Jake Weatherald will likely join a relatively short list but impressive list of Tasmanian or Tasmanian-based players to represent their country. He was born in the Northern Territory and arrived at Bellerive after commencing his first-class career in South Australia.

The history of cricket in our smallest state is both long and intriguing – I have scratched the surface.

The initial game of first-class cricket was played on February 11, 1851 between the Melbourne Cricket Club, which sailed across Bass Strait, and a collective from Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) at the Launceston Racecourse. Thomas Rose in his article on Cricinfo states “the ground was extremely rough and it was difficult for umpires Lyon and Weedon to decide where to play”.  A crowd of 2,500 saw the home side end up winning in a game dominated by the bowlers.  The game was overshadowed by the Black Thursday bushfires which had wreaked havoc on parts the colony of Port Phillip a week earlier.

Although Tasmanian XIs played against various touring sides and inter-colony matches over the ensuing years they were not invited to join the Sheffield Shield cricket competition which was established in 1892-93. Initially only the colonies of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia were included after Lord Sheffield had donated 150 pounds to New South Wales Cricket Association to fund the competition.

They were eventually admitted to the Sheffield Shield interstate competition in 1977/78 as a “development” team or “expansion” team as the AFL would now describe them. To ease them into it in their first season they were fixtured to play each mainland state only once.  This was against the backdrop of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket which substantially weakened the Australian domestic competition due to the exodus of the top players who had signed lucrative contracts to join the breakaway competition.

Tasmania had been competitive in the domestic one-day completion, then known as the Gillette Cup since it formed in 1972/73. Captained by the wily English pro Jack Simmons (55 and 4/17 in 10 overs) they won the 1978/79 title by defeating Western Australia in the final by 47 runs. Craig Sarjeant (78) scored 60 per cent of Western Australia’s miserable tally of 130.

In the four-day format, however, the Islanders were regularly out-played.  The team was a mix from the Tasmanian Cricket Association and the North Western Tasmania Cricket Association. Tasmanian, importantly was allowed to select two overseas players; being the aforementioned genial Jack Simmons from Lancashire and Yorkshire’s John Hampshire, who had played eight Tests for England and later became an international umpire.

The first Shield Team to be selected was-

Dennis Baker (Tasmanian Cricket Association)
Tony Benneworth (Northern Tasmania Cricket Association)
Garry Cowmeadow (North Western Tasmania Cricket Association)
Trevor Docking (North Western Tasmania Cricket Association)
Bruce Doolan (Northern Tasmania Cricket Association)
John Hampshire (Yorkshire) (vc)
Stephen Howard (Northern Tasmania Cricket Association)
Bruce Neil (Tasmanian Cricket Association)
Mike Norman (Tasmanian Cricket Association)
Rohan Sherriff (North Western Tasmania Cricket Association)
Jack Simmons (Lancashire) (c)
David Smith (Northern Tasmania Cricket Association)

Whilst Tasmania didn’t win their first match until their second season they fought out some commendable draws. The bowling stocks seemed threadbare although the likes of the delightfully-named Garry Cowmeadow toiled hard. In that inaugural season was a handy wicket-keeper batsman, Roger Woolley who would later become Tasmania’s first Test player. Also, young David Boon was beginning to show promise and debuted the following season, 1978/79 against Queensland.

Twenty-eight years after Boon’s debut Tasmania, now a fully-fledged participant, won the Sheffield Shield. A perusal of names to have passed through the TCA include Hadlee, Lillee, Holding, Patterson (a pretty decent quartet of fast bowlers).

Tasmania have also produced some home-grown champions (Boon and Ponting) and two Test captains (Ponting and Paine). Currently Beau Webster is their sole Test incumbent.

Movement of players between states has become more fluid in the last 45 years and there is less loyalty to the state of birth. Of the current Tasmanian side at least two players (Jordan Silk and Jackson Bird) originally hail from a mainland state (NSW).

Today, Tasmania has won three Sheffield Shield titles and four Limited Overs titles. This looks promising season too.

 

Read more from Dan Hoban HERE.

 

 

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