1.
England cricket team
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The England cricket team is the team that represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, England and Australia were the first teams to play a Test match, and these two countries together with South Africa formed the Imperial Cricket Conference on 15 June 1909. England and Australia also played the first One Day International on 5 January 1971, Englands first Twenty20 International was played on 13 June 2005, once more against Australia. As of 9 March 2017, England has played 983 Test matches, winning 351, the team has won The Ashes on 32 occasions, the same number as their opponents Australia. England has played 683 ODIs, winning 332, and its record in major ODI tournaments includes finishing as runners-up in three Cricket World Cups, and also in two ICC Champions Trophys, England has also played 89 T20Is, winning 43. They won the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010, and were runners-up in 2016, England are currently ranked fourth in Tests, fifth in ODIs and fifth in T20Is by the ICC. England currently holds the record for the highest ever ODI total of 444, such matches were repeated on numerous occasions for the best part of a century. In 1846 William Clarke formed the All-England Eleven and this team would eventually compete against a United All-England Eleven with annual matches occurring between 1847 and 1856. These matches were arguably the most important contest of the English season if judged by the quality of the players, the first overseas tour occurred in September 1859 with England touring North America. This team had six players from the All-England Eleven, six from the United All-England Eleven and was captained by George Parr, with the outbreak of the American Civil War, attention turned elsewhere. English tourists visited Australia in 1861-62 with this first tour organised as a venture by Messrs Spiers and Pond. Most matches played during tours prior to 1877 were against odds and this first Australian tour were mostly against odds of at least 18/11. The tour was so successful that George Parr led a tour in 1863–64. James Lillywhite led a subsequent England team which sailed on the P&O steamship Poonah on 21 September 1876 and they would play a combined Australian XI, for once on even terms of 11 a side. The match, starting on 15 March 1877 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground came to be regarded as the inaugural Test match, the combined Australian XI won this Test match by 45 runs with Charles Bannerman of Australia scoring the first Test century. At the time, the match was promoted as James Lillywhites XI v Combined Victoria, the teams played a return match on the same ground at Easter,1877, when Lillywhites team avenged their loss with a victory by four wickets. The first Test match on English soil occurred in 1880 with England victorious, – The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. As a result of loss the tour of 1882–83 was dubbed by England captain Ivo Bligh as the quest to regain the ashes
2.
Adelaide Oval
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Adelaide Oval is a stadium in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the city centre and North Adelaide. The stadium is used for cricket and Australian rules football, but also plays host to rugby league, rugby union, soccer. The Oval has been headquarters to the South Australian Cricket Association since 1871, the stadium is managed by the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority. Redevelopments between 2008 and 2014, costing $575 million, increased the seating capacity from 34,000 to 53,583. The Adelaide and Port Adelaide Football Clubs also returned to the stadium, in 2010, Austadiums. com called the Adelaide Oval one of the most picturesque Test cricket grounds in Australia, if not the world. In December 2009 South Australian Premier Mike Rann announced a $450 million government commitment to redevelop Adelaide Oval to enable AFL Football to be played there, in May 2011 Treasurer Kevin Foley announced an increase in government funding to $535 million. 1871 - The ground was established in 1871 after the formation of SACA, among those responsible for the original construction were John Pickering and Henry Sparks. 1877 - The first South Australian Football Association match that took place on the ground was between Adelaide Football Club and the Bankers, Adelaide won the match 4 goals to 1. 1877 – The first first-class cricket match played at the ground between South Australia and Tasmania on 10 and 12 November 1877, South Australia was victorious, winning by an innings and 13 runs. 1878 – The first century was scored by John Hill on 30 January 1878, John was the father of the great Clem Hill. 1884 – The first Test match played at the Oval was held from 12–16 December 1884, England beat Australia by eight wickets. 1885 – The first football game lit by light was conducted on the evening of 1 July 1885. 1889 – The first Grand Final in a major Australian rules football competition was played between Norwood and Port Adelaide, Norwood won the game 7.4 to 5.9. 1894 – In 1894–95 Albert Trott collected 8/43 on debut against England,1900 – The picket fence was put up surrounding the Oval in 1900. 1911 – From 5–12 August 1911 the Australian Football Council Carnival was played at the ground, the competing sides were SA, VFL, VFA, Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales. 1911 – The Adelaide Oval scoreboard, designed by architect Kenneth Milne, the clock was added in 1912 and the windvane in the 1930s. 1914 - The Port Adelaide Football Club defeated the Carlton Football Club for their fourth Championship of Australia title defeating the Victorian side by 34 points,9.16 to 5.6. 1931 – In 1931–32 Donald Bradman scored the highest score ever at the ground in Test Cricket, in the same game, Clarrie Grimmett collected fourteen wickets, the most ever taken in a Test match at the ground by a bowler
3.
Fred Spofforth
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He played in Test matches for Australia between 1877 and 1887, and then settled in England where he played for Derbyshire. In 2011, he was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame, Spofforth was born in the Sydney suburb of Balmain, the son of Yorkshire-born Edward Spofforth, a bank clerk, and his wife Anna, née McDonnell. Spofforth was thereafter employed by the Bank of New South Wales as a clerk and he began his life as a bowler with underarm lobs but changed his style when he saw the great England quick bowlers on their tour of the colonies in 1863/64. He decided that he would pursue the action and spent many years mastering it. Spofforth came to notice as a member of the New South Wales eighteen in January 1874 when he took two wickets for sixteen in a match against W. G. Although he batted reasonably well during the 1878 and 1880 Australian tours in England, from then he concentrated almost solely on his bowling, Spofforth played his first Test match in 1877 in Melbourne. He had boycotted the First Test because of Jack Blackhams selection as wicket-keeper ahead of Spofforths close friend, Spofforth truly announced himself to the cricketing world on 27 May 1878, when the touring Australians met the MCC at Lords. In this, the match of the tour, the might of the MCC was dismissed twice in one day at the fortress of English cricket for paltry scores of just 33. The colonists won by nine wickets, with Spofforth picking up ten for twenty after first clean-bowling Grace for a duck, tom Felix Horan records that, when he did so, he jumped about two feet in the air, and sang out, Bowled. And at the finish in the dressing-room, he said, Aint I a demon, gesticulating the while in his well-known demonaic style. Whether or not he christened himself the demon, he certainly was a demon bowler, Spofforth confirms this, To myself, it will always be a noteworthy occasion, since it was then that I first earned my popular sobriquet – the Demon. As a consequence of victory, writes Plum Warner, the fame of Australian cricket was established for all time. Spofforth became known forever as The Demon Bowler and he was the bowler whom English batsmen most feared and is also regarded as the one who first brought into the game, as a scaring technique, eye-to-eye contact with the batsman. Spofforth would often stare straight into the eyes to scare. During the 1878 tour Spofforth was credited with as many as 110 wickets at an average of under 10½ runs and this worked to particularly devastating effect in the match that gave birth to the legendary Ashes series, at The Oval on 29 August 1882. The Australians won by seven runs, Spofforth taking match figures of fourteen for ninety and this was the highlight of a brilliant bowling performance which brought him 13 wickets for 110 runs. In February, Spofforth also played for New South Wales against Lord Harris tourists in a game that, on the Saturday, although not noted as a batsman, he once top-scored in a Test from the unlikely starting position of number eleven. He hit 50 against England at Melbourne in 1884–85, the next-highest score by an Australian in the match was 35, in 1882, he set the record for becoming the first bowler to take 3 wickets in 4 balls
4.
Billy Murdoch
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William Lloyd Billy Murdoch was an Australian cricketer who captained the Australian national side in 16 Test matches between 1880 and 1890. This included four tours of England, one of which, in 1882, although Victorian-born, Murdoch was raised in Sydney, and played his Australian domestic cricket for New South Wales, making his first-class debut in 1875. His Test debut came in 1877, in what was classed as the second Test match to be played. Murdoch began his career as a wicket-keeper, but at Test level kept wicket only once, as a batsman, Murdoch scored both the first double century in Test cricket and the first triple century in Australian domestic cricket. In later years, he settled in England, playing county cricket for Sussex, in 1892, he toured South Africa with England and played in one Test match, making him one of the few cricketers to represent more than one international team. Murdochs final first-class match came at the age of 49, in August 1904 and he died in Melbourne in 1911, aged only 56. Murdoch was born in Sandhurst, Victoria, to Gilbert Murdoch and his father was an American of Scottish descent, who had been a corporal in the U. S. Army prior to emigrating from Maryland to Tasmania in 1849. He died shortly before his sons birth, the family moved to New South Wales in the early 1860s. Both Billy Murdoch and his brother, Gilbert, subsequently studied law at the University of Sydney. Billy Murdoch married Jemima Watson daughter of John Boyd Watson on 8 December 1884 at the Free Church of England, Collingwood, Murdoch made his first-class entry in 1875, at the time regarded as the finest wicketkeeper in Australia, and a highly rated right-handed batsman. He played in the second Test match ever played, the 1877 clash against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Later that year, he qualified as a solicitor and opened up a practice, Murdoch & Murdoch, with his brother Gilbert, although it was short-lived, going bankrupt in 1877. Murdoch established himself as one of the eras greatest batsmen over the few years. In 1881–82 he became the first man other than W. G. Grace to score a triple century when, as captain. The innings comprised 38 fours, nine threes,41 twos and 60 singles from all of ten Victorian bowlers and it was this knock which established him in the public reckoning as Australias finest batsman. So unvanquishable was he that Tom Horan was reduced to bowling Leg theory, Murdoch was never far from controversy. His omission as wicketkeeper in the very first Test resulted in Australias premier fast bowler, Fred Spofforth, in 1884 as captain of Australia he was involved in the players strike, where the Australian players refused to play unless they received a greater share of the gate takings. He was also the batsman whose contentious run out caused friction between New South Wales and a visiting English team led by Lord Harris, which caused a spectator riot
5.
Captain (cricket)
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The captain of a cricket team, often referred to as the skipper, is the appointed leader, having several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of the other players. Before the game the captains toss for innings, during the match the captain decides the teams batting order, who will bowl each over, and where each fielder will be positioned. While the captain has the final say, decisions are often collaborative, a captains knowledge of the complexities of cricket strategy and tactics, and shrewdness in the field, may contribute significantly to the teams success. Before the start of a match the captain tosses a coin. The captain who wins the toss is given the choice of whether to bat or bowl first, the decision usually depends on the condition of the pitch and whether it is likely to deteriorate, the weather conditions and the weather forecast. The decision also depends on the strengths of the teams batting and bowling. Similarly a side with a weak opening batting pair may choose to bowl first in order to protect their batsmen, the captain decides where the fielders will stand, in consultation with the bowler and sometimes other senior players. The fielding positions will usually be dictated by the type of bowler, the batting style. The captain decides when each bowler will bowl, if the regular bowlers are not achieving the desired results, the captain may decide to use non-regular bowlers to attempt to unsettle the batsmen. The captain may also change the bowlers around to introduce variation, in the longer forms of cricket, when a new ball becomes available the captain decides whether to use it. When the team bats, the captain decides the batting order, in professional cricket the captain usually changes the established batting order only for exceptional reasons, because batsmen tend to specialise in batting at certain positions. However, in certain circumstances it may be in the teams interest to change the batting order, if quick runs are needed, a naturally attacking batsman may be promoted up the order. A player who is in form may be promoted to a higher batting position, if the nightwatchman does get out, the cost of losing a late wicket will have been minimised, because the specialist batsman is still available to bat. In a two-innings match, if the situation arises the captain decides whether to impose the follow-on, the captain is also consulted on whether an injured batsman from the opposing team may use a runner when batting. Permission is usually if the batsman has become injured during the course of the match. As well as decisions taken either immediately before or during a match, for instance, they may decide when the team is to practise, and for how long. Prior to July 2015, the captain was responsible for deciding when to take batting and bowling powerplays in limited overs matches, the captain may be assisted by a vice-captain. This is particularly useful if the captain is forced to leave the field of play during fielding, some teams also allocate the vice-captain a more or less formal role in assisting with team selection, discipline, field-setting and so on
6.
Wicket-keeper
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The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike. The wicket-keeper is the member of the fielding side permitted to wear gloves. The wicket-keeper may also wear a helmet with a face guard to help protect from injury. It is essentially a specialist role, the role of the keeper is governed by Law 40 of the Laws of Cricket. Initially, during the bowling of the ball the wicket-keeper crouches in a squatting position. Australian wicket-keeper Sammy Carter was the first to squat on his haunches rather than bend over from the waist, sometimes the keeper is also in the best position to catch a ball which has been hit high in the air. More catches are taken by wicket-keepers than by any other fielding position, the keeper can stump the batsman by using the ball to remove the bails from the stumps, if the batsman is out of his crease after a delivery has passed the stumps into keepers hands. The keeper must then dislodge the bail and the batsman is out, when the ball is hit into the outfield, the keeper moves close to the stumps to catch the return throw from a fielder and, if possible, to run out a batsman. The more skilled the keeper, the faster the bowling to which he is able to stand up, wicket-keeping is a specialist discipline and it requires training consistent with the level expected of a specialist batsman or bowler. However, the keeper is also expected to possess reasonable batting skill. They typically bat at number 7 in first class cricket, wicket-keepers who are also capable of batting at the top of the order are known informally as keeper/batsmen and is more typically seen in limited overs cricket. Since there is room for one keeper in a cricket side. One such selection dilemma was that faced by England selectors in the 1990s between Jack Russell and Alec Stewart, the keeper may also have a captaincy role. Uniquely, they are involved in every delivery of an innings. They can frequently be heard encouraging the bowler, and may also indulge in the practice of sledging the batsman with well timed comments about their skill, appearance or personal habits. The Indian wicket-keeper batsman MS Dhoni is a notable wicket-keeper captain who captained India in 331 matches across three formats, next best being Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh. The keeper is the only allowed to touch the ball with protective equipment. The protection offered by the gloves is not always adequate, the England keeper Alan Knott sometimes placed steaks inside his gloves for added cushioning
7.
Jack Blackham
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John McCarthy Blackham was a Test cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. A specialist wicket-keeper, Blackham played in the first Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in March 1877, such was his skill in the position that he revolutionised the art of wicket-keeping and was known as the prince of wicket-keepers. Late in his career, he captained the Australian team, Blackham was born in the inner-Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy North, the son of newsagent Frederick Kane Blackham and his wife Lucinda. Blackham became a clerk, and held a position in the Colonial Bank of Australasia for many years. It is said that his thick dark beard, perceived then as a sign of an equable and reliable nature and his brother-in-law was George Eugene Joey Palmer. Blackham was included in the first eleven of the Carlton Cricket Club as a batsman at the age of sixteen and he first appeared for the Victorian team in 1874, and remained an automatic selection as the teams wicket-keeper for over twenty years. He was a member of the first eight Australian cricket teams to visit England and he was one of the first wicket-keepers to stand up close to the stumps, even to the fastest bowlers, wearing gloves that Jack Pollard describes as little more than gardening gloves. He eliminated the need for a long-stop, and Pollard says that, Blackham was selected for the very first Test match, held at Melbourne in March 1876/77. Australias leading bowler Fred Spofforth refused to play in the match, in the Test match, Blackham took three catches and made the first Test-Match stumping, when he dismissed Alfred Shaw off the bowling of Tom Kendall in Englands second innings. In 1878, he represented his country for the first time overseas, as a member of the inaugural Australian cricket team to tour England and North America. Described by team-mates as the prince of wicket-keepers and one of Australias first cricketing heroes, Jack Blackham spent most of the 1st day of the 1st Test Match in the Home Dressing Room as he was batting at No,8. He made his Test debut when Ned Gregory, Australia No,7 achieved the distinction of being the 1st Test Batsman to score a duck. He became Charles Bannermans 7th partner, Jack Blackham was 22 years 308 days old and became, at that time the youngest Test player in Test cricket. Previously the youngest had been Tom Horan who was 64 days older than Jack Blackham, as a right-hand batsman, Blackham was a useful lower-order player. At the age of forty, he played his last Test Match at the SCG against Andrew Stoddarts English team, as Blackham spun the coin on that opening morning, Stoddy remarked, Someone will be swearing directly, Jack. It was not, Blackham won the toss and elected to bat, and made 74 runs in a partnership of 154 with Syd Gregory and this helped Australia on its way to a massive total of 586. After England followed on, Blackhams men were left to make just 176 in the final innings to win. They had scored 113 for the loss of just two wickets at the close of play on the evening, but it rained hard during the night
8.
The Ashes
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The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The Ashes are regarded as being held by the team that most recently won the Test series, the term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, immediately after Australias 1882 victory at The Oval, their first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated, the mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to regain those ashes. The English media therefore dubbed the tour the quest to regain the Ashes, after England had won two of the three Tests on the tour, a small urn was presented to Bligh by a group of Melbourne women including Florence Morphy, whom Bligh married within a year. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of a wooden bail and it is not clear whether that tiny silver urn is the same as the small terracotta urn given to the MCC by Blighs widow after his death in 1927. The urn has never been the trophy of the Ashes series. However, replicas of the urn are often held aloft by victorious teams as a symbol of their victory in an Ashes series. Since the 1998–99 Ashes series, a Waterford Crystal representation of the Ashes urn has been presented to the winners of an Ashes series as the trophy of that series. An Ashes series is traditionally of five Tests, hosted in turn by England, as of August 2015, England holds the Ashes, having won three of the five Tests in the 2015 Ashes series. Australia and England have won 32 series each and five series have been drawn, the first Test match between England and Australia was played in Melbourne, Australia, in 1877, though the Ashes legend started later, after the ninth Test, played in 1882. On their tour of England that year the Australians played just one Test and it was a low-scoring affair on a difficult wicket. Australia made a mere 63 runs in its first innings, and England, led by A. N. Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In their second innings, the Australians, boosted by a spectacular 55 runs off 60 deliveries from Hugh Massie, managed 122 and this thing can be done, he declared. Spofforth went on to devastate the English batting, taking his final four wickets for two runs to leave England just eight runs short of victory. When Ted Peate, Englands last batsman, came to the crease, his side needed just ten runs to win, an astonished Oval crowd fell silent, struggling to believe that England could possibly have lost to a colony on home soil. When it finally sank in, the crowd swarmed onto the field, cheering loudly and chairing Boyle, when Peate returned to the pavilion he was reprimanded by his captain for not allowing his partner, Charles Studd, to get the runs. Peate humorously replied, I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, the momentous defeat was widely recorded in the British press, which praised the Australians for their plentiful pluck and berated the Englishmen for their lack thereof. A celebrated poem appeared in Punch on Saturday,9 September and it read, In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29 August 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R. I. P
9.
George Ulyett
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George Ulyett was an English all-round cricketer, noted particularly for his very-aggressive batsmanship. A well-liked man, Ulyett was popularly known as Happy Jack, once musing memorably that Yorkshire played him only for his good behaviour, a fine all round sportsman, Ulyett played football in the 1882–83 and 1883–84 seasons as goalkeeper for Sheffield Wednesday. Born in Pitsmoor, Sheffield, Ulyett joined the local Pitsmoor club at the age of sixteen and, from 1871 to 1873, played as a professional in Bradford. In 1873, he made his Yorkshire debut, at Bramall Lane against Sussex, in his best batting year of 1883 Ulyett achieved the remarkable feat of scoring 1,562 runs – eleven runs from being the leading run scorer – without a single century. He took his career-best figures of seven for thirty against Surrey in 1878 and, in 1887, Ulyett was a member of James Lillywhite Juniors tour of Australia in 1876/77. If Ulyett, Emmett, and Hill are specimens of the best fast bowling in England, all we can say is, either they have not shown their proper form, or British bowling has sadly deteriorated. Not long after, however in an eleven-a-side first-class match against New South Wales, Ulyett also played in the first-ever Test match, staged at the MCG, during that tour. His first real action in Test cricket came when he held onto a catch off the bowling of James Southerton to dismiss Billy Midwinter for five. In bowling, Ulyett took three for 39 in the innings, his first wicket being that of Charles Bannerman. A short delay revealed the fact that Bannerman could no longer grip his bat properly, the Australian opener walked off, wincing from the pain in his bloodied right hand. George Ulyett, although never regarded as a bowler, could nevertheless do real damage on occasion. Bannerman was unable to field, and, in the second innings, in the second game, also at Melbourne, Ulyett showed his worth as a batsman, making 52 and 63 to secure an England win by four wickets. On Day 2 George joined A Greenwood when England were 72 for 4, George partnered Greenwood and Tom Emmett. His 52 was part of a total of 86, 2nd highest by a Test Player at that time. Thereafter, he was a pick for the England Test side. Ulyett played 25 Tests in total—it was by far the longest career of any England cricketer to play in that inaugural Test—and several times changed the course of a match. At Lords in 1884, in the innings, he returned an analysis of 39. 1–23–36–7 to reduce the Australians from 60/1 to 145 all out. Included in that haul was one of the most famous caughts-and-bowled ever taken, Ulyett sent down a straight half-volley to Bonnor, who drove at it with all his considerable might and got it right out of the middle of the bat
10.
History of Test cricket from 1877 to 1883
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Test matches in the period 1877 to 1883 were organised somewhat differently from international cricket matches today. The teams were rarely representative, and the trip between Australia and England, which usually lasted about 48 days, was one that many cricketers were unable or unwilling to undertake. As such, the home teams enjoyed a great advantage, thirteen Test Matches were played during the period, all between Australian and English sides. Most were not styled as representative England v. Australia contests, however, the same is true of their designation as Test matches, which did not enter into the vernacular until 1885. Eleven of the thirteen matches played to 1883 were in Australia, where the colonials made the most of their advantage, winning seven while England won four. By 1883, the tradition of England-Australia tours was well established, England captain Ivo Bligh promised that on the tour to Australia in 1882–83 he would regain the ashes and the term began to be established. During that tour a small urn was presented to Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. The urn is commonly, but erroneously, believed to be the trophy of the Ashes series, a number of the problems that continue to bedevil cricket today had already surfaced by 1883, there were umpiring disputes, betting controversies, match-fixing, and even a riot. There was a long build-up to what became the first Test tour, the inaugural overseas visit of leading English cricketers was organised by John Sackville, 3rd Duke of Dorset, a strong player himself. Having recently been an ambassador to France, where he promoted the game of cricket, Dorset arranged a tour to that country in 1789. Although it is unclear whom they were to play against, his men did get as far as an assembly in Dover, the Dukes timing was poor, however, for the French Revolution had just broken out. His cricket tour became the first one to be abandoned for political reasons and it was not until the 19th century that strong England teams began to form. By the late 18th, there were games played by sides designated England — England vs Hambledon and England vs Kent, for instance –. By 1846, however, William Clarke, a bricklayer from Nottingham, had formed the All-England Eleven, leading amateurs such as Alfred Mynn also played on occasion. Matches were usually against the odds, with men in their team versus 22 for the opposition, to make it a more interesting. In 1852, together with fellow Sussex man Jemmy Dean, John Wisden founded the United All-England Eleven, the matches between these two became the highlight of every English season, and the teams, both essentially business ventures, went a long way to popularising the game in England. The year 1859 saw the first main representative tour by an England team and it was captained by George Parr and comprised six players from the All-England Eleven, together with another six from the United All-England XI. The team toured United States and Canada, where cricket was very popular, the match in New York, for example, is said to have been watched by 10,000 people, but this may well be an exaggeration
Australia
England[1]
