Cricket Australia - History

History

The first centralised authority for the administration of cricket in Australia was established in 1892 when representatives from the state associations of New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria came together to establish the Australasian Cricket Council, with the Sheffield Shield also established in that year. However the Australasian Cricket Council was disbanded in 1898.

What is now known as Cricket Australia was established in 1905 as the "Australian Board of Control for International Cricket". Before its establishment, tours by Australian teams to England were organised and funded by private groups or by the players themselves. Similarly invitations to English teams were made by private promoters or by individual clubs, such as the Melbourne Cricket Club. The predecessor organisation, the Australasian Cricket Council which had existed from 1892 to 1898 but was ineffective due to a lack of funding. Its one lasting action was to establish the Sheffield Shield, the major cricket competition between the Australian colonies.

These early tours were lucrative for the players and promoters and cricket administrators looked to find ways to channel some of this money to the destitute clubs, through the State Associations. Formal discussions began in January 1905 in Sydney for the formation of a body to take control of tours from the players. A draft constitution was discussed by members of the New South Wales, Victoria, South Australian and Queensland associations. The first meeting of the new board was held at Wesley College in Melbourne on 6 May 1905.

The foundation members were the New South Wales Cricket Association and the Victorian Cricket Association. South Australia's delegates refused to join the Board because the Board structure denied the players any representation. The Queensland Cricket Association was represented as an observer only.

Queensland did decide to formally join the association with one delegate member the following year, and the constitution was amended in 1906, so that New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria would each have three permanent representatives, and Queensland one representative. In 1907 Tasmania was also permitted to send a single representative, and Western Australia did likewise in 1913. Changes to this structure were made in 1914 and 1974 respectively, when Queensland and Western Australia formally added to their representation to two each.