Sheffield Shield

The Sheffield Shield is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams representing the six states of Australia. The Sheffield Shield is named after Lord Sheffield.
Prior to the Shield being established, a number of intercolonial matches were played. The Shield, donated by Lord Sheffield, was first contested during the 1892–93 season, between New [South Wales cricket team|New South Wales], South [Australia cricket team|South Australia] and Victoria. Queensland was admitted for the 1926–27 season, Western Australia for the 1947–48 season, and Tasmania for the 1977–78 season.
The competition is contested in a double-round-robin format, with each team playing every other team twice, i.e. home and away. Points are awarded based on wins, draws, ties and bonus points for runs and wickets in a team's first 100 batting and bowling overs, with the top two teams playing a final at the end of the season. Regular matches last for four days; the final lasts for five days.
The Sheffield Shield is supported by a Second XI reserves competition.

WWW Official Site

Origin of the shield

In 1891–92 the Earl of Sheffield was in Australia as the promoter of the English team led by W. G. Grace. The tour included three Tests played in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide.
At the conclusion of the tour, Lord Sheffield donated £150 to the New South Wales Cricket Association to fund a trophy for an annual tournament of intercolonial cricket in Australia. The three colonies of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia were already playing each other in ad hoc matches. The new tournament commenced in the summer of 1892–93, mandating home and away fixtures between each colony each season. The three teams competed for the Sheffield Shield, named after its benefactor. A Polish immigrant, Phillip Blashki of Melbourne, won the competition to design the trophy, a silver shield.
The competition therefore commenced some 15 years after Australia's first Test match.

Sponsorship and name changes

In 1999, the Australian Cricket Board announced a sponsorship deal which included renaming the Sheffield Shield to the Pura Milk Cup, then to the Pura Cup the following season. Pura is a brand name of National Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bega Cheese. The sponsorship increased total annual prize money to A$220,000, with the winners receiving A$75,000 and the runners up A$45,000.
On 16 July 2008 it was announced that Weet-Bix would take over sponsorship of the competition from the start of the 2008–09 season, and that the name would revert to the "Sheffield Shield" or the "Sheffield Shield presented by Weet-Bix". Weet-Bix is a breakfast cereal manufactured by Sanitarium.
In the 2019–20 season, Marsh & McLennan Companies took over the sponsorship for the competition. This followed Marsh & McLennan's acquisition of JLT, which had sponsored the competition since 2017.

Teams

Since 1977–78, all six states of Australia have fielded their own teams. Details of each team are set out below.
Before 1993, all states were known solely by their state names or cricket association titles. Queensland was the first to adopt a nickname when it became known as the ‘Bulls’ from 1993; and following the success of that, other states adopted nicknames from 1995. The nicknames have since mostly fallen out of official use.

Team name	Team nickname	Home ground/s	Inaugural season	First title	Last title	Shield titles	Team captain/s
New South Wales	Blues	Cricket Central Drummoyne Oval North Dalton Park Bankstown Oval Sydney Cricket Ground	1892–93	1895–96	2019–20	47	Moises Henriques
Queensland	Bulls	Allan Border Field Brisbane Cricket Ground	1926–27	1994–95	2020–21	9	Marnus Labuschagne
South Australia	Redbacks	Adelaide Oval Karen Rolton Oval	1892–93	1893–94	2024–25	14	Nathan McSweeney
Tasmania	Tigers	Bellerive Oval	1977–78	2006–07	2012–13	3	Jordan Silk
Victoria	Bushrangers	Junction Oval Melbourne Cricket Ground	1892–93	1892–93	2018–19	32	Will Sutherland
Western Australia	Warriors	Perth Stadium WACA Ground	1947–48	1947–48	2023–24	18	Sam Whiteman

Venues

Below are the venues that hosted Sheffield Shield matches during the 2024–25 season.

Adelaide Oval	Allan Border Field	Bellerive Oval	Cricket Central	The Gabba
Adelaide, South Australia	Brisbane, Queensland	Hobart, Tasmania	Sydney, New South Wales	Brisbane, Queensland
Capacity: 53,500	Capacity: 6,500	Capacity: 20,000	Capacity: 3,000	Capacity: 42,000
Junction Oval	Karen Rolton Oval	Melbourne Cricket Ground	Sydney Cricket Ground	WACA Ground
Melbourne, Victoria	Adelaide, South Australia	Melbourne, Victoria	Sydney, New South Wales	Perth, Western Australia
Capacity: 5,000	Capacity: 7,000	Capacity: 100,024	Capacity: 48,000	Capacity: 24,000

Competition format

Each side has played each other both home and away every season with the following exceptions:

South Australia had no home game with: Victoria in 1901–02 or 1903–04; either opponent in 1907–08; New South Wales in 1910–11.
Queensland and South Australia played only once in 1926–27.
Western Australia played each team only once from their debut in 1946–47 until 1955–56 inclusive.
Tasmania played each team only once from their debut in 1977–78 until 1981–82 inclusive.
In 2019–20 the season was curtailed after nine rounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2020–21 season was heavily affected by COVID-19 lockdowns, with QLD playing 9 games, Tasmania and South Australia 8, and Western Australia, New South Wales and Victoria playing 7 each. Unusually for the Sheffield Shield, Victoria and New South Wales played each other 3 times during the home and away portion of the season.

Where the teams played an unequal number of games, their final points were calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Matches were timeless up to 1926–27. A four-day time limit has applied since 1927–28.
In 1940–41, however, the Sheffield Shield was not contested but ten first-class “friendly” matches were played between the States for patriotic funds; however financially these were unsuccessful.
The Sheffield Shield was not contested during the 1941–42 Australian first-class season - instead an “Interstate Patriotic Competition” was held, with all proceeds going to the war effort. Only one match was played before the competition was cancelled due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.

Final

Since 1982–83, the top two teams after the home and away rounds have met in a final, played over five days at the home ground of the top-ranked team. Between 1982–83 and 2017–18, in the event of a draw or tie, the Shield was awarded to the top-ranked team. Since the 2018–19 summer, in the event of a draw or tie, the team which scores more first innings bonus points, based on the system used in regular season matches, wins the Shield. No final was played in 2019–20 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Points system

A points system has been used since the 2014–15 season, and currently points are awarded for each match during the home and away season according to the following table.

Result	Points
An outright win	6
A tie where both teams have completed two innings	3
An outright loss	0
Abandoned or drawn matches	1
Bonus batting points	0.01 for every run above 200 in the first 100 overs of the first innings of each team
Bonus bowling points	0.1 for taking each wicket in the first 100 overs of the first innings of each team

Bonus points example – If after 100 overs the score is 8/350, the batting team would receive 1.5 points, and the bowling side would receive 0.8 points
Quotient is used to separate teams which finish on an equal number of points.
Teams can be penalised points for failing to maintain an adequate over rate.
The bonus bowling points were modified for the 2016–17 season. For the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons, the bowling team received 0.5 points for taking the 5th, 7th and 9th wickets.

Previous systems

The Shield was initially envisaged as a match-by-match challenge trophy; it was originally determined on 4 January 1893 that it would first be awarded to the winner of the next inter-colonial match, and then would pass in perpetuity to any team which defeated the holder of the trophy; But on 30 January, it was decided instead to award the Shield to the team which won the most intercolonial matches across the season.
The quotient has been used as a tie-breaker for teams on equal points since 1893–94.
First innings points were introduced in 1932–33 and used until 1970–71.
Bonus points for first innings batting and bowling were used from 1971–72 to 1980–81 inclusive. During the first 100 overs of each side's first innings, a maximum of 10 batting bonus points could be attained. They were awarded for every 25 runs scored from 175 to 400 inclusive. A maximum of 5 bowling bonus points were available, initially upon capture of the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and last wickets. This was later changed to wickets 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 as batting teams often declared when 9 wickets down to deny the bowling side the additional bonus point. Teams were awarded an extra 10 points for an outright win.
From 1981–82 to 2013–14 there were no bonus points. Teams were awarded 6 points for an outright win, and 2 points for drawing or losing after holding a first innings lead.

Competition placings

Prior to the introduction of a Final in 1982–83, the team with most points after the home and away rounds was declared the winner. With the introduction of the Final, the top team hosts the second placed team in a five-day match. Until 2018–19, the visiting team was required to win the Final to win the championship; the home team won the championship in the event of a tied or drawn Final. Since the 2018–19 summer, in the event of a draw or tie, the team which scores more first innings bonus points, based on the system used in regular season matches, wins the Shield. Further details including match scorecards are available at Cricinfo and the Cricket Archive.

1947/48–1976/77

Season	Winner	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth
1947–48	Western Australia	New South Wales	South Australia	Queensland	Victoria
1948–49	New South Wales	Victoria	South Australia	Queensland	Western Australia
1949–50	New South Wales	Victoria	Western Australia	Queensland	South Australia
1950–51	Victoria	New South Wales	Western Australia	Queensland	South Australia
1951–52	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Western Australia
1952–53	South Australia	New South Wales	Victoria	Western Australia	Queensland
1953–54	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Western Australia
1954–55	New South Wales	Victoria	Western Australia	Queensland	South Australia
1955–56	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	Western Australia	South Australia
1956–57	New South Wales	Queensland	Victoria	Western Australia	South Australia
1957–58	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	Western Australia	South Australia
1958–59	New South Wales	Queensland	Victoria	Western Australia	South Australia
1959–60	New South Wales	Victoria	Western Australia	Queensland	South Australia
1960–61	New South Wales	Victoria	Western Australia	Queensland	South Australia
1961–62	New South Wales	Queensland	South Australia	Victoria	Western Australia
1962–63	Victoria	South Australia	New South Wales	Western Australia	Queensland
1963–64	South Australia	Victoria	New South Wales	Queensland	Western Australia
1964–65	New South Wales	Victoria	South Australia	Western Australia	Queensland
1965–66	New South Wales	Western Australia	South Australia	Victoria	Queensland
1966–67	Victoria	South Australia	New South Wales	Western Australia	Queensland
1967–68	Western Australia	Victoria	South Australia	New South Wales	Queensland
1968–69	South Australia	Western Australia	Queensland	Victoria	New South Wales
1969–70	Victoria	Western Australia	New South Wales	South Australia	Queensland
1970–71	South Australia	Victoria	Western Australia	New South Wales	Queensland
1971–72	Western Australia	South Australia	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland
1972–73	Western Australia	South Australia	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland
1973–74	Victoria	Queensland	New South Wales	Western Australia	South Australia
1974–75	Western Australia	Queensland	Victoria	New South Wales	South Australia
1975–76	South Australia	Queensland	Western Australia	New South Wales	Victoria
1976–77	Western Australia	Victoria	Queensland	New South Wales	South Australia

1977/78–present

Season	Winner	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Sixth
1977–78	Western Australia	Queensland	Victoria	South Australia	New South Wales	Tasmania
1978–79	Victoria	Western Australia	New South Wales	Queensland	South Australia	Tasmania
1979–80	Victoria	South Australia	New South Wales	Queensland	Western Australia	Tasmania
1980–81	Western Australia	New South Wales	Queensland	Victoria	Tasmania	South Australia
1981–82	South Australia	New South Wales	Western Australia	Tasmania	Queensland	Victoria
1982–83	New South Wales	Western Australia	South Australia	Tasmania	Queensland	Victoria
1983–84	Western Australia	Queensland	Tasmania	New South Wales	South Australia	Victoria
1984–85	New South Wales	Queensland	South Australia	Western Australia	Victoria	Tasmania
1985–86	New South Wales	Queensland	Victoria	Western Australia	South Australia	Tasmania
1986–87	Western Australia	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	New South Wales	Tasmania
1987–88	Western Australia	Queensland	New South Wales	Victoria	South Australia	Tasmania
1988–89	Western Australia	South Australia	Queensland	New South Wales	Tasmania	Victoria
1989–90	New South Wales	Queensland	South Australia	Tasmania	Western Australia	Victoria
1990–91	Victoria	New South Wales	Queensland	Western Australia	South Australia	Tasmania
1991–92	Western Australia	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Tasmania
1992–93	New South Wales	Queensland	Western Australia	South Australia	Tasmania	Victoria
1993–94	New South Wales	Tasmania	Western Australia	Victoria	South Australia	Queensland
1994–95	Queensland	South Australia	Victoria	Western Australia	New South Wales	Tasmania
1995–96	South Australia	Western Australia	Queensland	Tasmania	New South Wales	Victoria
1996–97	Queensland	Western Australia	New South Wales	Tasmania	Victoria	South Australia
1997–98	Western Australia	Tasmania	Queensland	New South Wales	Victoria	South Australia
1998–99	Western Australia	Queensland	Victoria	South Australia	Tasmania	New South Wales
1999–2000	Queensland	Victoria	Western Australia	South Australia	Tasmania	New South Wales
2000–01	Queensland	Victoria	New South Wales	Tasmania	Western Australia	South Australia
2001–02	Queensland	Tasmania	Western Australia	South Australia	Victoria	New South Wales
2002–03	New South Wales	Queensland	Victoria	South Australia	Western Australia	Tasmania
2003–04	Victoria	Queensland	Tasmania	Western Australia	New South Wales	South Australia
2004–05	New South Wales	Queensland	Western Australia	Victoria	South Australia	Tasmania
2005–06	Queensland	Victoria	South Australia	Tasmania	Western Australia	New South Wales
2006–07	Tasmania	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	Western Australia	South Australia
2007–08	New South Wales	Victoria	Western Australia	Tasmania	South Australia	Queensland
2008–09	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Tasmania	Western Australia	New South Wales
2009–10	Victoria	Queensland	New South Wales	Western Australia	Tasmania	South Australia
2010–11	Tasmania	New South Wales	Queensland	Western Australia	Victoria	South Australia
2011–12	Queensland	Tasmania	Victoria	Western Australia	New South Wales	South Australia
2012–13	Tasmania	Queensland	New South Wales	Victoria	Western Australia	South Australia
2013–14	New South Wales	Western Australia	South Australia	Queensland	Tasmania	Victoria
2014–15	Victoria	Western Australia	New South Wales	Queensland	Tasmania	South Australia
2015–16	Victoria	South Australia	New South Wales	Queensland	Western Australia	Tasmania
2016–17	Victoria	South Australia	Western Australia	New South Wales	Queensland	Tasmania
2017–18	Queensland	Tasmania	Victoria	Western Australia	New South Wales	South Australia
2018–19	Victoria	New South Wales	Western Australia	Queensland	Tasmania	South Australia
2019–20	New South Wales	Victoria	Queensland	Tasmania	Western Australia	South Australia
2020–21	Queensland	New South Wales	Western Australia	Tasmania	Victoria	South Australia
2021–22	Western Australia	Victoria	Tasmania	New South Wales	Queensland	South Australia
2022–23	Western Australia	Victoria	Queensland	South Australia	Tasmania	New South Wales
2023–24	Western Australia	Tasmania	New South Wales	Victoria	South Australia	Queensland
2024–25	South Australia	Queensland	Victoria	New South Wales	Tasmania	Western Australia

Player of the Year

The Player of the Year award is announced at the end of each season. Since its inception in 1976 it has been awarded to the best-performed player/s over the season, as determined a panel of judges. Victorian and South Australian batsman Matthew Elliott has won the award the most times, being awarded Player of the Year on three separate occasions.

Season	Winner
1975–76	Ian Chappell, Greg Chappell
1976–77	Richie Robinson
1977–78	David Ogilvie
1978–79	Peter Sleep
1979–80	Ian Chappell
1980–81	Greg Chappell
1981–82	Kepler Wessels
1982–83	Kim Hughes
1983–84	Brian Davison, John Dyson
1984–85	David Boon
1985–86	Allan Border
1986–87	Craig McDermott
1987–88	Dirk Tazelaar, Mark Waugh
1988–89	Tim May
1989–90	Mark Waugh
1990–91	Stuart Law
1991–92	Tony Dodemaide
1992–93	Jamie Siddons
1993–94	Matthew Hayden
1994–95	Dean Jones
1995–96	Matthew Elliott
1996–97	Andy Bichel
1997–98	Dene Hills
1998–99	Matthew Elliott
1999–2000	Darren Lehmann
2000–01	Jamie Cox
2001–02	Brad Hodge, Jimmy Maher
2002–03	Clinton Perren
2003–04	Matthew Elliott
2004–05	Michael Bevan
2005–06	Andy Bichel
2006–07	Chris Rogers
2007–08	Simon Katich
2008–09	Phillip Hughes
2009–10	Chris Hartley
2010–11	James Hopes
2011–12	Jackson Bird
2012–13	Ricky Ponting
2013–14	Marcus North
2014–15	Adam Voges
2015–16	Travis Head
2016–17	Chadd Sayers
2017–18	Chris Tremain
2018–19	Scott Boland
2019–20	Moises Henriques, Nic Maddinson
2020–21	Nathan Lyon
2021–22	Henry Hunt, Travis Dean
2022–23	Michael Neser
2023–24	Beau Webster
2024–25	Fergus O'Neill

Records

Individual records

Players representing three states

Six other players have represented three Australian states in top-level cricket, but without playing Sheffield Shield games for all three – Neil Hawke ; Walter McDonald ; Percy McDonnell ; Karl Quist ; Greg Rowell ; Wal Walmsley, Dan Christian.

Bowling records

Hat-tricks

Many bowlers have taken a hat-trick in the Sheffield Shield. Mitchell Starc is the only bowler to take two hat-tricks in a Sheffield Shield match. In round two of the 2017–18 competition, Starc became the only bowler to take a hat-trick in each innings of a first-class cricket match in Australia, doing so against Western Australia at Hurstville Oval.