The Pioneers:

Ricky Ponting took a break after the Ashes series, missing the start of the One-Day International series. He flies around in style. Over a century ago it was vastly different, especially for Aboriginal cricketers, who were the first to reprepresent Australia in any sport on tour.1 There were no aeroplanes in 1868 so the journey to England took three months by sea – a hard experience in its own right. Plans for them to return the following year were scrapped, partly due to lack of finance, but also because racist legislation that was supposed to be protectionist made it impossible for indigenous cricketers to travel freely outside of the colony of Victoria.

The tour itself proved difficult to organise, partly through greedy entrpreneurs lookking to exploit an opportunity to make money and health issue among the players. Some promising players proved their worth, but fell ill, or died before the tour could be finalised. A hotelier and former cricketer Charles Lawrence was persuaded to manage and captain the team, which included somevery talented players, especially Unaarimin, also known as Johnny Mullagh.

He was joined on the tour by rather than by their Aboriginal names were the tourists. completely lost to cricket after the tour. Arrahmunijarrimun (Peter): Ballrinjarrimin (Sundown), Boninbarngeet (Tiger), Brimbunyah (Red Cap), Bripumyarrimin or Brippokei (King Cole), Bullchanach (Bullocky), Grougarrong (Mosquito), Jallachmurrimin (Jim Crow), Jungunjinanuke (Dick-a-Dick), Murrumgunarriman (Twopenny), Pripumuarraman (Charley Dumas), and Zellanach (Cuzens). In their lifetimes they were known by nicknames or names given to them by white people. Their Aboriginal names are now rightly acknowledged and celebrated as is their achievement.

The Tour:

Bripumyarrimin succumbed to tuberculosis in June and is buried in London and Ballrinjarrimin and Jallachmurrimin returned to Australia due to illness in August – they arrived in May. At least some of the reporting of the tour was outrageously racist even in terms of the times – reporters judged them a travesty without seeing them play. Nevertheless, a crowd of twenty-thousand attended their first match at the Kennington Oval – whether from curiosity or love of the sport – they soon saw that the indigenous Australians could play cricket.

They also played passtimes such as a throwing a cricket ball-throwing competition to entertain the crowds; they were narrowly beaten by the then emerging cricket great William (WG) Grace. After close of play they gave exhibitions of spear-throwing and boomerang-throwing and Jungunjinanuke demonstrated his mastery of the use of a traditional shield by inviting spectators to throw balls at him, which he parried.

Unaarimin was their outstanding player, scoring 1698 runs at an average of around twenty, which may not seem much, but was impressive when the type of pitches was taken into account. He was their best bowler too, taking 245 wickets at a cost of around ten runs each – a truly exceptional performance over such an exacting tour.

George Tarrant played first class cricket in England and was rated the second fastest bowler in the country at the time. He bowled to Unaarimin in a lunch interval and declared him the best batsman that he had ever bowled to. This was the quality of play that the indigenous team offered to English audiences, but the players were treated poorly on their return to Australia.

After The Return:

They arrived back in Australia in February 1869 and played a game against a military team a month later, after which they split up. Zellanach died of dysentery a couple of years later. Two of them disappeared and records of the fate of another two no longer exist. Seven died on the indigenous reserves that were set up by the colonial administration of Victoria, purportedly to protect them from exploitation by unscrupulous white people, but despite such legislation that curtailed their movement, two of the talented players Murrumgunarriman and Unaarimin were not completely lost to cricket.

Murrumgunarriman played for New South Wales against Victoria in 1870, having moved there, probably before the legislation that all but destroyed indigenous Australians' cricket in the colony. Unaarimin remained in Victoria and was briefly employed by Melbourne Cricket Club after the tour, because of his obvious cricketing ability. He even played for Victoria against the English tourists in 1879, top-scoring in the second innings with 36, despite batting down the order..

Plans for a second tour in 1869 were scuppered by lack of finances and also by legislation in Victoria. The Central Board for Aborigines declared it illegal for any indigenous Australian to travel from the colony without the permission of the relevant minister. It effectively prevented further tours and sewed the seeds of other racist legislation that affected the development of indigenous Australians' sport and also that of the country as a whole.

Former Australian captain Ian Chappell was one of the strongest advocates of honouring the achievements of the indigenous Australian team of 1868. In 2002 the entire team was inducted into the Sports Australia Hall of Fame and two years later the players were awarded individual numbers. Two years ago James Sutherland, the Chief Executive of Cricket Australia said: “The 1868 Aboriginal tour of England was a critical event in Australia's sporting and cricket history. In recent years the remarkable and courageous achievements of the 1868 team have become more widely acknowledged and celebrated, and we would like that history and recognition to be ongoing.”

Shameful:

During their lifetime the indigenous Australian tourists were treated disgracefully. Racism undoubtedly played a major part in the failure to develop the sporting ties that were made in England to their maximum potential. There was no return tour and the colonial government of Victoria made travel for indigenous Australians virtually impossible. Despite their obvious sporting prowess, demonstrated during that tour, indigenous Australian sportsmen and women were denied the opportunity to excel and to be treated as sporting equals on the field of play.

When Sydney hosted the Olympic Games in 2000, Australia embraced its indigenous heritage and the indigenous Australian athlete and the country's great medal hope, Cathy Freeman, was the heroine of the games. Australia loved her. Freeman was proud of her heritage and carried both the Australian and indigenous flags on her victory lap, but an interesting question was never posed. Australia had hosted the Olympic Games once before – the only other time that the games had been held in the southern hemisphere – in Melbourne in 1956. Two important events that year led to boycotts: the Suez Crisis and the Soviet Union's invasion of Hungary. Australia failed to acknowledge its indigenous heritage and the rest of the world thought nothing of the human rights of indigenous Australians who had been dispossessed: subjected to genocide and subjugation, while hypocritically protesting about human rights elsewhere.

There was no concern for the right of indigenous Australians to compete in the Olympic Games in 1956. Sport eventually isolated South Africa over apartheid. Where was the condemnation of Australia's treatment of indigenous sportsmen and women? The role models were there and some possessed great talent and sporting prowess that should have been nurtured. Cricket could and should have played an important role in the integration of Australian society and sport, but it failed to grasp the historic opportunity.

It was not alone, but it should be a matter of shame for Australia that despite their cricketing prowess and over a century passing only one cricketer of acknowledged indigenous descent Jason Gillespie – the great-grandson of a Kamiliroi warrior – has represented Australia at the top level.

1 England had toured the USA, Canada and Australia previously, but the Aboriginals were the first Australians to represent the country abroad – a remarkable achievement in its own right