Football Leagues
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Aborigines
and cricket In 1868, 14 Aboriginal cricket players toured England. In addition to playing games, they gave some exhibibitions of boomerang and spear throwing. Although there was no intended malice in the policy of selecting an all-black team and sending them on a cultural performance tour, it was quite patronising. It showed how the colonists were civilising the natives with one hand, but parading them as museum pieces with the other. It would be like Americans coming to Australia, teaching a few Aussie how to play gridiron, taking them back to the states for some exhibition games, dressing them in moleskins, and getting them to say "that's not a knife, that's a knife." The Aboriginal team was selected from western Victoria and coached by one of the co-founders of Australian football, Tom Wills. Upon arrival in England, the The Times described the tourists as, "a travestie upon cricketing at Lords", and, "the conquered natives of a convict colony." While some sections of English society considered them to be a travesty, they were a popular one. So much so, the demands placed upon them were nothing short of horrendous. In a gruelling five month stay, they played 47 games and upon completion of each game, they also gave exhibitions of boomerang and spear throwing. Admittedly, there were no Shane Warnes or Greg Ritchies in the team, but the fact the tour was completed with only one death and two players sent home suffering severe illness must be seen as an incredible feat of endurance. The results were also equally impressive. Despite the onerous schedule, having no history in the game and playing in a foreign culture, the team managed 14 wins, 14 losses and 19 draws. One team member Johnny Mullagh - bowled 1877 overs, 831 of them maidens, hit 2489 runs and took 245 wickets at an average of 10. An English fast bowler of the time, George Tarrant, bowled to Mullagh and later said, "I have never bowled to a better batsman." Off the field, other team members consumed an impressive amount of alcohol that was not matched until the likes of David Boon and Rod Marsh toured England more than a century later. On their departure Sporting Life wrote: 'no eleven has in one season ever played so many matches so successfully - never playing less than two matches in each week, and frequently three, bearing an amount of fatigue that now seems incredible.' Despite these beginnings, few Aborigines followed in their footsteps. One of the reasons is that The Central Board for Aborigines ruled in 1869 that it would be illegal to remove any Aborigine from the colony of Victoria without the approval of the government minister. This limited the opportunities for Aboriginal players. Another problem was that the team positioned Aborigines as novelty items that were not taken seriously as potential team-mates of other cricketers in the colony. Consequently, when the Aborigines tried to join all white teams, they ran into difficulties with officialdom that wanted them throwing boomerangs instead. The first Aborigine to suffer from establishment culture was Alec Henry. Alec represented Queensland in 1901 and was initially lauded as "perfectly civilised and in great command of the English language." A great fast bowler, in one pre-season match he took 8-14 which led to predictions that he would have a place in the Australian side against the visiting English. Unfortunately, an umpire judged that he was throwing and his place in the national team never eventuated. His protests fell on deaf ears and when his 'civilised' conduct appeared to falter, he was forcibly relocated from Brisbane on the charge of "defying authority." Another player who seemed destined for greatness only to be denied for dubious reasons was Jack Marsh. Born in 1874, Marsh was a member of the Bundjalung people of northern NSW and southeast Queensland. Marsh burst onto the scene by leading the national bowling averages in his first season with NSW. Some batsmen, including the English cricket captain of the era, rated him the "world's best bowler." Despite his talent, he was denied international honours when in 1902 the visiting English refused to play against him. Like Henry, he was later no-balled out of the game. Another player with eyes on national honours was Eddie Gilbert. Although he bowled off only five shuffled paces, he did so at a sizzling speed. In a match between Queensland and the West Indies, Gilbert took 5 for 65 off 19 overs and 2 for 26 in the second innings. He also won national respect when he bowled Sir Donald Bradman for a rare duck in 1931. The Australian public called for him to be selected for a test against South Africa but like his predecessors, an umpire no-balled him for throwing. Unhappy, he protested. Unfortunately, his refusal to heed the umpires decision only resulted in him being admitted to a mental asylum. Jason Gillespie was the first man with known Aboriginal ancestry to play for a mixed-race Australian team. After proving himself to be very popular with the Australian public and a sound contributor with both bat and ball, Gillespie found himself discarded for no good reason. For a short period of time, Cricket Australia trumpted that it had an Aborigine playing for them. Then selection plicy changed and Gillespie never played for Australia again. Considering that he topped the bowling averages and scored a double century in his last test series, Gillespie could have been forgiven for thinking his omission was a little unfair.
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Invention of Australian sports Cricket
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