History of the Australian cricket team

The History of the Australian cricket team began when eleven cricketers from the colonies of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria formed an eleven to play a touring team of professional English cricketers at Melbourne in March 1877. Billed as the “Grand Combination match”, the game is now known as the first Test match. Encouraged by a 45-run victory, the colonists believed that they had enough cricketing talent to take on the English on their own soil. A team organised and privately funded by its’ manager, John Conway, toured England during the 1878 season. After a slow start and difficulty in obtaining fixtures, the Australians met a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) team at Lords on 26 May 1878. Australia’s upset win by nine wickets was “the commencement of the modern era of cricket", according to Lord Hawke.

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.

The 1870s

The 1880s

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

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.

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

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.

List of top Australian wicket takers of the period

# Noble 89
# Saunders 79
# Trumble 78

The 1910s

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.

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

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.

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.

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

The 1940s

Test tours

* Includes one tied match

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.

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

The 1970s

Australia's Record in Test Match Cricket 1970-1979^{# plus one tied result}

Australia's Record in ODI Cricket 1980-1989

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. The 1992-93 Frank Worrell Trophy series against the West Indies remains the last Test series Australia has lost at home.

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.

In hindsight, (although not at the time) defeating the then-dominant West Indies on their 1995 tour of the Caribbean 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, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting were able to continue with the success they had previously enjoyed
* Following their defeat in the 1996 world cup final they began separate one-day and test teams
* More aggressive tactics such as decapitation (targeting the oppisition captain) and whilst fielding, pursuing the ball all the way to the boundary
* Luck and Talent coming together

The 2000s

Australia's Record in Test Match Cricket 2000-

During this decade, Australia's dominance has continued to the point that they have gone months sometimes even a full calendar year without losing a single match and have racked up many records along the way. The decade began with Steve Waugh as captain. Following his retirement in 2003 from One Day International cricket and in 2004 from test cricket, Ricky Ponting was able to take over as captain and continue the teams success. During this time, Bret Lee, who debuted at the end of the 1990s was able to establish his roll in the side and as one of the fastest bowlers in the world.When Australia lost The Ashes in 2005, it was considered a disaster for all involved. Especially since they lost to Bangladesh on the same tour. However they regained the ashes in 2006-07 on home soil. The retirements of Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath haven't slowed down the side either. Australia's dominance has extended to the world cup also. After winning the tournament in 2003 and 2007, they have now won three successively (including in 1999), and haven't lost a world cup match since the group stage of the 1999 edition. Meaning they haven't lost a world cup match this decade.Australia were unfortunate enough to lose the Commonwealth bank series to England in 2006-07 and the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy a short time later. This did not, however, affect their performance at the 2007 World Cup where they went unbeaten for a record third straight title.

Australia pulled out of their cricket tour of Pakistan because of Terrorism in Pakistan on March 11 2008. [http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SPORT/03/11/australia.tour/index.html]

Tournament History

World Cup

The Australian cricket team no doubt has had a rich history participating in the World Cup. At present, they have won the World Cup 4 times as well as 3 titles in a row, the only team to do so. Their dominance of the tournament can be analysed through the winning percentage of all countries which have participated, as Australia hold a 10% higher winning rate over the next best side.

Their dominance of the tournament most recently in particular has been quite phenomenal, and the Australian team currently sit on 23 consecutive victories, a winning streak which dates back to the 1999 world cup tournament. To put this into perspective, the second longest winning streak behind this is 9 straight victories by the West Indies team of the 1970s.

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.

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.

Commonwealth Games

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

Austral-Asia Cup

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

History of Australia's One-Day International Shirts

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