Darwin’s debut Test match in 2003 saw a number of historic firsts
A former Australian Test captain and a legendary journalist have shared their memories 20 years on from Darwin’s debut test. Relive all the great moments and photos from the historic match.
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It was one of the biggest scoops legendary NT Newsjournalist Grey Morris ever stumbled across.
Back in 2000, Morris flew down to Alice Springs for the Australian Cricket Board’s annual general meeting.
No doubt expecting a dry affair, little did Morris know there was some relatively big news coming down the pipeline: Darwin was set to become the 89th Test match venue.
“It was announced there was going to be a Test match (in Darwin) and it was going to be the ‘Bangers’,” Morris said.
Three years later, and in the lead-up to the July Test between Australia and Bangladesh, future Test captain Michael Clarke would play alongside local cricketers Ken Vowles, Darren Treumer and Adrian McAdam for the Northern Territory Chief Minister’s XI against Bangladesh.
While McAdam would take the very tidy figures of 1/7 off 10 overs with the new rock, and captain Clarke top scored with 79 in the first innings at four, Bangladesh would prevail by just two wickets.
It would be a very different story a few days later at TIO Stadium, with Morris remembering the visitors getting off to a bad start before they even set foot on the Marrara field.
Reportedly a bit short on equipment, Bangladesh had to source some local gear through Darwin cricketer David King.
Meanwhile, then Test captain Steve Waugh told this publicationhe was happily enjoying one of the most relaxed preparations of his 168-Test career.
“I had my family with me so I went to a crocodile park the day before,” Waugh said.
“Something different, it’s not something you do before a Test match.”
Star wicket keeper Adam Gilchrist and speed king Brett Lee would also conduct a clinic for 15 Indigenous children from Barunga at Gardens Oval.
However, the relaxed vibe of the match quickly evaporated on the day of the game, with the Aussies wearing black arm bands for Victorian cricket identity John Scholes who died in Melbourne earlier in the week at the age of 53.
“Everyone was a bit nervous and apprehensive, they wanted to do well in such a historic Test match,” Waugh said.
“It was history being made.
“A Test match we probably thought we’d never play in.”
In fact, Lee had told reporters there was a “different feeling” leading into the Test, with traditional iron men like Justin Langer feeling uncharacteristically jittery.
Waugh said playing a Test match in the Australian winter was a bit of a novelty but also “a big adventure”.
And you would have been adventurous to back the Bangers, with Centrebet offering odds as large as $68 for a win, while the Aussies came in at a much slimmer $1.03.
Starting at 9.30am, it was the earliest start in Test cricket history, with raw statistics pointing towards a total mismatch: Waugh had played more Tests, taken more wickets and scored more runs than the entire Bangers team put together.
They had also lost 18 of their 19 Tests at that point.
And it was a star-studded national team which eventually rolled the visitors for 97 in their first innings on day one – on a drop-in wicket prepared by legendary MCG curator Tony Ware – in front of 6238 fans.
The Aussies had an A Grade attack, too, including the great Glenn McGrath (3/20), Jason Gillespie (2/27), a “very fast” Brett Lee (3/23) and Stuart MacGill (2/21), who had beaten Brad Hogg to the chance to replace the late Shane Warne who was in the midst of a 12-month drugs ban.
In fact, Warne, who travelled up north to commentate, would be cleared to play testimonial and charity matches a day after the match finished.
On the field, McGrath and Gillespie would surpass Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller’s combined 243 wickets to become the country’s most prolific opening bowling duo, when Javed Omar was caught by Adam Gilchrist for five off “Dizzy” Gillespie.
Australia then posted 7/407 declared off the back of hundreds from Darren Lehmann (110) and Steve Waugh (an unbeaten 100), with the mercury reaching 32 degrees on day two in front of a crowd of 4669.
There was also a historic first up in the commentary box with the ABC’s Charlie King becoming the first Indigenous Australian to call a Test since broadcasts began in the 1930s.
Alongside him was the great Jim Maxwell, who in perhaps a precursor to what we now know as “Bazball”, called the Aussies the most exciting national team in history, routinely scoring at four an over.
However, Waugh was far more circumspect about his own innings.
“It wasn’t my best hundred, it wasn’t my most fluent,” Waugh said of his 31st hundred in his 50th Test as skipper.
“I actually looked the scoreboard up last night, I was pretty surprised I got 100 off 133 balls, so I must have played pretty well.”
The Bangers showed a bit more fight in the second dig with 178, as MacGill took a bag (5/65) and Gillespie chipped in again (2/48).
The Aussies won by an innings and 132 runs, Bangladesh’s 14th consecutive Test loss.
The victory would crown Waugh as the most successful skipper in history, with his 37th win taking him past West Indies great Clive Lloyd.
However, the game finished on an even brighter note on day three, with the announcement Darwin would host a further Test against Sri Lanka the following July.
The final crowd figure was a somewhat disappointing 13,863.
During the game, Waugh said he would love to see Darwin become a permanent part of the national cricketing calendar, with an excellent outfield and dressing rooms “second only to Melbourne in size”.
“The pitch played very well considering the limited time it had to settle after being dropped in,” Waugh said at the time.
Exactly 20 years later, Waugh said he loved his time up north and the match would always hold special significance in his career.
“I’d love to get back to the NT again,” he said.
“It’s the perfect place to play Test matches in the winter.
“You’ve got the facilities and the climate and appetite so there’s no reason why you can’t get more cricket up there.”
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Originally published as Darwin’s debut Test match in 2003 saw a number of historic firsts
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