As part of the 2019 Reconciliation Action Plan of Cricket Australia, the best performer of the next Test match between Australia and India, would be awarded the Johnny Mullagh Medal in a move to pay rich tribute to the country’s indigenous people. Johnny Mullagh was the captain of Australia’s first sporting team to tour internationally on the 1868 Aboriginal tour to the United Kingdom. The medal will be the belt buckle that the team had worn on the tour to the United Kingdom in 1868.
“The best player in the Boxing Day Test will be awarded the Mullagh Medal, named after the legendary Johnny Mullagh, captain of the 1868 cricket team who became the first Australian sporting team to tour internationally! #AUSvIND,” Cricket Australia revealed on its Twitter handle.
Mullagh, whose real name was Unaarrimin, captained the Indigenous squad and played in 45 of 47 matches. He was a professional all-rounder and, during the legendary 1868 tour, scored 1698 runs at an average of about 20. He also took 245 wickets at an average of 10 runs per wicket. He also played the role of a part-time wicketkeeper and during his career, he carried out four stumpings.
Notably, before the start of the series against India, Australian vice-captain Pat Cummins had admitted that enough has not been done to recognise the indigenous people of the country. To address the issue, Cummins had said that the home team were to stand in a barefoot circle before the start of every series. Indian captain Virat Kohli, too, led his side to take part in the barefoot circle move.
"We have decided to do the Barefoot Circle. We are going to look at doing it at the start of each series and it is a pretty easy decision for us. As soon as you try and learn a little bit about it, it just becomes a really easy decision. Not only as a sport but we as people are absolutely against racism. We can probably put our hands up and say we have not done enough in the past and we want to get better, so this is one small thing we are going to introduce this summer," Cummins had said.
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