Australia national cricket team
The Australia men's national cricket team represents Australia in international cricket. Along with England, it is the joint oldest team in Test cricket history, playing and winning the first ever Test match in 1877; the team also plays One-Day International and Twenty20 International cricket, participating in both the first ODI, against England in the 1970–71 season and the first T20I, against New Zealand in the 2004–05 season, winning both games. The team draws its players from teams playing in the Australian domestic competitions – the Sheffield Shield, the Australian domestic limited-overs cricket tournament and the Big Bash League. Australia are the current ICC Cricket World Cup champions. They are generally regarded as the most successful national team in the history of cricket.
The national team has played 882 Test matches, winning 426, losing 235, 219 drawn and with 2 tied., Australia is first in the ICC Test Rankings. Australia is the most successful team in Test cricket history, in terms of overall wins, win–loss ratio, and wins percentage. Australia have won the ICC World Test Championship once, defeating India in the final of the 2021–2023 World Test Championship. Test rivalries centre on The Ashes, the Border–Gavaskar Trophy, the Frank Worrell Trophy, the Trans-Tasman Trophy, and matches against South Africa.
The team has played 1,019 ODI matches, winning 617, losing 358, tying 9 and with 35 ending in a no-result., Australia is ranked third in the ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings. Australia is one of the most successful teams in ODI cricket history, winning more than 60 per cent of their matches, with a record eight World Cup final appearances and have won the World Cup a record six times: 1987, 1999, 2003, 2007, 2015, and 2023. Australia is the first team to appear in four consecutive World Cup finals, surpassing the old record of three consecutive World Cup appearances by the West Indies and the first and only team to win 3 consecutive World Cups. The team was undefeated in 34 consecutive World Cup matches until the 2011 Cricket World Cup where Pakistan beat them by 4 wickets in the Group stage. Australia is also the second team to win a World Cup on home soil, after India. Australia have also won the ICC Champions Trophy twice making them the first and the only team to be back to back winners in the Champions Trophy tournaments.
Australia has played 221 Twenty20 International matches, winning 122, losing 89, tying 3, and with 7 ending in a no-result., Australia is ranked second in the ICC Men's T20I Team Rankings. Australia have won the ICC Men's T20 World Cup once, defeating New Zealand in the 2021 Final.
On 12 January 2019, Australia won an ODI against India at the Sydney Cricket Ground by 34 runs, to record their 1,000th win in international cricket.
History
Early history
The Australian cricket team participated in the first Test match at the MCG in 1877. They defeated England by 45 runs, with Charles Bannerman making the first Test century with a score of 165. Test cricket, which only occurred between Australia and England at the time, was limited by the long distance between the two countries, which took 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.One of the highlights of Australia's early history was the 1882 Test match against England, which took place at The Oval. In this match, Fred Spofforth took 7/44 in the game's fourth innings, saving 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 series of Test matches to decide the holder of the Ashes. To this day, the contest is one of the fiercest rivalries in sport.
Golden age
The 'Golden Age' of Australian Test cricket occurred around the end of the 19th century, concluding at 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 is considered to have lasted from the 1897–98 English tour of Australia and the 1910–11 South African tour of Australia. Outstanding batsmen such as Joe Darling, Clem Hill, and Reggie Duff, all helped Australia to become the dominant cricketing nation for most of this period.Victor Trumper became one of Australia's first sporting heroes, who was widely considered Australia's greatest batsman before Bradman became one of the most popular players. He played a record of a number of Tests at 49, and scored 3163 runs at a high for the time average of 39.04. He died in 1915 at the age of 37 from kidney disease, causing 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 were marred by conflict between the players, led by Clem Hill, Victor Trumper and Frank Laver, and the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket, led by Peter McAlister, who was attempting to gain more control of tours from the players.
This led to six leading players 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. Fast bowler Tibby Cotter, who had caused outrage with his bowling during the 1905 tour of England, after first striking W.G. Grace with the ball, before dismissing him the following delivery, was killed during the Battle of Beersheba.
Inter-war period
Test cricket resumed in the 1920/21 season in Australia with a touring English team captained by Johnny Douglas losing all five Tests to Australia, captained by the "Big Ship" Warwick Armstrong. Several players from before the war, including Warwick Armstrong, Charlie Macartney, Charles Kelleway, Warren Bardsley and the wicket-keeper Sammy Carter, were instrumental in the team's success, as well as new players Herbie Collins, Jack Ryder, Bert Oldfield, the spinner Arthur Mailey and the so-called "twin destroyers" Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald. The team continued its success on the 1921 tour of England, winning three out of the five Tests in Warwick Armstrong's last series. The side was, on the whole, inconsistent in the latter half of the 1920s, losing its first home Ashes series since the 1911–12 season in 1928–29.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 23 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, 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 put the result of this series behind them, 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 player 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, the most runs, the most centuries, the most double centuries and the highest 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 per innings 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 all-time greatest sporting heroes, if not the greatest.
Test cricket was again interrupted by war, with the last Test series in 1938 made notable by Len Hutton scoring a world record 364 for England, and 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.