A history of the Sheffield Shield

In 1891-92 the Earl of Sheffield was in Australia as the promoter of the English team led by W. G. Grace. The tour included three Tests played in Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide. At the conclusion of the tour, Sheffield donated £150 to the New South Wales Cricket Association to fund a trophy for an annual tournament of inter-colonial cricket in Australia. The new tournament commenced in 1892-93 featuring the three colonies of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. They were already regularly playing ad-hoc matches which were very popular, although they discussed divvying up Sheffield's donation before opting to organise a competition, and that delay meant that there was no trophy to present to the first winners, Victoria.

Although only three states participated, others were very much part of the cricketing calendar. Tasmania played their first first-class game (against Victoria) in 1850-51, while Queensland and Western Australia appeared in 1892-93. There were regular inter-state games. Nevertheless, Queensland were not admitted to the Shield until 1926-27, Western Australia immediately after WW2 while Tasmania had to wait until 1977-78 and even then they were playing half the number of games as the other sides for the first five seasons.

In all that time, the competition remained largely unchanged, with home and away games and the winners being whoever topped the table at the end of it all. The only interruptions came for the two World Wars, and even then cricket continued into the first years of both.

The major revamp came in 1981-82 when, faced by falling crowds and the emergence of one-day cricket, the ACB introduced a five-day final, played between the two sides at the top of the table, to decide who were the champions.

Western Australia remarkably won the title in their first season, although Queensland had a much longer wait, not winning the Sheild until 1994-95 - someone had years before written on the back of it "Qld Never In History" - and that opened the floodgates as they went on to capture four more titles in the next seven seasons. Tasmania chalked up their first win in 2006-07.

By the 1990s the competition was losing large sums of money and in 1999 the ACB announced that it had found a sponsor for the tournament which involved ditching the traditional name. Fundamentalists were outraged, but the competition was relaunched as the Pura Cup, a new trophy was struck and the old shield was put on permanent display at the ACB's offices. To the certain frustration of the new sponsors, the event was still widely referred to as "the Shield" by the public, so much so that in 2008-09 the competition name reverted to the Sheffield Shield.

Winners

Sheffield Shield

	Winners

1892-93 Victoria

1893-94 South Australia

1894-95 Victoria

1895-96 New South Wales

1896-97 New South Wales

1897-98 Victoria

1898-99 Victoria

1899-00 New South Wales

1900-01 Victoria

1901-02 New South Wales

1902-03 New South Wales

1903-04 New South Wales

1904-05 New South Wales

1905-06 New South Wales

1906-07 New South Wales

1907-08 Victoria

1908-09 New South Wales

1909-10 South Australia

1910-11 New South Wales

1911-12 New South Wales

1912-13 South Australia

1913-14 New South Wales

1914-15 South Australia

1915-19 No competition

1919-20 New South Wales

1920-21 New South Wales

1921-22 Victoria

1922-23 New South Wales

1923-24 Victoria

1924-25 Victoria

1925-26 New South Wales

1926-27 South Australia

1927-28 Victoria

1928-29 New South Wales

1929-30 Victoria

1930-31 Victoria

1931-32 New South Wales

1932-33 New South Wales

1933-34 Victoria

1934-35 Victoria

1935-36 South Australia

1936-37 Victoria

1937-38 New South Wales

1938-39 South Australia

1939-40 New South Wales

1940-45 No competition

1945-46 Victoria

1946-47 Western Australia

1948-49 New South Wales

1949-50 New South Wales

1950-51 Victoria

1951-52 New South Wales

1952-53 South Australia

1953-54 New South Wales

1954-55 New South Wales 1955-56 New South Wales 1956-57 New South Wales 1957-58 New South Wales 1958-59 New South Wales 1959-60 New South Wales 1960-61 New South Wales 1961-62 New South Wales

1962-63 Victoria

1963-64 South Australia

1964-65 New South Wales

1965-66 New South Wales

1966-67 Victoria

1967-68 Western Australia

1968-69 South Australia

1969-70 Victoria

1970-71 South Australia

1971-72 Western Australia

1972-73 Western Australia

1973-74 Victoria

1974-75 Western Australia

1975-76 South Australia

1976-76 Western Australia

1977-78 Western Australia

1978-79 Victoria

1979-80 Victoria

1980-81 Western Australia

1981-82 South Australia

1982-83 New South Wales

1983-84 Western Australia

1984-85 New South Wales 1985-86 New South Wales

1986-87 Western Australia

1987-88 Western Australia

1988-89 Western Australia

1989-90 New South Wales

1990-91 Victoria

1991-92 Western Australia 1992-93 New South Wales

1993-94 New South Wales

1994-95 Queensland

1995-96 South Australia

1996-97 Queensland

1997-98 Western Australia

1998-99 Western Australia

1999-00 Queensland

2000-01 Queensland

2001-02 Queensland

2002-03 New South Wales

2003-04 Victoria

2004-05 New South Wales

2005-06 Queensland

2006-07 Tasmania

2007-08 New South Wales

2008-09 Victoria

2009-10 Victoria

2010-11 Tasmania

2011-12 Queensland