Cricket in Western Australia from Western Australia fought in World War I, including Ernie Parker, Lionel Gouly and Jim Everett. Western Australia was admitted to the Sheffield Shield for the 1947–48 season. Keith Carmody was recruited from New South Wales to lead the inaugural side. Although playing a shortened schedule of matches compared to the other teams, playing each team only once instead of twice, Western Australia won the competition in the first year. Notable cricketers from the first few years of Western Australia's Sheffield Shield competition include Carmody, Allan Edwards, Wally Langdon, Laurie Sawle, Jack Rutherford, Ken Meuleman, John Munro and Basil Rigg.
The cricketers illustrative realism." The model for the batsman was Teddy Woolard and Roy Holloway was the model for the bowler. In 1996, after the models were identified, Woolard was asked for his opinion of Drysdale's portrayal; "I just don't rate it ... It makes us all look out of proportion." The town of Hill End itself is not as desolate as shown in the painting, with a later visitor to Hill End remarking "Even the scattered buildings—so blank and menacing in The Cricketers—appear as if ripped from the cover of a chocolate box." The cricketers The cricketers is a 1948 painting