Golden Age and The Great War
The era from the mid 1890s to the World War I has been described as Australian cricket's golden age. This era saw the emergence of players such as Monty Noble, Clem Hill and in particular Victor Trumper, who was idolised by the Australian public. It also saw the continuing battle between the Melbourne Cricket Club and the players on one side with the state boards and the new Australian Board of Control on the other. The dispute was over the organisation of international tours and the revenue streams it created. It culminated in 1912 with the withdrawal of six leading players; Trumper, Hill, Warwick Armstrong, Vernon Ransford, Albert Cotter and Hanson "Sammy" Carter from the tri-nations series in England that year and a fistfight between Hill and his fellow selector Peter McAlister. The tour was unsuccessful and dogged by controversy.
The Great War lead to the suspension of both international and Sheffield Shield cricket and the enlistment of many cricketers in the AIF. After the war, a team consisting of cricketers enlisted in the AIF toured the United Kingdom. The Australian Imperial Forces cricket team was strong, including cricketers such as Herbie Collins, Bert Oldfield and the all-rounder, Jack Gregory, all of whom would play a large part in the fortunes of the national team in the future.
Read more about this topic: History Of Australian Cricket
Famous quotes containing the words golden, age and/or war:
“I had a little nut-tree, nothing would it bear
But a golden nutmeg and a silver pear;”
—Mother Goose (fl. 17th–18th century. I had a little nut-tree, nothing would it bear (l. 1–2)
“What is the foundation of that interest all men feel in Greek history, letters, art and poetry, in all its periods from the Heroic and Homeric age down to the domestic life of the Athenians and Spartans, four or five centuries later? What but this, that every man passes personally through a Grecian period.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Your length in clay’s now competent,
A long war disturbed your mind;”
—John Webster (c. 1580–1638)