{{Short description|Australian cricketer}} {{Use Australian English|date=May 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2026}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Ben Wardill | image = Major Wardill.jpg | caption = Wardill in 1895 | fullname = Benjamin Johnston Wardill | birth_date = {{birth date|1842|10|15|df=yes}} | birth_place = Everton, Liverpool, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1917|10|15|1842|10|15|df=yes}} | death_place = Sandringham, Victoria, Australia | batting = | bowling = | role =

| club1 = Victoria | year1 = 1866 | clubnumber1 = | club2 = | year2 = | clubnumber2 =

| date = 3 May | year = 2015 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/8310.html Cricinfo }}

'''Benjamin Wardill''' (15 October 1842 &ndash; 15 October 1917), often referred to as '''Major Wardill''', was an Australian cricketer and cricket administrator. Wardill played two first-class cricket matches: one for Victoria in 1866, and one 20 years later for the Australians in England in 1886.<ref name="Cricinfo">{{Cite web|url=http://www.espncricinfo.com/australia/content/player/8310.html |title=Benjamin Wardill |access-date=3 May 2015 |work=ESPN Cricinfo}}</ref> His brother Richard also played cricket for Victoria.<ref>{{cite web |title=Benjamin Wardill |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/16/16825/16825.html |website=CricketArchive |access-date=26 January 2023}}</ref>

Born in England, Wardill migrated to Melbourne in 1861 and worked for several years with his brother Richard at the office of the Victoria Sugar Co. He joined the garrison artillery soon after his arrival, and rose to the rank of major in the Harbor Trust Garrison Battery in 1885.<ref name=ADB/>

Wardill was secretary of Melbourne Cricket Club from 1876 to 1911. In his time the membership of the club increased from 572 to 5353. A biographer said that "Wardill was largely successful in his aim to make the Melbourne Cricket Club the Australian counterpart of the famous Marylebone Cricket Club in England".<ref name=ADB>{{Australian Dictionary of Biography |last= Cranfield |first= Louis R. |year= 1974 |id2=wardill-benjamin-johnston-4950 |title= Wardill, Benjamin Johnston (1842–1917) |access-date= 6 May 2015}}</ref> His salary was raised to 700 pounds per annum in 1907, having been 600 pounds per annum for the previous 16 years.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Scout |title=Cricket |journal=NZ Truth |date=28 September 1907 |page=3 |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTR19070928.2.9}}</ref>

In his role as Melbourne Cricket Club secretary, Wardill organised and managed Australia's tours to England in 1886, 1899 and 1902.<ref name=ADB />

Wardill died of heart disease in 1917. He married once, to Elizabeth King, and had one daughter who died in infancy.<ref name=ADB />

==See also== * List of Victoria first-class cricketers

==References== {{Commons category}} {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wardill, Benjamin}} Category:1842 births Category:1917 deaths Category:Australian cricketers Category:Victoria cricketers Category:Cricketers from Liverpool Category:Australian cricket administrators Category:Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers Category:English emigrants to colonial Australia Category:Melbourne Football Club (pre-VFA) players