History
Victoria was the dominant force in the early days of Australian first-class cricket, winning two of the first three Sheffield Shield tournaments and won most of their early domestic friendly games against the other states.
Victoria has hosted a list of greats such as Warwick Armstrong, Bill Woodfull, Bill Ponsford, Neil Harvey, Hugh Trumble, Lindsay Hassett, Dean Jones, Jack Blackham, Jack Ryder, Bill Lawry, Bob Cowper, Shane Warne, Keith Miller and Ian Redpath. (See here for a full listing of past players).
The Bushrangers proud history dates back to the very start of Australian cricket when the Melbourne Cricket Club was formed in 1838 which was the largest sporting club in Australia at the time. In that same year the MCC played its first match against the Victorian Military but the first official interstate game was contested between Victoria and Tasmania in 1851 in Launceston.
The first game between the great rivals of Victoria and New South Wales was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1856.
The annual Sheffield Shield tournament first began in the season of 1892–93 between Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Victoria won this tournament by defeating both opponents twice each.
The tradition of cricket match on Boxing Day also featured Victoria when they played New South Wales in 1965.
The Victorian Cricket Association was founded in 1895 and is now located in Melbourne across from the MCG.
During the history of the shield Victoria has won 28 titles, the most recent in season 2009/10. Victoria has always been a powerful force in Australian cricket and the Australian team has, until recent decades, never been short of Victorians in the line up.
Victoria are the only first-class cricket team to score over 1,000 in an innings, which they achieved twice in the 1920s - 1,023 against Tasmania in 1922-23, and 1,107 against New South Wales in 1926-27.
Read more about this topic: Victoria Cricket Team
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)