Queensland Cricket

An early effort to administ rate cricket in Queensland came in December 1863 when an Intercolonial Cricket Match between Queensland and New South Wales was proposed and a 'Central Intercolonial Cricket Match Committee' was formed in Queensland in order to make preliminary arrangements,[6] which included making alterations to a cricket ground to accommodate the match.[7] In May 1864 the Committee organized for a Brisbane side to play an Ipswich side in order to determine which players should represent Queensland against New South Wales.[8] In July 1864 the Committee held a final meeting after the match had taken place to settle the accounts and consider preparations for future engagements.[9]

As of February 1865 another Intercolonial match had been proposed and the Intercolonial Cricket Match Committee was reformed with responsibility for an Intercolonial Match Fund.[10] The Committee was forced to change practice days for the Queensland side in March due to a scheduling clash with the Brisbane Cricket Club,[11] and in May the Committee proposed that in order to improve the practice and proficiency of the Queensland side a Queensland Cricket Association should be formed composed of delegates from each club who would be under the direction of the Committee itself,[12] and in June the body was formed and inaugurated,[13] however by 1866 it had disbanded.[14]

In January 1867 a media report observed that cricket was thriving in Queensland, with approximately six clubs in Brisbane and active clubs also existing in Ipswich and Toowoomba, and proposed that a Queensland Cricket Association be formed to settle disputes in the sport noting that other colonies already had such bodies.[15] In March an Indigenous Cricket team visited Brisbane, and a committee formed to organize matches decided to save any surplus funds raised for the visit be held in trust for a Queensland Cricketing Association if it was formed,[16] and in September a Queensland Cricket Association was established in Brisbane.[17] The Association was still in existence as of 1874, however in May that year the Association observed that many clubs were not represented in the body and it was decided that it should print and distribute its rules and urge clubs to appoint delegates as soon as possible.[18] In April 1875 the captain of the Gympie cricket team complained that the Queensland Cricket Association had refused to schedule a match between a Brisbane and Gympie side,[19] and in November the body was harshly criticized as being a "so-called "Queensland Cricket Association" which has never held a meeting or done an act within the memory of man."[20]

In March 1876 a meeting was held at the Royal Hotel in Brisbane attended by approximately fifty at which it was proposed to form a new body in Brisbane to be called the Queensland Cricket Association (Q.C.A.) and the proposal was unanimously carried. The body was to have a committee consisting of a President, two vice-presidents, a secretary, and a treasurer, to be elected by delegates of member cricket clubs. It was decided that for a club to qualify for membership in the Association it must have twenty members and that clubs would have one delegate in the Association for every twenty members with a maximum of five delegates. An objection was raised at the meeting, suggesting that clubs with over one hundred members would be under-represented, but concerns were dismissed with the reasoning that it was better to encourage many small clubs rather than a small number of large clubs.[21]

The first meeting of the delegates of the Q.C.A. was held on April 5, 1876, at the Australian Hotel in Brisbane,[22] at which a subcommittee drafted Association rules which were decided on at a second meeting on April 20.[23] In late April 1876 the Q.C.A. received a letter regarding an English cricket team which was to tour Australia and had offered to visit Queensland if the Association could cover costs.[24] The Association made an offer of 600 pounds in total for the English XI to visit the colony which was rejected.[25] In September the Q.C.A. drew up rules for a "Challenge Cup" competition for clubs to compete in,[26] and the inaugural 1876-77 season began in October marking the beginning of senior club cricket under the Q.C.A..[27]