Australia A

The idea itself was not new — sides travelling as Second XI had done the same job since the 1949–50 season — but it was only for the 1994–95 tri-series, expanded into a quad-series, that the name Australia A was formally attached to the squad.

It took three more years to reach first-class standard, playing its first such match in December 1997 against South Africa. The team has never settled on one home: fixtures and training rotate between the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which holds 100,024, and the far smaller Junction Oval, which also serves as Cricket Victoria's administrative base. On the field it wears dark green and canary yellow.

India A and New Zealand A supply its sharpest contests, though no derby name has ever attached itself to the fixture.

Steve Smith and David Warner both wore the dark green cap before the baggy green. Shane Warne wore it too.