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James (Jallachmurrimin) of the Gubbi Gubbi Tribe (and
Kenilworth Station), was a member of the second Aboriginal team
that toured England in 1868.
As Charles Perkins wrote in his foreword to "Cricket
Walkabout" by John Mulvaney and Rex Harcourt (1988) "...
sadly, even now, very few Australians are aware that the first Australian
cricket team to tour England was Aboriginal".
Here is an extract from the British headlines of that
time:
ARRIVAL OF THE BLACK CRICKETERS.
It was said that no arrival has been anticipated with so much curiosity
and interest as that of the Black Cricketers from Australia.
"It has been stated that the team
had sailed from Sydney in the Parramatta and that they were expected
to reach our shores in May. We have now to record the fact that
they have landed at Gravesend last Wednesday and on the following
day exhibited their cricket prowess as Town Malling, in Kent, in
the presence, among others, of Mr. W. S. Norton, the honorary secretary
of the Kent Country Club, and we hear that they gave great satisfaction
to a critical coterie of spectators.
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