According to Cricket Australia's annual report of 2014-15, a record 1,208,360 Australians played formal, organised cricket during the year, an increase of nine per cent over the previous year, making cricket Australia’s biggest participant sport. Female, school and junior cricket grew strongly, with female participation up 18% to 290,566, equivalent to nearly one in four of all players. Separately, official audience data shows that 93.6% of Australians watched at least some cricket on TV in 2010–11 calendar year.
Current Squad
The Australian Cricket ODI, Test, T20 Team List given below:-
The Australian Cricket ODI, Test, T20 Team List given below:-
ODI, T20, Test Vice Captain: David Warner
Coach : Darren Lehman
Name | Batting style | Bowling style | Forms |
Aaron Finch | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | ODI, T20I |
Adam Voges | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | Test |
Adam Zampa | Right-handed | Right-arm legbreak | ODI, T20I |
Andrew Tye | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | T20I |
Ashton Agar | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | ODI |
Cameron Bancroft | Right-handed | T20I | |
Cameron Boyce | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | T20I |
Chris Lynn | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | T20I |
David Warner | Left-handed | Right-arm medium/leg spin | Test, ODI, T20I |
George Bailey | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | ODI |
Glenn Maxwell | Right-handed | Right-arm off spin | ODI, T20I |
Jackson Bird | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | Test |
James Faulkner | Right-handed | Left-arm fast medium | ODI, T20I |
James Pattinson | Left-handed | Right-arm fast medium | Test, ODI |
Joe Burns | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | Test, ODI |
Joel Paris | Left-handed | Left-arm fast medium | ODI |
John Hastings | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | ODI, T20I |
Josh Hazlewood | Left-handed | Right-arm fast medium | Test, ODI |
Kane Richardson | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | ODI, T20I |
Marcus Stoinis | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | ODI, T20I |
Matthew Wade | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | ODI, T20I |
Mitchell Marsh | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | Test, ODI, T20I |
Mitchell Starc | Left-handed | Left-arm fast | Test, ODI, T20I |
Nathan Coulter-Nile | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | ODI, T20I |
Nathan Lyon | Right-handed | Right-arm off spin | Test, ODI, T20I |
Pat Cummins | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | ODI, T20I |
Peter Nevill | Right-handed | Test, T20I | |
Peter Siddle | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | Test |
Scott Boland | Right-handed | Right-arm fast medium | ODI, T20I |
Shane Watson | Right-handed | Right-arm medium | T20I |
Shaun Marsh | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | Test, ODI, T20I |
Shaun Tait | Right-handed | Right-arm fast | T20I |
Steve O'Keefe | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | Test |
Steve Smith | Right-handed | Right-arm leg spin | Test, ODI, T20I |
Travis Head | Left-handed | Right-arm off spin | T20I |
Usman Khawaja | Left-handed | Right-arm medium | Test, T20I |
Xavier Doherty | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | ODI |
Coaching staff
· Head coach: Darren Lehmann
· Interim Head coach: Justin Langer (for West Indies Tri-Series in June)
· Interim Batting coach: Graeme Hick (for West Indies Tri-Series in June), Stuart Law (for tour of Sri Lanka in July-September)
· Interim Bowling Coach: Adam Griffiths (for West Indies Tri-Series in June), Allan Donald (for tour of Sri Lanka in July-September)
· Assistant Coach and Bowling Coach: David Saker
· Spin Bowling Coach: John Davison
· Spin Consultant: Sridharan Sriram (for tour of Sri Lanka in July-September)
· Fielding coach: Greg Blewett
· Interim Fielding coach: Sridharan Sriram (for tour of Sri Lanka in July-September)
· Fielding consultant: Mike Young
· Strength & Conditioning coach: Damian Mednis
· Team physiotherapist: Alex Kountouris
· Team doctor: Peter Brukner
· Team manager: Gavin Dovey
· Performance analyst: Michael Marshal
· Media Lady: Katie Hutchinson
Australia | |
Test status acquired | 1877 |
First Test match | v England at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, 15–19 March 1877 (scorecard) |
Captain | Steve Smith |
Coach | Darren Lehmann |
Current ICC Test, ODI and T20I ranking | 3rd (Test) 1st (ODI) 6th (T20I) [1] |
All-time best ICCTest, ODI and T20Iranking | 1st (Test) 1st (ODI) 1st (T20I) [2] |
Test matches – This year | 790 5 |
Last Test match | v Sri Lanka at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, 13-17 August 2016 |
Wins/losses – This year | 372/210 (206 draws, 2 ties) 2/3 (1 draw) |
If cricket had been founded in England, it really took off with their contests against Australia. It had all started when a group of Australian Aborigines had toured England in 1868; it took nine years for the first Test to be played, and five more years for the Ashes - the mother of all cricket contests - to take off. It took several decades for a third team to compete with Australia and England. By the time South Africa and West Indies had stamped their firm authorities in world cricket, the world of cricket had already witnessed the entire career of Don Bradman - the greatest cricketer that ever was.
Without a doubt Australia has been the most consistent team over years. There has not been a five-year lull during which they were not among the top three sides in the world. The Australian style of playing cricket in an inimitable aggressive, never-say-die attitude has probably been the driving factor behind their consistent success. They also revolutionized cricket in more ways than one, thanks to their on-field aggression, quick scoring; off the field, the Kerry Packer era had played a major role in improvement the sports in terms of the players earnings and broadcasting technologies.
Australia had played the first One-Day international and have won four World Cups, which included a hat-trick of victories from 1999 to 2007. Even if one discounts the genius and impact of Bradman, they have produced legends of the sport on a consistent basis, right from Victor Trumper to Adam Gilchrist.
Without a doubt Australia has been the most consistent team over years. There has not been a five-year lull during which they were not among the top three sides in the world. The Australian style of playing cricket in an inimitable aggressive, never-say-die attitude has probably been the driving factor behind their consistent success. They also revolutionized cricket in more ways than one, thanks to their on-field aggression, quick scoring; off the field, the Kerry Packer era had played a major role in improvement the sports in terms of the players earnings and broadcasting technologies.
Australia had played the first One-Day international and have won four World Cups, which included a hat-trick of victories from 1999 to 2007. Even if one discounts the genius and impact of Bradman, they have produced legends of the sport on a consistent basis, right from Victor Trumper to Adam Gilchrist.
The Australian Cricket team has played 873 ODI matches, winning 541, losing 293, tying 9 and with 31 ending in no-result. They currently lead the ICC ODI Championship, having done so for 130 of 161 months since its introduction in 2002 . Australia have made a record seven World Cup final appearances (1975, 1987, 1996, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015) and have won the World Cup a record five times in total; 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2015. Australia is the first team to appear in four consecutive World Cup finals (1996, 1999, 2003 and 2007), surpassing the old record of three consecutive World Cup appearances by West Indies (1975, 1979 and 1983) and the first team to win 3 consecutive world cups (1999, 2003 and 2007). It is also the second team to win a World Cup (2015) on home soil, after India (2011).
The team was undefeated in 34 consecutive World Cup matches until 19 March at the 2011 Cricket World Cup where Pakistan beat them by 4 wickets. Australia have also won the ICC Champions Trophy twice – in 2006 and in 2009 – making them the first and the only team to become back to back winners in the Champions Trophy tournaments. The team has also played 88 Twenty 20 Internationals, winning 44, losing 41, tying 2 and with 1 ending in no-result making the final of the 2010 ICC World Twenty 20, which they eventually lost to England.
Golden Age
The so-called 'Golden Age' of Australian test cricket occurred around the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, with the team under the captaincy of Joe Darling, Monty Noble and Clem Hill winning eight of ten tours. It participated in between the 1897–98 English tour of Australia and the 1910–11 South African tour of Australia. Outstanding batsman such as Joe Darling, Clem Hill, Reggie Duff,Syd Gregory, Warren Bardsley and Victor Trumper, brilliant all-rounders including Monty Noble, George Giffen, Harry Trott and Warwick Armstrong and excellent bowlers including Ernie Jones, Hugh Trumble, Tibby Cotter, Bill Howell, Jack Saunders and Bill Whitty, all helped Australia to become the dominant cricketing nation for most of this period.
Victor Trumper became one of Australia's first sporting heroes, and was widely considered Australia's greatest batsman before Bradman and one of the most popular players. He played a record (at the time) number of tests at 49 and scored 3163 (another record) runs at a high for the time average of 39.04. His early death in 1915 at the age of 37 from kidney disease caused national mourning. The Wisden Cricketers Almanack, in its obituary for him, called him Australia's greatest batsman: Of all the great Australian batsmen Victor Trumper was by general consent the best and most brilliant.
The years leading up to the start of World War I were marred by conflict between the players, led by Clem Hill, Victor Trumper and Frank Laver, the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket. Led by Peter Mc Alister, who was attempting to gain more control of tours from the players. This led to six leading players (the so-called "Big Six") walking out on the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England, with Australia fielding what was generally considered a second-rate side. This was the last series before the war, and no more cricket was played by Australia for eight years, with Tibby Cotter being killed in Palestine during the war.
The Bradman Era
The 1930 Tour of England heralded a new age of success for the Australian team. The team, led by Bill Woodfull – the Great Un-bowlable – featured legends of the game including Bill Ponsford, Stan McCabe, Clarrie Grimmett and the young pair of Archie Jackson and Don Bradman. Bradman was the outstanding batsman of the series, scoring a record 974 runs, including one century, two double centuries and one triple century, a massive score of 334 at Leeds which including 309 runs in a day. Jackson died of tuberculosis at the age of 24 three years later, after playing eight tests. The team was widely considered unstoppable, winning nine of its next ten Tests.
The 1932–33 England tour of Australia is considered one of the most infamous episodes of cricket, due to the England team's use of bodyline, where captain Douglas Jardine instructed his bowlers Bill Voce and Harold Larwood to bowl fast, short-pitched deliveries aimed at the bodies of the Australian batsmen. The tactic, although effective, was widely considered by Australian crowds as vicious and unsporting. Injuries to Bill Woodfull, who was struck over the heart, and Bert Oldfield, who received a fractured skull (although from a non-Bodyline ball), exacerbated the situation, almost causing a full-scale riot from the 50 000 fans at the Adelaide Oval for the Third Test. The conflict almost escalated into a diplomatic incident between the two countries, as leading Australian political figures, including the Governor of South Australia, Alexander Hore-Ruthven, protested to their English counterparts. The series ended in a 4–1 win for England but the Bodyline tactics used were banned the year after.
The Australian team managed to overcome the damaging series, winning their next tour of England in 1934. The team was led by Bill Woodfull on his final tour, and was notably dominated by Ponsford and Bradman, who twice put on partnerships of over 380 runs, with Bradman once again scoring a triple-century at Leeds. The bowling was dominated by the spin pair of Bill O'Reilly and Clarrie Grimmett, who took 53 wickets between them, with O'Reilly twice taking seven-wicket hauls.
Sir Donald Bradman is widely considered the greatest batsman of all time. He dominated the sport from 1930 until his retirement in 1948, setting new records for the highest score in a test innings (334 vs England at Headingley in 1930), the most number of runs (6996), the most number of centuries (29), the most number of double centuries and the greatest Test and first-class batting averages. His record for the highest Test batting average – 99.94 – has never been beaten. It is almost 40 runs above the next highest average. He would have finished with an average of over 100 runs per innings if he had not been dismissed for a duck in his last Test. He was knighted in 1949 for services to cricket. He is generally considered one of Australia's greatest sporting heroes.
Test cricket was again interrupted by war, with the last Test series in 1938 made notable by Len Hutton making a world record 364 for England, with Chuck Fleetwood-Smith conceding 298 runs in England's world record total of 7–903. Ross Gregory, a notable young batsman who played two Tests before the war, was killed in the war.
International Competition
In recent years, Australia has been almost unstoppable. Mark Taylor's captaincy laid the groundwork for Steve Waugh and then Ricky Ponting to take Australia on a Test crusade which saw it vanquished in a series just once between July 2001 and September 2008. But it has looked more fallible in the longer form of the game in recent times. In the one-day arena, Australia has won the ICC World Cup four times out of its nine editions to date - more than any other country. It also won the ICC Champions Trophy twice - with success in South Africa in 2009, after winning the event in India in 2006. Twenty20 success has so far proved elusive but it did reach the final of the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies in 2010.
The Australian national team is one of the most successful teams in international cricket. Along with England, Australia was recognised as one of the founder nations of the Imperial Cricket Conference, later the International Cricket Council. Australia generally plays a test series against a visiting team, and a one-day series between two other teams at home each summer, and tours overseas for the remainder of the year
One Day Internationals
The Australian team took part in the first one day international on 5 January 1971, once again also against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Since then, the team has maintained a good record in one day internationals, winning five Cricket World Cups, more than any other national team. Following the end of World Series Cricket, from 1979–80 the Australian season featured a triangular series of one day internationals, featuring the Australian team and two touring teams. The first incarnation of this tournament was called the World Series Cup and included night cricket, coloured uniforms and a white ball. In 1994–95, the tournament included an Australia A cricket team, due to the perceived weakness of the invited Zimbabwe team. For the 1996–97 season, the World Series Cup was replaced by a series of tournaments named after a major sponsor, including the Carlton and United Series, the VB Series and the Commonwealth Bank Series. The successor series followed a similar format.
Australia and New Zealand co-hosted the 1992 Cricket World Cup, and the 2015 Cricket World Cup. In 1992, for the first time, the tournament featured the innovations already common in Australian one-day matches such as night cricket and coloured clothing. The tournament featured nine nations, expanded to include a South African team recently admitted back into world cricket. Australia despite starting firm favourites, performed poorly, failing to make the semi - final stage. Pakistan defeated England in the final in front of 87,182 spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
The 2015 Cricket World Cup was the 11th Cricket World Cup, jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand from 14 February to 29 March 2015. Fourteen teams played 49 matches in 14 venues, with Australia staging 26 games at grounds in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra,Hobart, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The final match of the tournament took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground between co-hostsNew Zealand and Australia in front of a record crowd of 93,013.
History
Cricket began in Australia soon after the start of colonisation in 1788, and quickly became popular in the colonies. Within a century, first-class status was achieved, with Tasmania's three-wicket victory against Launceston Racecourse in February, 1851 becoming Australia's inaugural first-class match while Victoria was already established, and the other states would join in time. Cricket's popularity soared in the 1860s, through touring teams, WG Grace's arrival in 1873 further boosting interest. Standards increased to the extent where Australia was ready to face England in a Test, in the 1876-77 season. So began Australia's illustrious international history.
Domestic Cricket
The Australian set-up is straightforward. The six states - New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia - play against each other for three trophies, in four-day, one-day and 20-over cricket. The Sheffield Shield, the first-class competition, is the main prize. The one-day trophy, currently the Pura Cup, is played in a league format, while the most recent introduction was the Twenty20 competition, known as the Big Bash League. Overseas players are rare in state cricket, while the sides are fed mainly through their state's grade competitions. District and country cricket is also available.
All-time Great
Don Bradman, or simply The Don, needs no introduction; neither do the figures 99.94 nor the words "He's out". Both New South Wales and South Australia claim him as its own: he played the early part of his career in Bowral before relocating to Kensington. He wasn't just a great for the Australian game - Wisden pronounced him "beyond any argument, the greatest batsman who ever lived and the greatest cricketer of the 20th Century". Bradman was also accomplished in squash, golf, tennis or billiards, but he loved cricket above all, later becoming a selector and administrator of the game. He was knighted in 1949.
The team was undefeated in 34 consecutive World Cup matches until 19 March at the 2011 Cricket World Cup where Pakistan beat them by 4 wickets.Australia have also won the ICC Champions Trophy twice – in 2006 and in 2009 – making them the first and the only team to become back to back winners in the Champions Trophy tournaments. The team has also played 88 Twenty20 Internationals, winning 44, losing 41, tying 2 and with 1 ending in no-resultmaking the final of the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, which they eventually lost to England.
The Australian cricket team participated in the first Test match at the MCG in 1877, defeating an English team by 45 runs, with Charles Bannerman making the first Test century, a score of 165 retired hurt. Test cricket, which only occurred between Australia and England at the time, was limited by the long distance between the two countries, which would take several months by sea. Despite Australia's much smaller population, the team was very competitive in early games, producing stars such as Jack Blackham, Billy Murdoch, Fred "The Demon" Spofforth, George Bonnor, Percy McDonnell, George Giffen and Charles "The Terror" Turner. Most cricketers at the time were either from New South Wales or Victoria, with the notable exception of George Giffen, the star South Australian all-rounder.
A highlight of Australia's early history was the 1882 Test match against England atThe Oval. In this match Fred Spofforth took 7/44 in the game's fourth innings to save the match by preventing England from making their 85-run target. After this match The Sporting Times, a major newspaper in London at the time, printed a mock obituary in which the death of English cricket was proclaimed and the announcement made that "the body was cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." This was the start of the famous Ashes series in which Australia and England play a Test match series to decide the holder of the Ashes. To this day, the contest is one of the fiercest rivalries in sport.
Australia was less successful in the 1950s, losing three consecutive Ashes series to England, including a horrendous 1956 Tour of England, where the 'spin twins' Lakerand Lock destroyed Australia, taking 61 wickets between them, including Laker taking 19 wickets in the game (a first-class record) at Leeds, a game dubbedLaker's Match. However, the team rebounded to win five consecutive series in the latter half of the 1950s, first under the leadership of Ian Johnson, then Ian Craig and Richie Benaud. The series against the West Indies in the 1960–61 season was notable for the Tied Test in the first game at The Gabba, which was the first in Test cricket. Australia ended up winning the series 2–1 after a hard fought series that was praised for its excellent standards and sense of fair play. Stand-out players in that series as well as through the early part of the 1960s were Richie Benaud, who took a then-record number of wickets as a leg-spinner, and who also captained Australia in 28 Tests, including 24 without defeat; Alan Davidson, who became the first player to take 10 wickets and make 100 runs in the same game in the first Test, and was also a notable fast-bowler; Bob Simpson, who also later captained Australia for two different periods of time; Colin McDonald, the first-choice opening batsman for most of the 1950s and early '60s; Norm O'Neill, who made 181 in the Tied Test; Neil Harvey, towards the end of his long career; and Wally Grout, an excellent wicket-keeper who died at the age of 41.
