade, winning 14 and losing 6. Most of them were against England and only 3 against South Africa. 5 of the Test matches had 8 ball overs. Most of the Test matches were timeless whereas there were 9 three day Test matches and 3 four day Test matches.

  • 1921: 5 Tests in England, 3 Tests in South Africa in November
  • 1926: 5 Tests in England

[edit] Australian Test captains

The two main Australian Test captains during this decade were Armstrong and Collins. Both of them had a good record.

[edit] List of top Australian Test run scorers of the 1920s

  1. Ryder 1394
  2. Collins 1352
  3. Macartney 1252
  4. Gregory 1146

[edit] List of top Australian wicket takers of the 1920s

  1. Mailey 99
  2. Gregory 85

[edit] The 1930s

Australia toured England thrice and had the first 5 Test tour of South Africa. Australia played 39 Tests in this decade winning 22 and losing 10. Australia also toured India and Ceylon in 1935 but no official international match was played although India got Test status in 1932.

[edit] Test tours

  • 1930: 5 Tests in England
  • 1934: 5 Tests in England
  • 1935-1936: First 5 Test tour of South Africa
  • 1938: 4 Tests in England

[edit] Australian Test captains

The leading Australian Test captain in this decade was Woodfull. Don Bradman led the Australian team in 9 Test matches in this decade.

[edit] Australian Test batsmen

Don Bradman, regarded by most followers of the game as the greatest batsman to have played the game scored 4625 Test runs in this decade at an average of 102.77 runs per innings with 19 centuries.

Sir Donald eclipsed other performances which would have otherwise had been noticed such as Stan McCabe's 2748 runs at an average of 48.2 runs per innings.

[edit] List of top Australian wickettakers in the 1930s

  • Grimmett 169 wickets at an average of 21.95 runs per wicket
  • O'Reilly 136 wickets at an average of 23.68 runs per wicket

[edit] The 1940s

[edit] Test tours

This decade was affected by World War II. Due to this Australia played only 17 Test matches. Their performance was impressive perhaps due to the Don Bradman factor as they won 13 of them and did not lose a single Test match. Most of the victories were against England. Australia were led by Sir Donald Bradman during this period. He scored 1903 runs at an average of 105.72 runs per innings.

[edit] Australian Test bowlers

  • Ray Lindwall 70 wickets at an average of 19.17 runs per wicket.
  • Johnston 54 wickets at an average of 18.51 runs per wicket.

[edit] The 1950s

Australia played 57 Test matches, won 29 and lost 12 of them. England was no longer the prime opponent. Australia played 13 Test matches against South Africa and 10 against West Indies. Most of the Tests during this period were played with 8 ball overs and 5 day Test matches although Australia also played 22 six day Test matches. Australian Test captains were Hassett, Johnson and the popular Richie Benaud who had an exceptional record during this period. Australia's leading runscorer in this decade was Harvey with 4573 runs at an average of 50.25 runs per innings while the leading wickettaker was Richie Benaud with 165 wickets at an average of 23.95.

[edit] Test tours

[edit] The 1960s

Most of the Test matches played had 6 ball overs and were 5 day Test matches as is the standardised format today. Australia also toured Rhodesia and New Zealand in 1967 although no official international match was played. Richie Benaud captained Australia in 18 Test matches, Bob Simpson in 29 and Bill Lawry in 16. Lawry was the leading Test batsman. He scored 4717 Test runs at an average of 49.65 runs per innings while McKenzie was the leading Test wicket taker with 238 Test wickets.

[edit] Test tours

  • 1961 5 Tests in England
  • 1964 5 Tests in England
  • 1964 3 Tests in India
  • 1964 1 Test in Pakistan
  • 1965 5 Tests in West Indies
  • 1966-1967 5 Tests in South Africa
  • 1968 5 Tests in England
  • 1969 5 Tests in India

[edit] The 1970s

The 1970s were a controversial time in Australian cricket, with many players signing with businessman Kerry Packer's rival World Series Cricket competition. The decade produced many of the stars of Australian cricket history, including wicket-keeper Rod Marsh and fast bowlers Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. The Chappell brothers - Greg, Ian and Trevor - all represented Australia during this period as well.

 The neutrality or factuality of this article or section may be compromised by weasel words.
You can help Wikipedia by improving weasel-worded statements.

[edit] The 1980s

Australian cricket during the 1980s was comparatively unsuccessful, particularly following the retirement of players such as Marsh and Lillee. Queenslander Allan Border, rated as one of the finest middle-order players in history, took over as captain and attempted a re-building process. For quite some time, the common wisdom was that Australia's score in an innings would be "Border plus 100". Border achieved the feat of scoring more than 150 runs in both innings of a Test during a tour of Pakistan during this decade.

As the decade continued, a number of talented players made their debuts and established themselves in the team. Among these were fast bowlers such as Craig McDermott and Carl Rackemann, wicket keeper Ian Healy, twin brothers Steve and Mark Waugh and batsman Dean Jones. Cult heroes such as overweight Tasmanian batsman David Boon and Victorian bowler "Swervin'" Merv Hughes (whose pre-bowling warm up routine was copied by fans around the stadiums) also earned places in the team.

In the closing years of the 1980s, Australia won back the Ashes from England and began an era of dominance in that series which only ended in 2005. This decade was also notable for Australia's first Cricket World Cup victory, achieved in 1987 when they won against England by 7 runs in the most closely fought World Cup final to date at Eden Gardens in Calcutta. In 1987, Australia and India played out only the second tie in Test history, with Jones producing a famous double-century innings in sapping heat.

[edit] The 1990s

The 1990s saw the dawn and twilight of many well-known Australian cricketers. Shane Warne became a household name during the 1993 Ashes tour, Allan Border retired after playing South Africa at Durban in 1994, Glenn McGrath became famous as a metronome (and as a rabbit) during the 1994-95 tour of the West Indies, Ricky Ponting came onto the scene with 96 against Sri Lanka during 1995-96, Craig McDermott was forced to retire during the 1996-97 season, while Brett Lee appeared at the turn of the century. Meanwhile, Australian cricket was run by three captains, Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh.

Australia continued to assert their dominance over The Ashes during the 1990s, won the unofficial Test 'world championship' prize from West Indies during 1994-95, won a second World Cup in 1999 and began a long winning streak in 1999, both in one-day internationals and Tests. The only venues where Australia struggled were India and Sri Lanka.

Shortly after losing to Sri Lanka in the final of the 1996 World Cup, Australia adopted a policy of fielding separate Test and one-day sides. While the two sides were not markedly different, the policy was intended to ensure that players such as Michael Bevan, who found little success at Test level but consistenly performed well in one-day matches, were only chosen for the side for which they were suitable. The move proved successful, and was also adopted by other teams such as England and the West Indies.


[edit] World Dominance - 1990s to present

In hindsight, (although not at the time) defeating the then-dominant West Indies on their 1995 tour of the carribean is viewed as the moment when Australia became the dominant side in the world. Since then, in spite of a few occasions (specifically the 2005 Ashes series) the Australians have been by and large unbeatable (much like the West Indies for the two decades prior). There are many reasons for this. The following is a partial list and is mostly specualtive: -

  • The 1994-95 World Series Cup was expanded to include an Australia A side, and by making the finals, it proved that Australia had a lot of young cricketers ready to represent their country (and many of them did)
  • Mark Taylor's captaincy, following the retirement of Allan Border
  • Following Taylor's retirement, Ricky Ponting was able to continue with the sucsess the had previously enjoyed
  • Following their defeat in the 1996 world cup final they began seperate one-day and test teams
  • More agressive tactics such as decapitation (targeting the oppisition captain) and whilst feilding, persuing the ball all the way to the boundary
  • Luck and Talent coming together

[edit] Tournament History

Please help improve this article by expanding this section.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded.
This article has been tagged since January 2007.

[edit] World Cup

The Australian cricket team has had a rich history participating in the World Cup. So far they have won the World Cup three times.

[edit] ICC Champions Trophy

The Australian Cricket Team have finally captured victory in the ICC Chamions Trophy series after beating the West Indies in the final of the 2006 series.

[edit] ICC Knockout

The Australian cricket team made it as far as the quarter-finals in the ICC knockout. They have reached the quarter-finals on two different occasions.

[edit] Commonwealth Games

Despite topping their pool Australia lost to South Africa in the gold medal play-off.

[edit] Austral-Asia Cup

Australia have entered the Austral-Asia cup three times. The best result came in 1990 in which they were runners-up.

[edit] History of Australia's One-Day International Shirts

.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../h/i/s/History_of_the_Australian_cricket_team_6575.html"