A History of Tasmanian Cricket is the first truly comprehensive historical study of cricket in Tasmania, tracing the game from its colonial origins through to the mid-twentieth century.
 
Compiled with scholarly care, the work draws heavily on original sources — including club minute books, correspondence, government records, and contemporary newspapers — many of which no longer survive.
 
Roger Page’s approach is methodical and documentary in tone, deliberately avoiding myth-making in favour of verifiable record. The result is a work that remains the cornerstone reference for Tasmanian cricket history.
 
The book covers:
Early cricket in Van Diemen’s Land
Formation of Tasmanian clubs and associations
Intercolonial matches and touring sides
Development of grounds, administration, and representative teams
Full scorecards of key matches
Rare early team photographs, including 19th-century Tasmanian sides
 
Historical Importance
Published in the 1950s, this book filled a major gap in Australian cricket literature. Earlier writings on Tasmanian cricket were brief pamphlets or newspaper essays; Page’s work was the first to assemble a coherent, chronological, evidence-based history.
 
For researchers, collectors, and historians, it remains the primary printed source on Tasmanian cricket’s formative years.
 
Produced in a modest government print run and never reprinted, this book is now scarce, particularly in well-preserved condition. It remains the foundational printed history of Tasmanian cricket.