Frank Allan

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Frank Allan, full name Francis Erskine Allan, was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and appeared in one Test for Australia in 1879. A tall, left‑arm medium‑pace bowler, he was nicknamed “The Bowler of a Century” and “Kangaroo” for his wicket celebrations. He learned his bowling in his youth from the Girai wurrung people of the Victorian bush, which gave his bowling a distinctive spin and movement.

Allan began with the South Melbourne Cricket Club in 1866 and soon stood out. He made his first‑class debut for Victoria in 1867, taking a five‑wicket haul in his second match and becoming a cornerstone of Victoria’s bowling in intercolonial games. He famously bowled strongly against W. G. Grace’s England XI in 1873–74. In 1878 he joined Australia’s first overseas tour and took many wickets on the trip, though illness made the English portion tougher.

He was offered a chance to play in the very first Test in 1877 but declined to attend a Warrnambool agricultural fair. His only Test came in 1879 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground against Lord Harris’s All‑England team. Outside cricket, Allan was an all‑round sportsman, playing Australian rules football for South Melbourne and later Albert Park, and he also enjoyed billiards, shooting, bowls, and fishing.

Away from sport, Allan worked as Victoria’s Chief Inspector of Vermin Destruction and cared about protecting native wildlife and flora. He was born on 2 December 1849 near Allansford, Victoria, and died on 9 February 1917 in Melbourne after contracting a chill at a bowling tournament at the MCG. Wisden later called him one of Australia’s great bowlers and a pioneer of Australian bowling.