Australia national cricket team

The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the equal oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877 (defeating England by 45 runs).

As of the 20 January 2008, the Australian team has played 692 Test matches, winning 46.82%, losing 25.86% and drawing 27.02% of its games.^[1] It has also led the ICC Test Championship table for the majority of the time since the creation of the ICC Test table system in January 2001. The South African Cricket Team did lead this table for a brief period (January to May) in 2003, before Australia resumed the first position on the table.

They are also the first-ranked international one-day cricket team and winners of the last three Cricket World Cups. Australia won the Cricket World Cup 4 times in total; 1987, 1999, 2003 & 2007. As of 28 April 2007 they are undefeated in 29 consecutive World Cup matches. They have led the ICC One-Day International Championship table from its inception through to 18 February 2007, and then again from 7 April 2007. In 2002, they were named World Team of the Year at the Laureus World Sports Awards in recognition of their world record sequence of test match victories.

History

The history of the Australian cricket team is rich and diverse. Together with the English cricket team, it participated in the first Test match in 1877. A highlight of Australia's early history was the 1882 Test match against England at The Oval. In this match Fred Spofforth took 7/44 in the game's fourth innings to save the match by preventing England from making their 85-run target. After this match The Sporting Times, a major newspaper in London at the time, printed a mock obituary in which the death of English cricket was proclaimed and the announcement made that "the body was cremated and the ashes taken to Australia." This was the start of the famous Ashes series in which every two years Australia and England play a number of Test matches to decide the holder of the Ashes. To this day, the contest is one of the fiercest rivalries in sport.

In the first half-century or so, these contests were on the whole friendly but competitive with both sides enjoying the visit to another country, and getting to play against quality cricketers. The famous Bodyline series temporarily changed things. The series was marred by the tactics used by the English captain Douglas Jardine to control the batting of Don Bradman who completely destroyed the English bowling attack in the 1930 series. Jardine used his fast bowlers to bowl 6 bouncers an over at head height over leg stump with 6 or 7 fielders around the leg stump in a close catching position. Given the fact that there were no helmets around at the time the tactics were widely condemned by nearly all of Australia including many former Test cricketers and important politicians.

Australia continued its success up until the 1980s, built mainly around the likes of Richie Benaud, the Chappell brothers, Dennis Lillee, and Rod Marsh. The 1980s was a period of relative mediocrity after the retirements of several key players, and it was not until the captaincy of Allan Border that the team was restructured. The 1990s and modern era are arguably Australia's most successful period, unbeaten in all Ashes series played bar the famous 2005 series and achieving a hat-trick of World Cups. This extraordinary success has been attributed to the restructuring of the team and system by Border, successive shrewd captains, and the brilliance of several key players, most notably Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Matthew Hayden and Ricky Ponting.