Aboriginal cricketers bowl over the British

Australian players cause a stir on their international tour

On 13 May 1868, the first Australian cricket side to visit Britain arrived in Gravesend. But this was a sporting milestone twice over – because the team comprised only Aboriginal players.

The squad had been assembled by the former Surrey cricketer Charles Lawrence, who calculated that a team of “blacks”, as they were then called, would excite considerable attention. He was right. As soon as the boat docked in Gravesend, the national papers were all over the story.

“No arrival,” said the Sporting Life, “has been anticipated with such curiosity and interest as that of the Black Cricketers from Australia.” The paper went on to emphasise that the players were not “savages … They are perfectly civilised, having been brought up in the bush as assistants to Europeans.” The Telegraph agreed: “Although several of them are native bushmen, and all are as black as night, these Indian fellows are, to all intents and purposes, clothed and in their right minds.”

The visitors performed extremely creditably; of the 47 matches they played, the Australian team won 14, lost 14 and drew the remaining 19. The only real controversy concerned their appearance at Lord’s against a Marylebone Cricket Club XI. The Times considered it a “travestie” on such a hallowed ground. However, the match went ahead, and afterwards the visitors delighted the crowd – though not the traditionalists – with an exhibition of boomerang and spear throwing. “The performance seemed to give general satisfaction,” admitted the MCC report, “and the public would have been much disappointed if the sports had not taken place.”