page_title: Warwick Armstrong
section_title: Rebellion
hierarchical_section_title: Warwick Armstrong / Representative cricket / Rebellion
caption_attribution_description: English: A vintage photograph of Australia cricket team members, left to right, Warwick Armstrong and Victor Trumper having a meal during the Australian tour of England, circa 1905. A photograph from the personal archive of Australian cricketer Frank Laver (1869-1919) whose images give a unique glimpse into the life of the Australian team at home, and on tour, between 1899 and 1909. Frank Laver played 15 Test matches for Australia, and visited England as a player and team manager on four occasions. An accomplished photographer and author, he wrote an illustrated account of his 1899 and 1905 tours of England, An Australian Cricketer on Tour.
context_page_description: Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921, and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two. Armstrong was captain of the 1920–21 Australian team which defeated the touring English 5–0: one of only three teams to win an Ashes series in a whitewash. In a Test career interrupted by the First World War, he scored 2,863 runs at an average of 38.68, including six centuries, and took 87 wickets. He was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000.
  Armstrong was a large man and was known as the "Big Ship". He was not a stylish batsman but his strokeplay was effective, with a sound defence and temperament. He bowled leg spin with a gentle action and while not a big turner of the ball, he relied on accuracy to dismiss opponents. He made his Test debut in 1902 against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and was selected to tour England later that year where he was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. That was the first of four tours of England.
context_section_description: Armstrong was appointed captain of an Australian team touring New Zealand in 1909–10, partly as recognition of his accomplishments and partly due to the unavailability of other candidates, such as Trumper.  Suspicions still ran high between the Board and the players and Trumper, tiring of what he perceived as persecution, retired from first-class cricket.  The tour did not include any Test matches, although a match was played against a representative New Zealand team.  Australia won every game, save a draw against Canterbury. Armstrong, more diplomatic as captain than some commenters had been expecting, turned down a lucrative offer to coach the Auckland team.
  The Melbourne Cricket Club found Armstrong a job as "pavilion clerk".  His duties were broadly defined in order to allow him to meet his representative cricket obligations. These included matches against the touring South Africans, scheduled to play five Tests in 1910–11. The first Test saw Australia win by an innings and 114 runs thanks mainly to an innings on 191 from Hill and eight wickets to Bill Whitty. Armstrong nearly missed the second Test in Melbourne with a case of mumps.  He recovered, and although still unwell managed to score 75 and take 4–134 from 48 overs. In the fourth Test, Armstrong compiled another century, 132 including a partnership of 154 with Hill. Australia won the series comfortably, winning four of the five Test matches with their only loss at Adelaide by 38 runs. Returning to cricket after his self-imposed exile, Victor Trumper was the leading player for the Australians during the series scoring 661 runs at an average of 94.
  The English team returned to Australia the following season to compete for the Ashes with Pelham Warner once again captain of a very strong English team that included bowlers Sydney Barnes and Frank Foster.  Warner suffered from an illness early in the tour and handed the captaincy to Johnny Douglas.  After losing the first Test, England won the remaining four Tests comfortably. In the second Test at Melbourne, Armstrong played one of his best Test innings.  Facing exceptional bowling from Foster and Barnes, he made a nerveless 90, including 14 boundaries, before being dismissed by Foster.
  While this series took place, the Board of Control made plans to usurp the commonly accepted rights of the players to appoint a manager when touring England. The hostility between the players and the board saw a fist fight break out between Clem Hill and Peter McAlister at a selection meeting. When the Board announced that George Crouch would be manager of the Australian team for the 1912 Triangular Tournament in England, rather than the player's choice, Frank Laver, outright rebellion ensued.  Armstrong, Hill and Trumper, along with Hanson Carter, Tibby Cotter and Vernon Ransford (known as the "Big Six") announced that they would be unavailable to join the touring party.  The team, under the captaincy of Syd Gregory, left without these players. The tour was not a success on any front: the Australians winning only eight games and losing nine in a wet season and Crouch on return to Australia reported to the Board that "some of the players had conducted themselves so badly in England as to lead to the team being socially ostracised."
  International cricket was placed on hold as a result of the outbreak of the Great War.  Armstrong had been named captain of the Australian team to tour South Africa in 1914–15, however the tour was unable to take place. Armstrong chose not to enlist in the military during the war and kept his own counsel on the subject.  He continued to work and play cricket for Melbourne Cricket Club, participating in the occasional fund-raising fixture.
caption: Armstrong (left) and Trumper during the tour of England in 1905
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