Australia’s First Tour of England in 1868 Was Made by an Aboriginal Cricket Team

Sports has been an important way to bridge different cultures. For the aboriginal Australians and their colonial settlers, it was cricket. Cricket was first played in Australia in the early 1800s in Sydney in an area now part of Hyde Park. The game came to Melbourne around 1838 with the formation of the Melbourne Cricket Club. Cricket was introduced to the aboriginals in South Australia in the 1850s as a method of controlling the native population, to stop boredom and prevent them from straying back into the bush. Cricket matches regularly took place on cattle stations where aboriginals were employed as stockmen. Cricket was also used as a way of “civilising” the aboriginal people and introducing them to white values. The first Australian cricket team touring England. Thomas Gibson Hamilton, a ranch owner in the Western District of Victoria, took admiration of the athletic skills of the aboriginals, and created a team consisting of the best aboriginal players. They played an exhibition match at Hamilton, which gained the attention of Australia’s most celebrated sportsman, Tom Wills, captain of the Victoria cricket team. In 1866, plans were made by the Melbourne Cricket Club to host and play against an aboriginal team from Victoria's Western District, and Wills agreed to coach the aboriginal players. In just four months, he managed to build a team strong enough—according to him—to face the Melbourne Cricket Club. The MCC became so nervous of Wills’ claims that they tried to strengthen their ranks by enlisting players who were not members of the MCC, attracting widespread criticism in the process. On Boxing day 1866, a crowd of over 10,000 spectators turned up at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.