"and Victoria and the touring Englishmen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground played on 15–19 March. This match, later to be recognised as the first Test Match, was won by Australia by 45 runs thanks mainly to an unbeaten 165 by Charles Bannerman. The result of this match was seen by Australians and Englishmen as a reflection of the rising standard of Australian cricket. The rising standards of Australian cricket was further established during the first representative tour of England in 1878. While the Australians did not play a representative English team on this tour, the efforts of players such as"
"History of Australian cricket The History of Australian cricket begins over 200 years ago. The first recorded cricket match in Australia took place in Sydney in December 1803 and a report in the Sydney Gazette on 8 January 1804 suggested that cricket was already well established in the infant colony. By 1826, clubs including the Currency Cricket Club, the Military Cricket Club and the Australian Cricket Club had been formed. Hyde Park and the Racecourse were the venue for these organised matches. The formation of clubs in Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) was not far behind with clubs formed in"
"previous year. Separately, official audience data shows that 93.6% of Australians watched at least some cricket on TV in 2010–11 calendar year. Cricket has been played in Australia for over 210 years. The first recorded cricket match in Australia took place in Sydney in December 1803 and a report in the Sydney Gazette on 8 January 1804 suggested that cricket was already well established in the infant colony. Intercolonial cricket in Australia started with a visit by cricketers from Victoria to Tasmania in February 1851. The match was played in Launceston on 11–12 February with Tasmania winning by 3 wickets."
"Van Diemen's Land v Port Phillip, 1851 On 11 and 12 February 1851, teams from Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and Port Phillip District (now Victoria) played the first cricket match between two Australian colonies, recognised in later years as the initial first-class cricket match in Australia. It took place at the Launceston Racecourse, known now as the NTCA Ground, in Tasmania. The match was incorporated into celebrations marking the separation of the Port Phillip District from New South Wales in 1851 as the colony of Victoria. The team representing Port Phillip, generally named ""Victoria"" in the press, was drawn"
"retired from ODIs with immediate effect after the final match. History of Australian cricket The History of Australian cricket begins over 200 years ago. The first recorded cricket match in Australia took place in Sydney in December 1803 and a report in the Sydney Gazette on 8 January 1804 suggested that cricket was already well established in the infant colony. By 1826, clubs including the Currency Cricket Club, the Military Cricket Club and the Australian Cricket Club had been formed. Hyde Park and the Racecourse were the venue for these organised matches. The formation of clubs in Van Diemen's Land"
"Hobart in 1832 and Launceston in 1843. In Victoria in 1838, arguably Australia's most exclusive and influential cricket club was formed, the Melbourne Cricket Club. Clubs in the other colonies followed in South Australia in 1839, and in Western Australia in 1835 a match was arranged between the labourers and mechanics against the builders of the new Government House. Intercolonial cricket in Australia started with a visit by cricketers from Victoria to Tasmania in February 1851. The match was played in Launceston on 11–12 February with Tasmania winning by 3 wickets. Another three matches between the two teams were played"
"waving his bat in the air"". Hobbs, who having retired from Test cricket was reporting the tour for London's ""The Star"" newspaper, thought that the bowling had shaken Bradman's confidence: ""He was drawing away, sure proof that he didn't like the bumpers"". The English tactics in the game offended the crowds and so upset H.V. Evatt (later leader of the Australian Labor Party, then a High Court judge) that he lost all desire to watch any of that year's Tests. The first Test began at the Sydney Cricket Ground on 2 December 1932, and was played in a tense and"
"1947. A meeting of the International Cricket Conference in 1981 agreed that all intercolonial and interstate matches played in Australia before 1947, including the 1851 match, should retrospectively be considered first-class. Van Diemen's Land v Port Phillip, 1851 On 11 and 12 February 1851, teams from Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and Port Phillip District (now Victoria) played the first cricket match between two Australian colonies, recognised in later years as the initial first-class cricket match in Australia. It took place at the Launceston Racecourse, known now as the NTCA Ground, in Tasmania. The match was incorporated into celebrations marking"
"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 managed by John Conway, a former Victorian player, toured England during the 1878"
"there. Some matches were played as part of district festivals, with large banquets following play. By the late 1840s organised cricket was doing well in both Hobart and Launceston, and was spreading throughout the colony. In 1850 the first ""North"" versus ""South"" match was held in Oatlands, midway between Hobart and Launceston, and won by the South. The success of the match prompted promoters to organise an inter-colonial match, and the inaugural first-class cricket match played in Tasmania, which was also the first ever first-class cricket match in Australia, was played in 1851 between Victoria and Tasmania in Launceston at"
"Bransby Cooper Bransby Beauchamp Cooper (15 March 1844 – 7 August 1914) was a member of the Australian cricket team that played the inaugural Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1877. Cooper was born in Dacca in what was then British India in 1844. He played first-class cricket as an amateur in England for Middlesex County Cricket Club and Kent County Cricket Club before moving to Australia where he played for Victoria cricket team. He was the first Indian-born cricketer to play Test cricket. He was a right hand batsman and wicket-keeper. Cooper has been described as ""a"
"2009 World Cup they were eliminated in the qualification round after losing by six wickets to both the West Indies and Sri Lanka. 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"
"Australian cities and towns. Over the period, the foundations of the popularity of many Australian sports took root. Intercolonial cricket in Australia started in 1851 and Sheffield Shield inter-state cricket continues to this day. The 1876-77 season was notable for a match between a combined XI from New South Wales and Victoria and the touring Englishmen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which was later recognised as the first Test Match. A famous victory on the 1882 tour of England resulted in the placement of a satirical obituary in an English newspaper saying that English cricket had ""died"", and the ""body"
"""The Times"" described the tourists as, ""a travestie upon cricketing at Lord's"", and, ""the conquered natives of a convict colony."" ""The Daily Telegraph"" said of Australia that, ""nothing of interest comes from there except gold nuggets and black cricketers."" The first match was played at The Oval on 25 May in London and attracted 20,000 spectators. Presumably many of these spectators attended out of curiosity to see members of a strange-looking race perform athletically rather than merely to savour a cricket contest. ""The Times"" reported: ""Their hair and beards are long and wiry, their skins vary in shades of blackness,"
"is traditionally one of the most spin-friendly international cricket grounds in Australia, because the soil and foundation of the ground is primarily Bulli soil from Bulli, New South Wales. In 1854 the Garrison Club defeated the Royal Victoria Club in the first recorded cricket match to be played at what was then the Garrison Ground. Although games were played at the Domain, the Garrison Ground was used for practice by the NSW cricket team in 1860 and by the Victorian team in 1861 the before inter-colonial matches in those years. Cricket was first played in Australia in Sydney's Hyde Park"
"Test matches. The first of these, between Australia and England was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in March 1877 and Australia batted first. Bannerman opened the Australian innings and is thus retrospectively deemed to have had the honour of facing the first ball ever bowled in Test cricket (the bowler being England's Alfred Shaw) and scoring the first ever run in Test cricket. Dropped before he reached double figures, he went on to score 126 on the first day and then added 39 on the second day to reach 165 when he was forced to retire hurt, his"
"History of Australian cricket to 1876 This is an article that describes the history of Australian cricket from its known beginnings until the eve of the first-ever Test matches between Australia and England, which took place in the 1876–77 season. Cricket was already established in England by the time Willem Jansz and Abel Tasman made their voyages of discovery in the 17th century. But their expeditions came to nothing and it was not until 1766, which is about when the Hambledon Club was founded, that the Australian story really begins. It was in 1766 that the Royal Society commissioned Captain"
"increase in the playing skill of Australian cricketers. It is uncertain precisely when and how cricket began to be played in Australia. It may have arrived along with the First Fleet from England but no records document this. Nevertheless, the game grew relatively quickly. The first recorded match in Australia took place in Sydney in 1803 between the military and civilians; according to the journalists Jim Kilburn and Mike Coward, in a review of Australian cricket, the New South Wales governor ordered that equipment for the game should be made in government workshops. Similar early games between the military and"
"players' persistent fighting after 56 minutes so the match was abandoned. The first Test was held at the SCG, Sydney and was won by Australia. 47,096 people attended the Great Britain versus Australia Test on 3 July 1954 held at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, this is still the ground attendance record for any sport. The most famous incident of the tour took place on Saturday 10 July, the weekend before the third Test with the series level at one win each, the Great Britain management decided to rest most of their Test players and field a side which was predominantly"
"eleven players (usually twenty-two) in order to make a more even contest. James Lillywhite, a professional with Sussex CCC, led a team which had sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876. They played in Australia and then New Zealand before returning to Australia to play a combined Australian XI, for once on even terms of XI a side. The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, came to be regarded as the first Test match, although none of its participants could have guessed at its significance at the time. Charles Bannerman, of Australia,"
"Australia began but cricket soon arrived there too and we have our first definite references to the sport in Australia in 1804, when the January edition of ""The Sydney Gazette"" recorded that recent weather had been favourable to cricketers. Cricket soon became a very popular sport in Australia, especially in the south-eastern colonies. In Sydney, the Military Cricket Club played games in the 1830s against the Australian Cricket Club, including one at Hyde Park in 1833 and the Racecourse in 1834, as well as against an Australian civilian XI in 1834. In rural New South Wales, the Queanbeyan District Cricket"
"English team made the first tour of Australia. The first Australian team to travel overseas consisted of Aboriginal stockmen who toured England in 1868. In 1876–77, an England team took part in what was retrospectively recognised as the first-ever Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Australia. The rivalry between England and Australia gave birth to The Ashes in 1882 and this has remained Test cricket's most famous contest. Test cricket began to expand in 1888–89 when South Africa played England. The inter-war years were dominated by Australia's Don Bradman, statistically the greatest Test batsman of all time. Test"
"first Test match in 1877 in Melbourne. It was the second match of the first-ever Test series, against an English team led by James Lillywhite, Jr. Spofforth took three wickets in the first innings and another in the second, but England went on to win the match by four wickets. He had boycotted the First Test because of Jack Blackham's selection as wicket-keeper ahead of Spofforth's close friend and fellow New South Welshman Billy Murdoch. Spofforth truly announced himself to the cricketing world on 27 May 1878, when the touring Australians met the MCC at Lord's. In this, the second"
"in Melbourne, Australia. Remarkably, Australia won both matches by exactly the same margin, 45 runs. A second Centenary Test was played in 1980 at Lord's in London, to commemorate the first Test match in England, at The Oval in 1880. The 1880 match was the fourth to be considered a Test match, and followed three earlier matches played between England and Australia in Australia (including the 1877 Test). The 1980 match was badly affected by rain on the first two days, and was drawn. This was the last Test match commentated by John Arlott. The 1877 match was a timeless"
"cricket was a popular pastime around the Christmas period, and by the 1820s regular club competitions were taking place. Hobart Town Cricket Club and Derwent Cricket Club were established in the 1830s, and Launceston Cricket Club was founded in 1841, although Hobart Town no longer survives. In 1850 the first 'North' versus 'South' match was held in Oatlands, and won by the South. The success of the match prompted promoters to organise an inter-colonial match, and the first, first class cricket match played in Tasmania, which was also the first ever first-class cricket match in Australia, was played in 1851"
"the English cricketers led to a rapid improvement in the standard of cricket. By 1877, an Australian team was able to defeat an English team with equal odds in what was later recognised as the first Test match. Now, the match is recognised as the initial first-class match to be played in Australia. At the time, it is likely that the players realised that the game was the first to take place between two Australian colonies, and was therefore a historic occasion. Although there were attempts in Australia to identify first-class matches, no formal definition was applied in Australia until"
"of 2,000. The second test in Newcastle in January 1909 attracted a crowd of 22,000, and the Northern Union won 15–5. The third test was played at Villa Park, Birmingham, the Northern Union winning again 6–5 before a crowd of 9,000. The Australians suggested that the series should be named 'The Ashes' after the cricket series of the same name. In 1909, when the new ""Northern Union"" code was still in its infancy in Australia, a match between the Kangaroos and the Wallabies was played before a crowd of around 20,000, with the Rugby League side winning 29–26. The first"
"Australian cricket team participated in the first Test match at the MCG in 1877, defeating an English team by 45 runs, with Charles Bannerman making the first Test century, a score of 165 retired hurt. Test cricket, which only occurred between Australia and England at the time, was limited by the long distance between the two countries, which would take several months by sea. Despite Australia's much smaller population, the team was very competitive in early games, producing stars such as Jack Blackham, Billy Murdoch, Fred ""The Demon"" Spofforth, George Bonnor, Percy McDonnell, George Giffen and Charles ""The Terror"" Turner."
"matches being played in by 1829 in Sydney, Melbourne by 1840, Brisbane by 1849, and Tasmania by 1851. Most of these early games took part at local festivals, with no clear set of rules being used, and no codified version of any game being played. Regional versions of football were played in places like South Australia using house rules predating Victorian codification of the game. The versions played locally in this period borrowed elements from the various codes that are present today including Australian rules, soccer and rugby with the rules played being decided prior to the start of the"
"After a brief sojourn in Sri Lanka, Greig's team arrived in Australia in March 1977 to prepare for a unique moment in the game's history. To commemorate 100 years of Australia vs England Test Matches, a one-off Test was organised for the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the venue of the first-ever Test. The associated functions and a gathering of hundreds of ex-players demonstrated the depth of the game and its history. Greig, recognising the spirit of the fixture, had his team play positively, and the match was still in the balance late on the last day before Australia won by 45"
"was considered to be a significant part of the euphoric mood within the Victorian colony at the time. The match finally commenced on 11 February 1851 at the Launceston Racecourse, later to become the Northern Tasmania Cricket Association Ground. The first ball was bowled (underarm) by William Henty for the Launcestonians, to Duncan Cooper of Port Phillip. About 2500 people watched the locals win the match by three wickets. The following February, nine Tasmanians sailed to Melbourne and joined with three Melbourne based Launcestonians for a return match which was held at the Emerald Hill Ground on the south bank"
"the batting side, a win for the fielding side, a draw or a tie. Bob Simpson is the only person to be involved in both tied tests — as a player for Australia in the first, and as the Australian team coach in the second. The first tied Test was played between the West Indies and Australia. The match was played at the Brisbane Cricket Ground, known as ""the Gabba"", in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, between 9 and 14 December 1960. After a disastrous start of 65–3, Garfield Sobers made a rapid 132 in 174 minutes. Alan Davidson took 5–135. West"
"Intercolonial cricket in Australia Intercolonial cricket matches were the first-class cricket matches played between the various colonies of Australia prior to federation in 1901. After federation, they became known as ""Interstate"" matches. By the 1880s regular intercolonials were being played, generally with intense rivalry. Matches against visiting professional teams from England also attracted public interest. In March 1850, the Melbourne Cricket Club issued a challenge to the Launceston Cricket Club for a match between representative cricketers of Port Phillip district (to become Victoria the following year) and Van Diemen's Land (to become Tasmania in 1856). Launceston sent an acceptance, but"