Tasmania in Senior Cricket
Though Tasmania took part in the first recognised first-class cricket match in Australia in 1850/51, it remained on the peripheries of Australian cricket for more than a century, confined to "friendly" first-class matches against other Australian states, primarily Victoria, and touring teams from the other Test-playing nations. After World War II, even the friendly matches against other Australian states became less frequent. To supplement the limited local schedule, matches were arranged in several seasons for a "Tasmania Combined XI", with the side consisting of some Tasmanian cricketers and others imported, usually from mainland Australia; matches played by this team do not count as first-class games for the Tasmania cricket team, and are therefore not included in this table.
From the late 1960s, with the import of foreign players, such as John Hampshire, Jack Simmons and Alan Knott, Tasmania was admitted first into the List A competitions and then into first-class competition.
The Sheffield Shield is the premier domestic cricket competition in Australia. It was founded in 1892, but a Tasmanian representative side was not permitted to enter the competition by the Australian Cricket Board (now Cricket Australia) until the 1977/78 season. Even then the first two seasons were on a trial basis only.
Whilst they initially struggled to prove competitive at first-class level, the Tasmanian Tigers won their first domestic trophy in 1978/79, capturing the domestic List A cricket Gillette Cup. This was a success repeated when they won the Ford Ranger Cup in 2004/05, and again in 2007/08. The Tigers also won their first First class cricket title in 2006/07, winning the Sheffield Shield, then known as the Pura Cup, in that year. A second success followed in 2010/11. Tasmania has also been twice runners-up in the domestic Twenty20 competition.
Read more about this topic: List Of Tasmanian Representative Cricketers
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