| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Edward Gilbert | |||
| Born | 1 August 1905 Woodford, Queensland, Australia |
|||
| Died | 9 January 1978 (aged 72) Wacol, Queensland, Australia |
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| Batting style | Left-handed | |||
| Bowling style | Right arm fast | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1930–1936 | Queensland | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | First-class | |||
| Matches | 23 | |||
| Runs scored | 224 | |||
| Batting average | 7.22 | |||
| 100s/50s | 0/0 | |||
| Top score | 34 not out | |||
| Balls bowled | 4,920 | |||
| Wickets | 87 | |||
| Bowling average | 28.97 | |||
| 5 wickets in innings | 6 | |||
| 10 wickets in match | 0 | |||
| Best bowling | 6/64 | |||
| Catches/stumpings | 4/– | |||
| Source: CricketArchive, 12 January 2010 | ||||
Eddie Gilbert (1 August 1905, Durundur Station, Queensland - 9 January 1978, Brisbane, Queensland) was a Queensland Aboriginal cricketer. He was an exceptionally fast bowler.
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Gilbert was taken from his home near Woodford at the age of three as part of a government policy on Aboriginals and grew up on farms whilst living in the Barambah Aboriginal Reserve, now known as Cherbourg, north of Brisbane. He took up cricket at a young age, initially playing as a slow bowler but quickly developing pace cultivated through a flexible wrist which he said was from years of boomerang throwing.
After playing with the State Colts in 1930, he came into the Queensland Sheffield Shield team in 1931. Gilbert was probably only the second Aborigine to play first-class cricket in Australia, the first being Alec Henry in 1901[1]. Note that the 1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England was not considered first-class.
In his career, he played in 19 Sheffield Shield matches, taking 73 wickets at an average of 29.75. A further 14 wickets were taken off touring MCC, West Indies and South Africa sides. In one match against the touring West Indian team, he took 5/65. Despite his success, it is unlikely that he was ever seriously considered for the Australian Test team due to doubts about his action, his aboriginality and the fact that he represented Queensland, then a relatively weak team.
As an Aboriginal man living in Queensland in 1931, Eddie Gilbert was bound by the restrictions of the Protection of Aboriginals Act 1897. This meant that he needed written permission to travel from his Aboriginal settlement each time he played in a first-class match. Reference to his correspondence survives in the Queensland State Archives. (QSA A/4736, Home Secretary, Register of Letters Received, 1931, Extracts - Aborigines General).
On 6 November 1931 in a match against NSW at the recently opened Brisbane Cricket Ground (the "Gabba") in Brisbane, he dismissed opener Wendell Bill[2] for a duck with his first ball. The incoming batsman was Don Bradman (at the time, the best batsman in the world) and the next delivery was so quick that it literally knocked the bat from his hands. Bradman was then caught behind by wicket-keeper Len Waterman[3] for a third ball duck.
Bradman recalled years later that the six deliveries he faced from Gilbert in that match were the fastest he had experienced in his career. Bradman said The keeper took the ball over his head, and I reckon it was halfway to the boundary and that the balls from Gilbert were unhesitatingly faster than anything seen from Larwood or anyone else.
Gilbert played against Bradman on two more occasions, as well as Douglas Jardine during the infamous 1932/33 Bodyline tour.
Though he had a controversial action he was called only once for throwing and that for jerking his wrist. Importantly the straightness of his arm was never contradicted by umpires. The occasion of him being called was the match between Victoria and Queensland at the MCG in 1931. The umpire Andrew Barlow, no-balled him 13 times for his action.
Gilbert retired from the game in 1936 due to poor form whereupon officials in the Queensland Cricket Board and the Aboriginal Protectorate arranged for his return to an Aboriginal settlement. Gilbert died at the Wolston Park Hospital near Brisbane on 9 January 1978, aged 72 after many years of ill health due to alcoholism and mental illness.