Shane Warne and Tom Wills

I was sitting at the bar in a Sydney hotel and the fellow next to me said, “I read that Shane Wayne has been recongised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List as an officer of the Order of Australia. It was a real shame that Shane Warne passed away so tragically. He was probably our greatest bowler.”

“Yes,” I said, “I was a great fan of Shane Warne too. But Australia’s first great cricketer was also a fantastic bowler and he also passed away tragically. Tom Wills was his name. He came from Melbourne as well.”

“Really!” said the friendly fellow at the bar.

“Tom Wills grew up in the 1840s”, I said. “He learnt to play cricket as a boy in country Victoria. His father sent him to the prestigious Rugby school in England. He joined the Rugby cricket team at 16 years of age and got a man out on his first bowl. Several months later on his debut at Lord’s, he took 12 wickets in the match. He got to play for Cambridge University at age 19, even though he wasn’t a student. On returning to Australia, he led Victoria to a number of sensational victories against New South Wales,” I said.

“I was reading about Wills”, I said, “in the new book ‘What a Capital Idea – Australia 1770-1901 (www.reynoldlearning.com) and there I discovered that it was Tom Wills who put together the Aboriginal cricket team that went on to tour England in 1868. Living in the country as a child, Wills spoke three Aboriginal languages. And it was Wills who took an Aboriginal game called ‘marngrook’ and turned it into the Australian Rules football game.”

“But Wills suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),” I continued, “and drank heavily. You see, he went with his father up to Queensland in 1861 when his father took over his brother’s property. While Tom was away in Brisbane getting supplies, Aborigines slaughtered his father and the group of 28 people, including the women and children. Six years later Tom put together the Aboriginal cricket team and held no racial grudge. His mental state, however, never recovered.”

“In 1880, Tom tried to give up alcohol but suffered delirium. He escaped from the hospital, went home and stabbed himself to death.”

“Today, there is the Tom Wills Room in the Melbourne Cricket Ground’s Great Southern Stand and there is also a statue of him outside the MCG. So I could not help thinking of Tom Wills’ tragic death on the news of Shane Warne’s recent demise.”

“My goodness,” said the fellow at the bar, “what an incredible story.”

“There are lots of Interesting Characters discussed in What a Capital Idea,” I said. “It is worth having a read.” https://reynoldlearning.com/australian-history/

Tom Wills and Aboriginal Cricket Team