Malaya cricket team


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 matches between 1906 and 1961.

History

Early days

Singapore cricket club is the oldest cricket club in the region Cricket has been played in Peninsular Malaysia since at least the 1850s. 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 against Hong Kong. In November of that year, they traveled to Hong Kong, playing matches against Hong Kong and Shanghai. 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 in Singapore.
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. 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: