Cricket has been played in what is now Malaysia since the 1880s. Various teams represented Malaya, the Federated Malay States and the Straits Settlements, but the first team to represent Malaysia was in 1970, three years after they became an ICC associate member, when they played an MCC side captained by Tony Lewis in a two day match, losing by 230 runs. The same year, Malaysia played the first Saudara Cup match against Singapore, drawing the three day match. The Saudara Cup match continued annually till today.
Malaysia gained associate membership of the ICC in 1967 and in 1979 Malaysia participated in the first ICC Trophy, failing to progress beyond the first round, a performance they repeated in 1982 and 1986. They reached the plate competition in 1990 and 1994. They have appeared in every ICC Trophy since, with the exception of the 2005 tournament, for which they did not qualify. They hosted the 1997 tournament, but finished in a disappointing 16th place.
The oldest club in Malaysia is the Royal Selangor Club. It was founded in 1884 by a group of British planters, and it has been the venue for almost all the important games in Malaysia ever since, including one occasion in 1927, when Malaya beat Australia by 39 runs.
Malaysia are, to date, the only country to feature cricket as part of the Commonwealth Games. This happened at the 1998 games, but the tournament was not considered a success, with most of the Test nations not sending a full-strength team, and England not sending a team at all. The cricket tournament saw Malaysia participate as hosts though they lost all three of their first round matches. They reached the final of the ACC Trophy that same year, losing to Bangladesh
The first Stan Nagaiah Trophy was played in Singapore in February 1995 with Singapore beating Malaysia 2-1 in the three match one-day series. After winning the Stan Nagaiah Trophy and drawing the Saudara Cup match in 1996, Malaysia hosted the first ACC Trophy tournament, finishing third in their first round group. Malaysia have competed in every ACC Trophy, and hosted the 2004 tournament, where they finished in 7th place, missing out on qualification for the 2005 ICC Trophy and 2007 Asia Cup. They also hosted the 2006 tournament, in which they again finished seventh.
In 2000, Malaysia reached the semi-final of the ACC Trophy before losing to hosts the UAE. They failed to progress beyond the first round of the 2001 ICC Trophy and lost to Nepal in the semi-finals of the 2002 ACC Trophy.
Malaysia played their first first-class matches in 2004 as part of that year's ICC Intercontinental Cup. They lost to both Nepal and the UAE and failed to reach the semi-final stage of the tournament. In 2006, Malaysia competed in the ACC Premier League, finishing fourth.
Malaysia have played in the ACC Twenty20 Cup twice. They did not win a match in 2007 but finished seventh in 2009 after winning 3 Group B matches and a positional playoff against Saudi Arabia. In the ICC World Cricket League 2009 Malaysia finished in fourth place in their division six matches. However 2011 is a good start for Malaysian Cricket when they are promoted to Division Five, after finishing second in their group six ICC World Cricket League 2011 matches.
