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#indigenous cricket

3 incidents tagged

⭐Mild

The Aboriginal Australian Cricket Team in England — 1868, the First Australian Tour

Aboriginal Australian XI vs English club and county sides

1868-09-30

Thirteen Aboriginal cricketers from western Victoria, captained by the Sydney-based English professional Charles Lawrence, became the first Australian sporting team of any kind to tour England. Between 25 May and 17 October 1868 they played 47 matches across the country, winning 14, losing 14 and drawing 19. Johnny Mullagh, the side's leading all-rounder, scored 1,698 runs and took 245 wickets on the tour. Their visit was a commercial novelty in its day and is now recognised as the founding moment of Australian touring cricket.

#aboriginal-tour-1868#charles-lawrence#johnny-mullagh
⭐Mild

Johnny Mullagh — The Aboriginal Tour's Champion All-Rounder, 1868

Aboriginal Australian XI vs English club and county sides

1868-09-01

Johnny Mullagh — born Unaarrimin around 1841 on Mullagh station near Harrow, Victoria — was the outstanding all-rounder of the 1868 Aboriginal tour of England. In 47 matches he scored 1,698 runs at around 23 and took 245 wickets at 10, bowling round-arm in a free, wristy style and frequently keeping wicket between deliveries. The English fast bowler George Tarrant, after bowling at Mullagh in a tour interval, declared he had never bowled to a better batsman.

#johnny-mullagh#unaarrimin#aboriginal-tour-1868
⭐Moderate

Aboriginal Cricket Tour of England Attempted in 1867 — Blocked by Victorian Authorities

Aboriginal Australian XI

1867-12-01

An attempted Aboriginal cricket tour of England in late 1867 was blocked by the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines in Victoria, who refused to permit the players to leave the colony. Charles Lawrence regrouped, moved his operation to Sydney, and on 8 February 1868 the team secretly boarded their ship at Queenscliff to evade the authorities — the moment that turned the 1868 Aboriginal tour from a stalled commercial project into a covert escape.

#aboriginal-cricket#1867#victoria