Cricket has its ancestry traced back to England When about the year 1700 the game was first played as an organised activity. It was a game that reflected the social history of the period with one historian of the era claiming any sport has the seeds of its development planted within the soil of social custom".  This claim could well be made of the early development of cricket in Australia, Cricket started on the Southern Continent in 1803, just fifteen years after Captain Arthur Philip sailed his Flagship "SIRIUS" into Sydney Harbour.  The newly formed colonies in the 19th century were building foundations for future development including the beginnings of sporting roots. Historical records show that many traditional sports such as Cricket, Boxing, Athletics and Horse Racing were in vogue during the term of Governor Macquarie’s office.

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The pitches they played on in those early days were levelled out tracks and pads of sheep which roamed the countryside. These pads or tracks, being in the main the route of sheep from pasture to water and not going in any set direction as regards compass bearing, caused problems in respect of the Sun and in turn making the task of batsmen and even in those far off days, umpires much more difficult.  Sydney's first cricket clubs, THE MILITARY and THE AUSTRALIAN were formed in 1826, the result of pressure from the Army and Naval Garrisons. The first suitable stretch of Australia they could find was a cow paddock, known as the TURNPIKE, now part of Sydney Domain. This remained the headquarters of cricket for nearly forty years, discarded in the 1850's it was moved to Redfern.

In the 1830's the Derwent cricket club was formed in Hobart where cricket had been played for five or six years. Convicts who had been employed on road gangs were conscripted as part time curators.

The Melbourne club, formed in 1838, started off in the vicinity of William Street where the Royal Mint now stands, from there it moved to a location near the Spencer St Railway Station, a further move was then made to a site between the Yarra River and Emerald Hill.

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The building of Victoria’s first railway line from Port Melbourne to Melbourne was laid through the area used for cricket causing the MCC in 1877 to take a lease on a ground called the Richmond Paddock, this is the present site of Melbourne Cricket Ground. Victoria's second ground came into being in 1842, when a club called "The Brighton" was formed and played on a cleared Aboriginal site.

The first cricket match played in Adelaide was promoted by a Publican in 1839 and played on a cattle path full of holes which made it very inconvenient for the players.

The Brisbane Courier in its account of Queensland’s first intercolonial match with NSW in June 1852 stated, "in spite of frequent slips and capsizes chasing after balls into waterholes, plus the mishaps made un avoidable by appalling conditions, an amount of good play was exhibited".

George Giffen, who became one of Australia's greatest all-rounders of the 19th century, learnt his cricket on such pitches in Adelaide in the 1870's, he was to Australia what Dr W. G. Grace was to England. 

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Until the 1850's cricket in Australia was conducted only at club level. The first intercolonial match was played at Launceston between Victoria and Tasmania in the summer of 1850—51, ten years before the arrival in Australia of the first visiting English team.

Club cricket was not even organised on a regular basis as regards competition until 1860 and then only in Melbourne, Sydney started in 1871-72, Adelaide in 1873-74, Brisbane in 1876-77 and Perth in 1900-01. This then was the birth of cricket in Australia, and it is interesting to note that in Perth organised cricket started only three years before the birth of the VICTORIAN JUNIOR CRICKET ASSOCIATION (“VJCA”). 

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The main early contribution of the Melbourne Cricket Club was in the administration and promotional side much of Australia's success in cricket generally has come from the concentration of the game at club level on a Saturday afternoon which enabled the population to participate.

In 1839, three years after John Batman's settlement of the colony of Victoria the Melbourne Cricket Club was formed which organisation was to dominate Victorian and Australian cricket for many years to come. One of the main characteristics where they differed to the English way was that class distinction was not evident such as players and Gentlemen entering and leaving the ground at different entrances. Some distinctions did still exist, but sport was seen by some observers to be the catalyst for breaking down the strong class barrier existing in English Society. 

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Immigrants to the Colonies did not carry the same intense class divisions nor were the social infrastructures here to support the class society known in the "OLD COUNTRY" It may be traced to an underlying unity amongst ail who were settled here in the colony that they have commonality in the attempt to establish a new life far removed from their past life style and social constraints of England.

Team sports encouraged mass participation and involvement irrespective of class, thus opportunity existed where people could meet on common ground, where status could be established based on sporting achievements.

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Cricket was developing in the inner suburbs, two of the first were Richmond and Emerald Hill (now South Melbourne) in the 1850’s, followed quickly by a number of lesser-known clubs.  Wherever there were natural groupings of men interested in playing cricket, teams and competitions emerged. Men engaged in business in the Richmond area formed the Richmond Traders who played on the Melbourne Cricket Ground. At the same time, the growth of factories and subsequent factory teams saw the commencement of a warehouse competition.

By the year 1861 the population of Victoria had jumped to 538,628 mainly because of the discovery of gold in 1851 when the population was only 77,345. New towns such as Ballarat, Bendigo and Castlemaine suddenly sprouted, historians inform us that among the first things arranged in new towns were the laying down of a racecourse and a cricket pitch. Melbourne Itself had not stood still, buildings had changed the face of the town, Banks, Churches and even a University was now a sight to be seen by returning diggers from the gold fields. The settlement had spread outwards and suburbs had been formed. A spirit of optimism may have encouraged interest in cricket at the local level.

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It was in the year 1861 that cricket became of international import, progress in the sport had been such that H.H Stephenson brought an English team by steamer to play against Australians, the match at melt). drawing a crowd in excess of 25,000. The Melbourne team playing with eighteen men as against eleven Englishmen was an acceptance of the superiority of the strength of the touring team.

Through the 1870's cricket in Australia had vastly improved with victories against English teams. No longer did an inferiority complex. exist but rather this demonstrated greater equalising, showing the rest of Australia that England held no upper hand. Furthermore, the latter half of the 19th century saw the emergence of social characteristics that can be interpreted as distinctly Australian. The "bushman image that was publicised by Ballads, Short Stories and Drawings resulted in the bush legend shaping to some extent Australia’s self-image. The values idealised in the bushman myth, namely mateship, courage, tough masculinity etc. could be translated into sporting patterns. Thus, Australian sport became an expression of ethos giving an intensity and sense of purpose to games that was not evident in their British origins.

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By the 1890’s, a series of crushing victories against England gave what has been termed a sense of cricketing arrogance, perhaps the most colourful commentary was that of the "BULLETIN!, which at the conclusion of the 1897—98 season of Test Cricket remarked "This ruthless rout of English cricket will do— and has done— more to enhance the cause of Australian nationality than could ever be achieved by miles of erudite essays and impassioned appeal"  To beat England at its own game therefore became a demonstration of cricketing powers, removing clearly the old inferiority complexes that were associated with being a convict colony. Cricket in part, had united the colonies and done much to pave the way for formal federation in 1901.  Unlike the much-publicised ranks of Test Cricket which basically provided recreation for non-participants, cricket played at the local level over time has demonstrated to be a strong recreational outlet for its participants, be they officials or players.

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The increasing population of Melbourne spreading to new suburbs, the existence of Parklands left to the people by a thoughtful few, the genuine love of the game of cricket, the idea of competition at a junior level, the chance to participate, be you player, umpire or official. This then was the position at the start of the 20th century, one of the results of this situation was the emergence of the Victorian Junior Cricket Association, in 1903, now known as the "Victorian Turf Cricket Association". - VTCA.

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A PROPOSED NEW ASSOCIATION

ARGUS NEWSPAPER 13th August 1903

 

A meeting of representatives of junior cricket clubs was held at the London Tavern Hotel last night for the purpose of considering a proposal for forming a junior cricket association. Mr. Harry Bussell of Northern Districts was in the chair, Mr. William Dedman, the old Carlton Footballer, who was on his day a good cricketer was the convener of the meeting. In explaining his reasons for having called the gathering, said he thought the time was now ripe for the formation of a Junior association such as existed in football. Mr. Hayes, of Northcote, moved and Mr. Cantwell (chairman of the Third-Rate Association) seconded, that it is desirable to form a junior cricket association, and that a committee be formed to draw up a scheme, to be presented at a future meeting on a date to be decided on.