Samuel Morris

Samuel Morris (22 June 1855 in Hobart – 20 September 1931 in Albert Park, Victoria) was an Australian cricketer who played in 1 Test in 1885. He was the first black man to represent Australia and, apart from Andrew Symonds, is the only player of West Indian heritage to do so.

Morris was one of nine Australian Test players to make his debut in the Second Test of the 1884-85 series against England. Selectors were forced to choose an entirely new team after the eleven of the First Test refused to play over a dispute concerning payment of players. Morris took two wickets in the match, including English captain Arthur Shrewsbury, and made just fourteen runs (4 as an opener in the first innings, 10 not out in the second batting at number ten) as Australia lost by ten wickets.

His parents were West Indian and had traveled to Australia in the gold-rush years of the 1840s. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1855, but played his club cricket in Victoria for Melbourne's St Kilda club where he later became the groundsman before suffering from blindness in his later years.

Famous quotes containing the word morris:

    We are, to put it mildly, in a mess, and there is a strong chance that we shall have exterminated ourselves by the end of the century. Our only consolation will have to be that, as a species, we have had an exciting term of office.
    —Desmond Morris (b. 1928)