Issue 14
Cricket
By Chris FlynnIllustration By Damien Correll
“Nothing of interest comes from Australia except gold nuggets and black cricketers,” joked England’s Daily Telegraph in 1868 upon the arrival of the Parramatta ship at Gravesend, Kent, 87 years to the day after the first fleet set sail from the same port to colonize the wild and barbaric island of Australia. The Telegraph was referring to one of the most anachronistic sporting events of the nineteenth century—a tour of England by an Australian cricket team comprised entirely of Aboriginals
Coached by ex-Surrey cricketer Charles Lawrence, who had made a life for himself in the Antipodes, the tour was the first for any Australian sporting team and preceded the first White cricket tour by 10 years. Given the Central Board for the Protection of Aborigines had strictly forbidden the removal of native men from the state of Victoria and the popularity of Charles Darwin’s The Origin of the Species in 1859—which, in effect, proclaimed the Australian Aborigine as one step removed from the beasts—the venture seemed doomed to failure, ridicule and disgrace.
All the more satisfying then that history notes the tour as a roaring success, with the Aboriginal team presenting themselves immaculately in specially designed outfits, speaking excellent English and knocking seven shades out of virtually every team they encountered, instilling a fear of Australian cricket in England that endures today. Sadly it was not until 133 years later that the second Aboriginal team toured England, captained by Barry Firebrace in 2001. The fate of the original 1868 team became relegated to the small print of history by a nation that has struggled to come to terms with the native owners of its land, only according Aboriginals citizenship in 1967, 99 years after the first black team represented their country so valiantly overseas.
Lawrence saw instant potential in the Aboriginal players he witnessed participating in games on remote sheep stations in the 1860s. He moved quickly to assemble a squad, who played their first game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1867 to great acclaim. Their athletic prowess was without equal, and in fact a feature of the English tour that fascinated the enormous crowds who turned out to watch the Australians play was the decathlon-like demonstrations at the end of each match. The native players ran backwards races (100 meters backwards in under 14 seconds was their record), threw boomerangs and spears fantastic distances. Dicka- Dick—whose native name was Jungunjinanuke— challenged bowlers to throw cricket balls at him as hard and fast as they could. He fended each heavy ball off with his traditional shield.
The team played 47 matches in 126 days, only losing 14 times against the cream of English players. With each successive victory they were swamped by well wishers, with crowds of up to 20,000 spilling onto the field at the end of the games to congratulate the bemused Australians. Top English fast bowler of the age George Tarrant practiced with Australia’s best player Johnny Mullagh—whose traditional name was Unaarrimin—and was impressed enough to proclaim, “I have never bowled to a better batsman.” Mullagh’s statistics from the tour are outstanding by today’s standards. In 47 games he scored 1,698 runs and took 245 wickets. Australia’s most famous present day all-rounder Shane Warne has only scored 1018 runs and taken 293 wickets in his entire career of 194 matches, and he is as good as they come. Had Mullagh been allowed to pursue a career in cricket, he would undoubtedly be remembered today as the forefather of the sport in Australia, and perhaps even the world. He was that good.
Despite their outstanding success, the team faced the wrath of the Central Board of Protection upon their return to the colony. They were split up and in 1869 a ruling was passed forbidding the removal of Aborigines from Victoria without prior approval of the government minister, putting an end to native involvement in cricket and any other sport. The ruling was purportedly intended to protect the dwindling Aboriginal population, wiped out by violence and disease from White settlers. It succeeded in marginalizing and isolating the indigenous communities, creating a deeply ingrained racism that prevails in the country to this day. Prime Minister John Howard categorically refused to issue an apology for Australia’s poor treatment of its natives throughout his 12-year tenure in power.
Mullagh played professionally for one year at the Melbourne Cricket Club. He represented Victoria in a match against a touring English team in 1879, wherein he was the top scorer. But, he died in 1891 on the sheep station where he grew up. The other star player Johnny Cuzens had died of dysentery years previously in 1871, and the rest of the team returned to their lives on reserves, fading into obscurity, and in the case of four individuals, vanishing without trace.
In a nation that prizes sport above almost all else, it is difficult to understand why the naturally athletic and highly capable Aboriginals were not permitted to be involved in sporting events. Cricket in particular excluded men of color until as recently as the 1990s, when test cricketer Jason Gillespie revealed himself to be of Aboriginal heritage. In fact, were it not for the efforts of local Indigenous Sports Officer Barry Firebrace, the number of Aboriginals involved in sports today would surely be much lower. Firebrace almost entered into a career with the Australian Football League team Hawthorn Hawks. Australia’s most popular sport has been a proving ground for many young Aboriginal sportsmen. Firebrace explains, “Two percent of Australians are Aboriginal but 10 percent of Aussie Rules players are indigenous, so sports is proving to finally be the route for many young Aboriginals to make a go of their lives.”
Firebrace captained the second Aboriginal cricket team to tour England in 2001, memorably playing one game against Los Angeles team the Compton Cricket Club, a match that the 27-year-old Firebrace remembers fondly.
“We played against a team from South Central, the Homies and the Popz, which was one of the stranger moments of my life. They’re coming to Australia for a return match in February 2008, which will be amazing.”
Compton coach Ted Hayes is defiant. “We want to beat the Aboriginal team that beat the snot out of us in England.” He started the team in 1995 as a means to get homeless young men off the streets and it has been an odd cult success, with three tours to England under their belts, a 40-minute opera based on their story and film rights sold to Disney.
Fun and games aside, Firebrace has high hopes for the future of Aboriginals in cricket, and indeed many other sports. He tirelessly travels across the state, organizing cricket matches, basketball games and soccer workshops for young Aboriginal sportsmen and women. The example of Olympic gold medallist 400-meter runner Cathy Freeman is still fresh in the minds of young Australians, a crowning achievement for indigenous sports in the face of media and public pressure that would crack the hide of a rhinoceros. Freeman kept her cool on the emotionally charged night of September 25, 2000, to take out the gold medal, draping herself in the Aboriginal flag for the victory lap despite an Olympic ban on non-national flags. There were no protests over her actions and in fact the moment is considered a pivotal one in the history of reconciliation in Australia. Barry Firebrace is continuing to carry the flag and is excited at some of the sporting talent he can see forming in Aboriginal communities.
“It’s only a matter of time before we have an Aboriginal Captain walking out on the field at Lord’s, leading Australia in a cricket test match. I’m working to make sure it happens in my lifetime, and if I have any say in the matter, you will see the same thing in a few other sports too.”
Unaarrimin should have been the most famous cricketer of the nineteenth century. Barry Firebrace is determined to make sure the next Johnny Mullagh is not left undiscovered.