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MCC Cricket History
Melbourne Cricket Club - A Short History
The Melbourne Cricket Club was formed in November 1838 and, after occupying three other sites, finally settled in 1853 on its present location, the now famous MCG.
In January, 1858, the MCC challenged any team in the Australian Colonies and a team from New South Wales accepted the challenge which was played on the MCG and was won by the visiting team. This was really the forerunner of what eventually became the Sheffield Shield competition after Lord Sheffield presented the trophy for intercolonial competition.
Up until the turn of the century, visits to Australia for English teams and sides to England by Australians were sponsored by the MCC with the exception of the first English visit in 1862 which was undertaken on the initiative of the Club's caterers.
Since those days, 38 MCC players have represented Australia in Test matches either at home or abroad.
Apart from also being responsible for the founding of Australian Rules football, the Club has had a great deal of influence in other sports such as tennis, lawn bowls, rifle shooting, lacrosse and baseball becoming established in the State, and the Club now fields, apart from cricket, competitive teams in lawn bowls, rifle and pistol shooting, lacrosse, tennis, baseball, hockey and squash.
The MCC fields four teams in the various levels of the Cricket Victoria Premier Cricket competition and also has one side in what is known as the MCC Club XI Competition.
In addition to the above, social cricket by an MCC Club known as the XXIX Club, is played mid-week and on Sundays and MCC players are welcome to participate.
The Club also fields an under-16 team in the W.J. Dowling Shield Competition.
Melbourne has been a most successful member of the Cricket Victoria Premier Cricket competition, winning a record 18 First XI premierships.
Among very many interstate representatives and test players from the MCC, perhaps the most renowned are Hugh Trumble, Warwick Armstrong, Bill Ponsford, Jack Blackham, Fred Spofforth, Vernon Ransford, Max Walker and Dean Jones.
Blackham, Spofforth and Ponsford are three of the 10 inaugural inductees to the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. Trumble captured the most wickets (141) in Anglo-Australian Tests to that time and a record two hat tricks.
Bill Ponsford twice scored more than 400 runs in a first class innings, while Armstrong topped the batting and bowling averages on the 1905 tour of England and later captained the famous 1921 side.
Armstrong has the unique distinction of having bowled two successive overs in a Test – before and after successfully challenging an illegal declaration (too late in the day) by the England captain.
Blackham, known as the prince of wicketkeepers, was the first man to dispose of the long stop (hitherto a specialist position). His career tally of 455 catches and stumpings was highlighted by the 1890 tour of England when he effected a still-standing record 65 dismissals in first class matches.
Spofforth’s sobriquet “the demon bowler" speaks for itself. He took 14/90 in the 1882 “Ashes Test" at the Oval.
More recently, Dean Jones was a fine Test cricketer and one of the best one-day players the world has seen. His superb 210 in the tied test at Madras in 1986 is regarded by many as one of the bravest and best of any Australian batsman.
Current MCC captain Brad Hodge was voted the 2002-03 and 2003-04 Dean Jones Medalist as Victoria's ING Cup Player of the Year. Hodge’s continued good form has been rewarded with recent selections in Australia “A" representative matches in both forms of the game.
MELBOURNE CRICKET CLUB - PREMIERSHIPS
1st XI
1914-15, 1919-20, 1929-30, 1932-33, 1934-35, 1935-36, 1936-37, 1937-38, 1948-49, 1951-52, 1958-59, 1972-73, 1975-76, 1981-82, 1988-89, 1992-93, 1994-95, 1997-98
2nd XI
1922-23, 1927-28, 1928-29, 1929-30, 1930-31, 1948-49, 1956-57, 1957-58, 1963-64, 1972-73, 1973-74, 1981-82, 1992-93, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2005-06
3rd XI
1956-57, 1963-64, 1973-74, 1978-79, 1980-81, 1984-85, 1987-88, 1989-90, 1995-96, 1999-00, 2001-02, 2004-05, 2005-06
4th XI
1976-77, 1980-81, 1985-86, 1993-94, 1997-98, 2000-01, 2003-04, 2006-07
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
1937-38, 1956-57, 1963-64, 1966-67, 1969-70, 1970-71, 1972-73, 1973-74, 1982-83, 1986-87, 1990-91, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, 1996-97, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2004-05, 2005-06
DOWLING SHIELD
1981-82, 1990-91, 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1998-99, 2003-04
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