Victoria

Victorian cricket grew out of colonial rivalry rather than any single founder's plan: when Victoria met Tasmania at Launceston in 1851, it was the first inter-colonial match played on Australian soil, and the fixture gave the new colony's cricketers a side to organise around. That match is why 1851 stands as the team's founding year, even though the Melbourne Cricket Club had existed since 1838.

The record the side built afterwards has few equals in Australian domestic cricket: 32 Sheffield Shield titles, stretching from 1892 to 2018/19, along with six one-day titles and four Big Bash crowns before that format moved elsewhere. Twice Victoria passed 1,000 runs in a single innings, against Tasmania in 1922/23 and against New South Wales in 1926/27.

New South Wales has been the constant opponent since the sides first met in 1856, and the Sheffield Shield contest between them now carries the Hodge-Matthews Trophy, named for Victoria's record run-scorer Brad Hodge and his New South Wales counterpart on wickets, Greg Matthews. Andrew McDonald's side, rebuilt from 2018, won four titles in five seasons under his coaching.

For decades the team played as the Bushrangers, a name Cricket Victoria retired in 2018 in favour of simpler branding, though it never quite left the terraces. Home matches at the Melbourne Cricket Ground put the side in front of a capacity of just over 100,000, in the city whose cricketers first crossed colonial lines to play the game 175 years ago.