Thomas Wentworth Wills 19 August โ 2 May was an Australian sportsman who is credited with being Australia's first cricketer of significance and a founder of Australian rules football.
Born in the British penal colony of New South Wales to a wealthy family descended from convicts , Wills grew up in the bush on stations owned by his father, the squatter and politician Horatio Wills , in what is now the state of Victoria.
As a child, he befriended local Aboriginal people , learning their language and customs. Aged 14, Wills went to England to attend Rugby School , where he became captain of its cricket team and played an early version of rugby football.
After Rugby, Wills represented Cambridge University in the annual cricket match against Oxford , and played at first-class level for Kent and the Marylebone Cricket Club. An athletic bowling all-rounder with tactical nous, he was regarded as one of the finest young cricketers in England. Returning to Victoria in , Wills achieved Australia-wide stardom captaining the Victoria cricket team to repeated victories in intercolonial matches.
He played for the Melbourne Cricket Club but often clashed with its administrators, his larrikin streak and defections to rival clubs straining their relationship. In , seeking a winter pastime for cricketers, he called for the formation of a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws". He captained a Melbourne side that winter, and in co-wrote its laws โthe basis of Australian rules. Over their careers, he and his cousin H.
