Billy Murdoch — From NSW Wicketkeeper to Australia's Captain, 1878

Murdoch was a Sydney barrister-solicitor by profession. He had been the Spofforth's preferred keeper at NSW level and was the cause of Spofforth's protest against Blackham's selection in March 1877.

The 1878 Australian tour was the first by a representative side to England. The selectors picked Murdoch as keeper and Blackham as substitute — a ranking that reversed during the trip.

Murdoch, born in Sandhurst (Bendigo) in October 1854 and raised in Sydney, had played for NSW since 1875. He was the wicketkeeper to whom Spofforth bowled most of his early career and the cause of Spofforth's first-Test boycott. He was the team's first-choice keeper on the 1878 tour, and kept in the famous MCC match at Lord's. But he found over the course of the English summer that he could not match Blackham's quickness behind the stumps and turned over the gloves. From mid-tour onwards Murdoch focused on batting; he made his maiden first-class hundred at Hove in mid-summer. He returned to Australia, was at the centre of the Sydney Riot of February 1879 (where Coulthard's run-out call against him triggered the disorder), and by 1880 had been chosen to captain the second Australian touring side to England. He scored 153 in the 1880 Oval Test, the first Test in England, and went on to become the first batsman to score a Test 200 (321 vs England, 1882).

“Murdoch found that he could not hold his own with Blackham, and thenceforward batting became his exclusive study.”

Murdoch captained Australia in 16 Tests between 1880 and 1890. He played one Test for England in 1891-92 in South Africa, becoming one of the small group of cricketers to represent both countries. He moved to England, qualified for Sussex, and became a popular figure in English county cricket.