Fred Spofforth, the leading fast bowler in the Australian colonies, refused to play in the first Test in March 1877. His protest was over the selectors' decision to pick Victorian Jack Blackham as wicketkeeper rather than the New South Welshman Billy Murdoch, the keeper Spofforth had bowled to all his career. Australia won without him.
Australian intercolonial cricket in the 1870s was sharply factional. NSW and Victoria had separate cricket associations, separate styles of play, and separate wicketkeepers. Spofforth had bowled almost exclusively to Murdoch in NSW matches.
When the All-Australian XI was named with Blackham as keeper, Spofforth wrote to the selectors withdrawing himself. He cited the keeper choice and would not be moved.
Spofforth was 23 and already considered the most dangerous bowler in NSW cricket. He attributed much of his accuracy to Billy Murdoch's keeping at intercolonial level — in particular Murdoch's ability to take his quicker ball standing back. When the All-Australian XI for the Melbourne match was finalised with Blackham of Victoria as wicketkeeper rather than Murdoch, Spofforth declared he would not play. Contemporary accounts treat the gesture as both partisan (he was a NSW man not wishing to bowl to a Victorian keeper) and personal (he believed Blackham could not hold him). The selectors held firm. Blackham caught three batsmen and stumped one in the match without conceding a bye to Spofforth's replacement, Frank Allan, or to Midwinter. Spofforth, persuaded by a £50 inducement from the Melbourne Cricket Club, played in the rematch a fortnight later, with Murdoch as keeper, and took 1/67 and 3/67. Blackham eventually became the wicketkeeper Spofforth bowled to for most of his Test career — including the 1882 Oval Test that gave birth to the Ashes.
Selectors choose Blackham over Murdoch as keeper
Spofforth withdraws his availability
Frank Allan also unavailable; Australia's bowling thinned
Blackham keeps four dismissals without a bye
Spofforth returns for the rematch after MCC payment
Early Mar 1877
All-Australian XI announced with Blackham as keeper
Pre-match
Spofforth withdraws in protest
15-19 Mar 1877
Australia win first Test without Spofforth
31 Mar 1877
Spofforth plays second Test with Murdoch keeping
“Spofforth refused to play because he claimed that only Murdoch could handle his bowling.”
Spofforth's stand cost him the first Test of his life. He was selected for the second Test with Murdoch behind the stumps; Australia lost. He toured England in 1878 and made his international name with the famous MCC demolition at Lord's. He never took a public position on the keeper question again.
Cricket's first Test boycott. Spofforth's stand cost him the first Test of his life and proved unnecessary — Blackham went on to be Australia's keeper for 17 years.
The episode is the first known instance of a Test player withdrawing in protest at a selection decision. It also highlights how quickly the new international game absorbed the politics of intercolonial cricket: Spofforth's protest was as much a New South Wales statement as a personal one.
England v West Indies
1933-07-22
Six months after Bodyline, Learie Constantine and Manny Martindale opened up with sustained leg-theory bouncers at Douglas Jardine in the Old Trafford Test. Jardine, captaining England, stood up and made 127 — his only Test century — proving, at considerable physical cost, that he could face the tactic he had unleashed on Australia.
India vs Pakistan
1996-03-09
On March 9, 1996, Pakistan's Aamer Sohail cut Venkatesh Prasad for four, then pointed his bat at the boundary as if to say 'I'll do it again'. Next ball Prasad bowled him, then animatedly waved him off the field. The send-off became the defining image of the India-Pakistan 1996 World Cup quarter-final, won by India by 39 runs.
England vs West Indies
1954-04-01
Fred Trueman's 1953-54 tour of the West Indies under Len Hutton was a personal disaster. The 22-year-old Yorkshire fast bowler clashed with hosts, opponents, umpires and even his own captain. At the end of the tour MCC withheld his Good Conduct Bonus — a public censure that probably cost him his place on the next two overseas tours and which Trueman resented for the rest of his life.