Stamps
Australia's first cricket stamp was part of a series of seven, illustrating non-Olympic sports, issued on 24 July 1974 and designed by Des O'Brien and Arthur Leydin. Abstract and colourful in style, this adventurousness in design continued in the six stamps issued on 9 March 1977 to celebrate the Centenary of the first Test Match. Designed by Bruce Weatherhead, they presented a cartoon like interpretation of the "period" in a panorama format. Five 18c stamps were printed in a se-tenant strip divided only by perforations. The match scene is shown in a whimsical style showing the full length of the wicket, batsmen, umpires and six of the fielding side.
The first Australian stamp to honour an individual player was issued on 18th February 1981. A set of four featuring Australia's Greatest Sportsmen, they were illustrated by the caricaturist Tony Rafty. The cricketer was Victor Trumper, who is remembered for his stylish play and quick footwork.
Associated with Australian cricket and appearing twice on Australian stamps was the first Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Edmund Barton. He played for Sydney University, umpired inter-state matches and was the umpire in the infamous Sydney match of 1879 when a spectator assaulted the captain of the English touring team, Lord Harris. Barton, who is the only Prime Minister to have umpired in first class cricket, has been featured on two Australian stamps - in May 1951 and October 1969.
Though England was the home of cricket it did not produce a first cricket stamp until 1973. Three stamps illustrating W G Grace were used to commemorate a century of the modern English County Championship, the oldest cricket competition in the world.
The subject of cricket on stamps continued to appear under general categories such as national sports, children's activities (Australia Sports Series 1, 1989 Cricket 70c); health issues (New Zealand 1969 - boys and girls playing cricket. The stamps had a five-cent surcharge to support children's health camps); during the International Year of the Child. Stamp World '90 even co-opted Mickey Mouse into playing cricket and drinking tea. Australia commemorated the inter-State Sheffield Shield competition in 1992 with charming and nostalgic images by Mark Sofilas.
Australia reached both a national and sporting zenith in 1997 with a stamp that honoured the first Australian Living Legend, Sir Donald Bradman, who represented the nation as sportsman and citizen. Two 45c stamps were issued, a photographic portrait of a young Bradman and Bradman in full batting flight. On his death in 2001 the stamps were re-issued and in 2005 his "Baggy Green Cap" appeared in a sporting memorabilia issue, Sports Treasures.
Since then, a series of special cricket souvenir sheets have been issued - Shane Warne, One of Wisden's "Five Players of the century" 2000, Allan Border's Trek for Kids 2002 and Australian Cricket Highlights 2005.
Perhaps the most poignant aspect of cricket has been its association with war and patriotic mythology. The rhetoric of battle is imbued in the cricket tradition and in Australia it played a significant role in urging young Australian males to go to the Great War. During 1916 the Melbourne entrepreneur John Wren organised an enlistment call for the Sportsmen's Thousand encouraging them to "Join together, train together, embark together, fight together."
Australia's pre-eminence as a cricketing nation fits in with the strongly developed notion of the country as a sporting mecca of the world and of individual achievements. It will be of interest to watch how Australia's current international cricket status will impact on the representation of the sport on both Australian and world stamps.
Contents of online gallery
- Sir Don Bradman "The Don"
- Cricket Stamps of Australia
- A Cricket Heritage of Stamps
- Origins
- The Antipodean Cricketer
- Stamps
- Aboriginal Cricket Team, Victoria
- Soldiers playing cricket at Gallipoli
- Australian Cricket Pictormarks
- The Cricket Captain Postman
- Select Cricket Glossary
- Specialist Cricket Collectors