W.L. Murdoch

Billy Murdoch

Personal information
Full name	William Lloyd Murdoch
Born	(1854-10-18)18 October 1854 Sandhurst, Colony of Victoria
Died	18 February 1911(1911-02-18) (aged 56) Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Batting style	Right-handed
Role	Batsman, occasional wicket-keeper
International information
National side	Australia (1877–1890) England (1892)
Test debut (cap 13/79)	31 March 1877  Australia v England
Last Test	22 March 1892  England v South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1875–1890	New South Wales
1893–1899	Sussex
1900–1904	London County
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 19 391 Runs scored 908 16,953 Batting average 31.31 26.86 100s/50s 2/1 19/85 Top score 211 321 Balls bowled – 764 Wickets – 10 Bowling average – 43.00 5 wickets in innings – 0 10 wickets in match – 0 Best bowling – 2/11 Catches/stumpings 14/1 218/25
Source: CricketArchive, 2 December 2008

William Lloyd "Billy" Murdoch (18 October 1854 – 18 February 1911) was an Australian cricketer who captained the Australian national side in 16 Test matches between 1880 and 1890. This included four tours of England, one of which, in 1882, gave rise to The Ashes.

Although Victorian-born, Murdoch was raised in Sydney, and played his Australian domestic cricket for New South Wales, making his first-class debut in 1875. His Test debut came in 1877, in what was retrospectively classed as the second Test match to be played. Murdoch began his career as a wicket-keeper, but at Test level kept wicket only once, with Jack Blackham being preferred. As a batsman, Murdoch scored both the first double century in Test cricket (211 against England in 1884) and the first triple century in Australian domestic cricket (321 against Victoria in 1882). In later years, he settled in England, playing county cricket for Sussex (1893 to 1899, as captain) and London County (1900 to 1904). In 1892, he toured South Africa with England and played in one Test match, making him one of the few cricketers to represent more than one international team. Murdoch's final first-class match came at the age of 49, in August 1904. He died in Melbourne in 1911, aged only 56.