Tasmania

Cricket almost certainly has been played in Tasmania since the time of European settlement in 1803. It was a popular pastime among marines, who were responsible for security in the fledgling colony. The first recorded match is known to have taken place in 1806, although it is most likely that unrecorded matches were already being played at this time.

According to the colony's chaplain, and famed diarist, Robert Knopwood by 1814 the game had become very popular, especially around the festive season at Christmas. By the 1820s there had still not been any official club organisation, but matches were being played on a regular basis. Cricket is recorded as having been played in the settlements at Richmond, Clarence Plains, Kempton, Sorell, in the Macquarie Valley west of Campbell Town, Westbury, Evandale, Longford and Hadspen.

Many of these matches seem to have been organised between hotel licensees, in order to create profits through the sale of food and beverages, and through betting on the outcome. One such match that was arranged in March 1826 by Joseph Bowden, the hotelier of the Lamb Inn on Brisbane Street was played for a winner's purse of 50 guineas between "Eleven Gentlemen from the Counties of Sussex and Kent against the choice of the whole Island of Van Diemen's Land". There is no evidence to suggest an "official cricket season" during the first two decades of the colony, and many of these games initially seem to have been played around June and July, to coincide with the traditional English cricket season, rather than the Tasmanian summer.

Accounts of such matches suggest games were often played in atrocious conditions due to winter rains and cold conditions. But by the 1830s, logic had prevailed and cricket seems to have reverted to the southern summer months. Club cricket had also become well-established by the 1830s.

One of the earliest men responsible for organising cricket within the colony was John Marshall, who was established the Hobart Town Club soon after his arrival from England. Soon after in 1835 the Derwent Cricket Club was formed making it the oldest surviving cricket club in Tasmania, and in 1841, the Launceston Cricket Club was formed, making it the second oldest surviving cricket club in Tasmania, and third oldest in Australia. Cricket had soon also spread into many regional settlements throughout the Colony of Tasmania, making it one of the most popular pastimes there.