There's
only one player who has played both for England against Australia and for
Australia against England and it was an awfully long time ago, when the
qualification rules were bit more elastic. Billy Midwinter was born in
Gloucestershire in 1851, but he was taken to Australia at the age of 9. He
played for Australia in the very first Test of all, at Melbourne in March 1877.
He was very handy all-rounder but he returned to England later that year, and
played for Gloucestershire. When an Australian team toured England in 1878 and
he played a few games for them - until in a famous incident he was more or less
kidnapped by WG Grace, Gloucestershire's captain, and ‘persuaded’ to turn out
for the county. In 1881-82 Billy Midwinter was part of Alfred Shaw's privately
raised team which toured Australia, and played in 4 games now considered
Tests before resuming his Australian
connections and playing 6 more Tests for them, in 1882-83, 1884 (in England)
and 1886-87. Overall Billy Midwinter appeared in 12 Tests, scoring 269 runs at
13.45 and taking 24 wickets at 25.20, with a best return of 5 for 78 in the
very first Test of all, at the MCG in 1876-77.
1878 Australian Team and Billy Midwinter sitting in the middle |
Billy Midwinter |
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