The first Australian cricket team to tour Britain was an all-Aboriginal team in 1868. The year before in 1867, Bullocky and Cuzens became the first Aborigines to play inter-colonial cricket, representing Victoria against Tasmania. Against the express wishes of the Board of Protection of Aborigines, the Aboriginal 11 team was smuggled aboard a ship bound for Sydney and then onto Britain. Between May and October 1868 they played 47 matches in Britain - they won 14, lost 14 and drew 19, a creditable outcome, thus becoming the first organised group of Australian cricketers to travel overseas (The first tour by a non-Aboriginal Australian team classed as representative would not be made until10 years later in 1878.) International sporting contact was rare in this era. Previously, only three cricket teams had travelled abroad, all English: to the United States and Canada in 1859, and to Australia in 1861–62 and 1863–64. From the early 1860s onwards, cricket matches between Aborigines and European settlers had been played on the cattle stations of the Wimmera district in western Victoria, where many Aborigines worked as stockmen. The athletic skills of the Aborigines were so evident that a series of matches was eventually undertaken with the intention of forming the strongest-possible Aboriginal eleven. The resulting team was coached by pastoralist William Reginald Hayman and later prominent cricketer and Australian rules football pioneer Tom Wills, who spoke to the team in an Aboriginal language he learnt as a child growing up with the Djab Wurrung people. Wills captained the team in a match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground which began on Boxing Day 1866 and attracted 8,000 spectators. The Aborigines returned to Victoria and a second attempt to organise a tour of England was initiated by new financial backers. The former Surrey professional cricketer Charles Lawrence, who coached the Albert Club in Sydney, became coach and manager of a team which included some from the original 1867 Eastern Australia tour team, plus a handful of new faces. Johnny Mullagh – traditional name: Unaarrimin Bullocky – traditional name: Bullchanach. A wicketkeeper, Bullocky was referred to as at once the black Bannerman of his team. Sundown – traditional name: Ballrin Dick-a-Dick – traditional name: Jungunjinanuke Johnny Cuzens – traditional name: Zellanach King Cole – traditional name: Bripumyarrimin Red Cap – traditional name: Brimbunyah Twopenny – traditional name: Murrumgunarriman Charley Dumas – traditional name: Pripumuarraman Jimmy Mosquito – traditional name: Grougarrong, who could walk upright under a bar and then jump it in a standing position. Tiger – traditional name: Boninbarngeet Peter – traditional name: Arrahmunijarrimun Jim Crow – traditional name: Jallachniurrimin During June 1868, King Cole died from tuberculosis and was buried in Tower Hamlets in London. Sundown and Jim Crow went home in August due to ill-health. In the breaks from playing cricket, the Aboriginals played their own game of keepings-off with a possum-skinned ball they called MARNGROOK (Marn=game, Grook=ball). Dr. Greg de Moore from Sydney NSW was recently researching the history of Cricket in the UK and uncovered old news stories, antique glass photo negatives and possum skin balls that were archived in the UK after the 1868 tour. Their latest coach Tom Wills (on the left in the drawing below & wearing the cap in the centre of the back row of the team photograph)on his return to Australia was the first to codify and establish rules for what became VFL and later AFL, before both rugby & soccer were codified !
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 03:31:59 +0000
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