Ian King
Australian cricketer
- Born
- 1 June 1943
- Citizenship
- Australia
- Sport
- cricket
- Occupation
- boxer, cricketer
- Team / club
- Australia national cricket team
Ian Harold King (born 1 June 1943) is a former Australian first-class cricketer, one of only a handful of Indigenous Australians to have played first-class cricket and convicted paedophile.
Born one of ten children in Brisbane, Queensland, King was a successful junior basketballer and professional welterweight boxer who won 28 of 32 fights under the name "Young Rainbow" (derived from his preference for brightly coloured clothes) before turning to cricket.
A right-arm fast bowler and right-handed batsman, King started playing for Sydney club Bankstown before returning to Queensland where he continued to impress with his express pace bowling in grade cricket, leading to his first-class debut for Queensland, against Western Australia at the Brisbane Cricket Ground on 31 October 1969. The first Aboriginal to play for Queensland since Eddie Gilbert in 1936, King opened the bowling, taking 1/27 and 2/59.
External links
Facts from Wikidata Q5981983 (CC0); quoted introduction from English Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Data retrieved 2026-10-22.
Data: Wikidata (CC0 1.0); Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.