The Malaya cricket team was a team that represented the combined territories of the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements in various international

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

matches between 1906 and 1961.

History

Early days

Singapore cricket club is the oldest cricket club in the region (founded in 1852) Cricket has been played in

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

since at least the 1850s.Encyclopaedia of World Cricket by Roy Morgan, Sports Books Publishing The first match between the Federated Malay States and Straits Settlements was played in 1905 and the combined Malaya team first played the following year, against Burma in Yangon, though the result is not known. Two matches were played against Australia in 1909. Beginning in 1920, Malaya replaced the Straits Settlements in a regular series of

Interport matches Interport matches refer to a series of cricket matches which took place in Asia from 1866 to 1987, between Ceylon, the Federated Malay States, Hong Kong, Malaya, Malaysia, Shanghai, Singapore and the Straits Settlements. In February 2020, ...

against

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. In November of that year, they traveled to

, playing matches against Hong Kong and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. They beat Hong Kong by 35 runs, but lost to Shanghai by an innings and 140 runs. Following these two matches, they joined forces with the Shanghai team to lose to Hong Kong by five wickets. The visit was repeated in November 1924, with Malaya losing to Shanghai by 89 runs and to Hong Kong by 2 wickets. They played Hong Kong at home in 1926, beating them by an innings and 112 runs on the

Padang Padang () is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. With a Census population of 1,015,000 as of 2022, it is the 16th most populous city in Indonesia and the most populous city on the west coast of Sumatra. Th ...

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. In June 1927, Australia, captained by Bert Oldfield, visited Malaya, and the Malayan side won the first match by 39 runs, their only win against a Test-playing nation. A third visit to Hong Kong was made in November that year, with Malaya losing by an innings to Shanghai and Hong Kong. In 1929, they lost to Shanghai by 1 wicket, and to Hong Kong by four wickets. The final visit in 1933 saw Malaya beat Hong Kong by 14 runs, before gaining their first win over Shanghai by beating them by 50 runs.

Later matches

Little is known of Malaya's matches after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. The two results that are known are that Malaya beat Hong Kong by 1 wicket in December 1959, and drew with the MCC in March 1961.

Players

The following players played for Malaya and also played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

: * Gerald Livock - played for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

between 1925 and 1927. *

Robert Phayre Colonel Robert Phaire, (1619?–1682), was an officer in the Irish Protestant and then the New Model armies and a Regicide. He was one of the three officers to whom the warrant for the execution of Charles I was addressed, but he escaped severe ...

- played for the Europeans in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in 1928/29. *

Alfred Hill Alfred Hill may refer to: * Alfred John Hill (1862–1927), British railway engineer * Alfred Hill (cricketer, born 1865) (1865–1936), English cricketer * Alfred Hill (politician) (1867–1945), British Member of Parliament for Leicester West 192 ...

- played for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

in 1920. *

Edward Armitage Edward Armitage (20 May 1817 – 24 May 1896) was an English Victorian-era painter whose work focused on historical, classical and biblical subjects. Family background Armitage was born in London to a family of wealthy Yorkshire industrialis ...

- played for

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

between 1919 and 1925. * Neville Foster - played for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

between 1914 and 1923. * Charles Congdon - played for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

between 1921 and 1929. * Robert Braddell - played for

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

and the MCC between 1908 and 1911. *

Herbert Hopkins Herbert Oxley Hopkins (6 July 1895 – 23 February 1972) was an Australian-born English first-class cricketer who played 85 matches between the wars. The bulk of these games were for Worcestershire and Oxford University, though he also appeared ...

- played for Worcestershire between 1921 and 1931. * Lall Singh - played

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...

for

in 1932. * William Smith - played for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

in 1927. * Victor Croome - played for the Royal Air Force between 1928 and 1930.Victor Croome
at CricketArchive * Thomas Hart - played for

and

between 1931 and 1934. Hart also played twice for the Scotland rugby union team in 1930.

References

{{reflist, 2 Cricket in Malaysia Cricket in Singapore

History

Early days

Later matches

Players

See also

References