Willie Watson Former England Batsman

Willie Watson the former Yorkshire and England batsman died on April 24 at his home in Johannesburg, in South Africa. He was 4A Watson, a graceful and correct left-hander, scored over 25.000 runs in a first-class career that spanned 25 years but will probably be best remembered for a match-saving century in the 1953 Lord's Test against Australia when his 109 runs — and his long _ partnership with Trevor Bailey — staved off what had seemed to be certain defeat. Willie Watson was born in Bolton-on-Dearne Bolton in 1920.

Watson was a fine all-around sportsman. Apart from cricket, in which he made his debut for Yorkshire in 1939, he was also a fine footballer. He played for Huddersfield, Sunderland, and Halifax, and won four England caps. He was part of the first England squad in Brazil in 1950, although he took part in the World Cup, he didn’t actually play the match. The following year he made his England Test debut, against South Africa at Trent Bridge, scoring 57 in his first match and 79 in his second, But Watson was jostling for a position with the likes of Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, Peter May, Tom Graveney, and Colin Cowdrey, in a golden era of English batting, and found it difficult to nail down a regular place in the side.

Even after that hundred on debut against Australia at Lord's in 1953, when his four-hour stand of 163 with Bailey saved the game, Watson wasn't secure: he was dropped before the end of the series and missed the deciding final Test at The Oval, Which England won to recapture the Ashes after 19 years. Football commitments at an end, Watson toured West Indies in 1953-54 and added a second Test century in Jamaica. He flitted in and out of the Test side until the end of the decade, playing his last Tests in Australasia in 1958-59, when one of his teammates was another double cricket/football international, Arthur Milton. Watson finished with 879 runs from his 23 Tests, at an average of 25.85.

By then Watson was playing his county cricket for Leicestershire, whom he’d joined as assistant secretary and captain in 1958. He played on to 1964, finishing with 25,670 runs in all (39.86), including 55 centuries. His highest score was 257, for MCC against British Guiana at Georgetown in 1953-54, when he shared a stand of 402 with Tom Graveney, who made 231. In England Watson’s best was 217 not out, for Leicestershire against Somerset at Taunton in 1961, when he shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 316 with Alan Wharton, which remained a county record until 2003. And he carried his bat for his new county against his old one in 1959, scoring 79 not out in Leicestershire’s total of 132 against Yorkshire at Grace Road.

That season — which ironically followed what turned out to be his last Test appearance — turned out to be his most prolific one, as he passed 2000 runs for the first time and finished with 2,2 12 at 55.30. Watson was a Test selector for three years from 1962 and immigrated to South Africa in 1968 to coach at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg. He saw out his twilight years in South Africa in somewhat straitened circumstances, although he was always keen to join in the various reunions of England players over the years.

Imran Khan - The finest all-rounder the game has seen. Now, the prime minister of Pakistan.

 

Walter Hadlee - The Father of Richard Hadlee, who also represented New Zealand in Test matches.

 

England Great Batsman Denis Compton playing towards leg side.

 

Aamir Nazir - Former Pakistan Fast Bowler Learnt the art of Reverse Swing from Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis.

Aamir Nazir - Former Pakistan Fast Bowler Learnt the art of Reverse Swing from Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis. But unfortunately, he didn't perform up to the selectors' expectations and being dropped after few years. Though, he has the reverse swing class. At one time, he was being a future prospect of a Pakistan attack. He had his runup problems at the start of his career, but later on, he rectify his issue.  

 

Graham Gooch scored 333 vs India at Lord's

In July, 1990 Graham Gooch scored 333, the highest innings at Lord's, in the 1st Test v India at Lord's. With Len Hutton in the stands, the Test record was within Gooch's grasp when he was bowled by Manoj Prabhakar.

Warwick Armstrong bowled two consecutive overs in the same innings in a Test match

This day, 1921, at Old Trafford, Warwick Armstrong bowled two consecutive overs in the same innings in a Test match for the first time since it was outlawed, in 1890. The rain had reduced the Test to a two-day match. England batted, and Lionel Tennyson declared at 5.50 with the score on 341/4.

But as the umpires and batsmen left, Australian wicketkeeper Sammy Carter informed his captain Armstrong that as per Law 55, Tennyson was not allowed to declare within the last 100 minutes of a day in a two-day match. So the Australians stayed put (I am more or less certain Armstrong enjoyed this) as everyone had to return.

Then Armstrong, who had bowled the last over before the break, bowled the next one as well. Warwick Windridge Armstrong was an Australian cricketer who played 50 Test matches between 1902 and 1921. An all-rounder, he captained Australia in ten Test matches between 1920 and 1921, and was undefeated, winning eight Tests and drawing two.

Wasim Akram had various other idiosyncrasies which hardly helped matters for the batsman.

But with the Pakistanis – starting with Imran Khan and Sarfraz Nawaz before Wasim and Waqar came on the scene – it was a very different game.

Brian Lara - All Time Great Batsman

Brian Charles Lara born on 2 May 1969 in Cantaro, Santa Cruz, Trinidad. Sachin Tendulkar’s international career may have been half as long again as Lara’s. But Lara arguably played more truly brilliant innings that took the breath away with their technical mastery and audacity. Brian Lara (The Prince of Port of Spain) was capable on his day of shredding even the finest bowlers in a way that few if any of his peers could match. He won games off his own bat, something that convinced some of his superiority to Tendulkar.

What is beyond argument is that for many years these two incredible cricketers – Lara at 5ft 8in the taller by three inches – stood head and shoulders above their batting rivals. Lara will be best remembered twice claiming the world Test record score. The mind-blowing 400 not out against England in Antigua in 2004 still stands the world record.

Then another his marathon 501 not out in 474 minutes off only 427 balls for Warwickshire in a county championship match against Durham, which remains the highest individual innings in any first-class match. This brutal inning consists of 62 smashing fours and 10 towering sixes. Earlier in the season, he was unstoppable by scoring six centuries in seven innings playing for Warwickshire. In 1995, in an away series, he scored three consecutive centuries against England that earned him a man of series.

Astonishing though these displays were in their scope and stamina, as was his original Test record score of 375 in 1994, also against England in Antigua, he had even better days than those. What marked him out was how he dealt with the best bowlers of his day. He was brilliant against Muttiah Muralitharan in Sri Lanka, and that is not easy. Nor was this someone thinking in terms of taking ones and twos, and of rotating the strike, and boring the bowler to death.

He was picking each delivery, and whacking it, and making Murali the Magnificent look Murali the Mortal. He was every bit as good against Shane Warne. Only eight Test double centuries were scored against Warne and Lara scored three of them. One of these came in Jamaica during a remarkable series in 1999 which was drawn 2–2 and went through every conceivable twist and turn.

In the previous game, West Indies had been dismissed for 51, leaving Lara’s future as captain on the line. In 1998-99 West Indies suffered first-ever whitewashed 5-0 at the hands of South Africa under the captaincy of Lara. A match-winning 213 was his response. He then played even better in the next game in Barbados, carrying his side to an improbable victory with an unbeaten 153 after his team lost their eighth wicket with 63 still needed. According to Wisden Top 100 Test Innings, Lara’s 153 not out is second best innings after Sir Donald Bradman 270 against England at MCG in 1936-37

Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, in turn, held firm but of necessity Lara did most of the scoring. Shane Warne suffered the rare indignity of being dropped for the next match. Brian Lara must have been one of the best of all-time against spinners. Perhaps he was fortunate to be brought up in Trinidad (as the tenth of 11 children) where pitches turned more than elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Even so, the way he dominated Murali and Warne was very special. He was also, it seems trite to say, very good against pace, at least until his later years when a tendency to jump across his crease became exaggerated and he was perhaps grateful for the protection the helmet afforded him. His first international hundreds came against world-class fast bowlers such as Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis for Pakistan and Allan Donald for South Africa while playing as a one-day opener in 1993 when they were at something like their peaks.

It is surprising to think that Lara did not score his first century for West Indies until he was 24 years old but despite the obvious excitement over his ability in his native Trinidad. Where in his second match for the island he scored 92 against a Barbados attack containing Malcom Marshall and Joel Garner, and his own immense self-belief, he was kept waiting for his chances.

He had played only two Tests by the time he turned 23 but in his first full series scored 277 at the SCG in Jan 1993, an innings that not only turned the series but many heads too. Therefore, Brian Lara names his daughter Sydney after scoring the first Test century. Brian Lara described it as his favorite innings and named his first child Sydney in its memory. I was commentating on Australia’s Channel Nine during that match and can testify to Lara’s brilliance.

The difference between Lara and so many of the other batsmen in this list was the strength of the team he was playing for. For the most part, it was not great (and sometimes downright terrible). West Indies relied on him so much. Lara finished on the losing side in almost half of all the Tests he played – 63 out of 131 to be precise. But the blame could not often be laid at his door.

He scored 5,316 runs in those 63 defeats at an average of 42.19 with 14 hundred. Lara sometimes enabled West Indies to compete with the stronger sides, but often the challenge proved too much even for him. In his greatest series against Murali in Sri Lanka in 2001, Lara scored a staggering 688 runs in three games, yet all three games were still lost.

When he played for Warwickshire in 1994, he helped turn a modestly talented team into treble-winners. The 400 not out, which came in the fourth and final Test of a series, was shaped by three earlier defeats. In the context of the game, it was perhaps overdoing it. But given what had happened in the series.

It was his way of restoring pride in West Indian cricket and salving the wounds inflicted by Michael Vaughan’s pace attack, against which he personally had had to grit his teeth and battle hard. The broadcaster for that innings had been for the 375 ten years earlier. On the first occasion, there was something romantic and emotional about watching Garry Sobers.

One of the great heroes and Lara’s too, walk out to congratulate him. Garry Sobers said he could not have been happier that Lara had been the one to break his record: ‘To me, he is the only batsman around today who plays the game the way it should be played. He doesn’t use his pads, he uses his bat.’ The record was broken by Mathew Hayden 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003.

In an interviewed with him at the start of the 2004 series and asked if there was a chance of him reclaiming the record and he’d said, ‘Oh well, maybe, you never know. I’m not really thinking about it. Perhaps most extraordinary was how relaxed he was when he resumed on 313 at the start of the third day.

The commentators of Sky TV’s build-up, we were on the outfield and we’d asked him if we could borrow his bat, was holding it and saying, ‘This is the bat with which Brian Lara is today going to attempt to get back his world record. And then there he was, walking past on his way to the wicket. ‘Here you are, you might need this. He said thanks and off he went to get his 400.

Most players would have wanted that bat with them in the dressing room, familiarizing themselves with how it felt again. Not Lara. He had far too much style for that. Did he get a little bit carried away with himself at times? Possibly. There perhaps was one difference with Tendulkar. In 1989 he selected for West Indies B Team toured to Zimbabwe, where he scored brilliant 145 in one match. Therefore, Lara was given an opportunity to play against Pakistan in 1990. In the first Test Match at Lahore, he scored 44 in the first inning and 5 in the second inning.

On the same tour, Lara debut in one day international at Karachi where he scored 11 being LBW by Waqar Younis. When he suddenly became very famous, he found it hard to handle the change in lifestyle and it took him time to adjust. Nor did the West Indies captaincy always sit easily with him. His technique was far from orthodox. He had a high backlift, which made him vulnerable to fast Yorkers.

If he was not in the right position, but conversely it meant his hands were high for the cross-bat shots at which he excelled, and it helped generate tremendous bat speed and therefore tremendous power. Denying him width was the best way to keep him quiet, as Glenn McGrath showed, but few had McGrath’s discipline.

Brian Lara was second men in the history of the game, who scored two first-class quadruple centuries after Bill Ponsford. Moreover, he has nine double centuries in Test cricket, third on the list after Bradman 12 and Kumar Sangakkara 11. As a captain, Lara scored five double centuries, highest by any captain in the world.

By and large his quick eyes, hands, and feet allowed him to get into good positions and make outrageously late adjustments to his shots. There were repeated rumors, towards the end, that his eyes were going, but if true they did not stop him playing until his 38th year, scoring a double century in his penultimate Test, or retiring with more Test runs to his name than any other cricketer to that point.

Of course, Tendulkar overtook him in the end. Brian Lara announced the retirement on 19 April 2007 from all forms of cricket and played his last ODI against England on 21 April 2007. Brian Lara eventually runout in his last match, scoring 18 after he had a mix up with Marlon Samuels, as England won the match.

He is widely acknowledged greatest batsman of all time, topped the ICC test ranking many times along with several world records. He also shares most runs in an over in Test Cricket smashing 28 runs to left-arm spinner Robert Peterson, later share by George Baily of Australia. Brian Lara awarded Wisden Leading Cricketer of the Year in 1994 and 1995. He also received world most prestigious award BBC Overseas Sports Personality of the Year along being others are Garfield Sobers and Shane Warne. In 2012, Brian Lara has included ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Brian Lara played 131 Test Matches, scored 11,953 runs at an average of 52.88 with the best of 400 Not out including 34 hundred, 48 half-centuries, and 164 catches. In 299 ODI’s, he scored 10,405 at 40.48 with the best of 169, including 19 hundred, 63 fifties and 120 catches. He never played any T20I match.

Also, in 261 first-class matches, Lara scored 22,156 runs at 51.88 with the best of 501 Not Out, including 65 hundred, 88 fifties and 320 catches. In 429 List-A matches, he scored 14,602 runs at 39.67 with 27 hundred, 86 the fifties and 177 catches. Moreover, in 3 T20s he scored 99 runs with the best of 65. These stats clearly show the greatness of Brian Charles Lara. Those who had watched him, never forget his flamboyant shots. He had written immortal cricket history with his bat.

Bill O’Reilly’s - One of Best Leg Spinner Australia Ever Produce

Bill O’Reilly’s Test career was quite short. Because the circumstances conspired against his early recognition as a major talent and the Second World War effectively cut him off from international cricket at the age of only 32. But he nevertheless made an unforgettable impact.

William Joseph O’Reilly was born December 20, 1905, in the mining town of White Cliffs, New South Wales. He made his first-class debut in 1927-28 but could not show his class by taking only seven wickets. Although, by profession, he was a teacher, could not play cricket in the next four seasons. In 1931, he got a chance to play cricket again, and his satisfactory performance opens the doors to the Test level. He made Test debut against South Africa at Adelaide and took 2 for 74 and 2 for 81.

Don Bradman, who played against him in state cricket and alongside him in most of his Test matches said O’Reilly was the best bowler he ever faced and the best bowler he ever saw. Wally Hammond, who opposed him in all 19 of the Tests he played against England, said O’Reilly made the ball jump off the pitch better than any other slow bowler, he had met.

O’Reilly’s height was a key factor in his success. A tall 6ft 2Inch, he was a spin bowler and approached the wicket with a bounding run. He possessed the build and temperament of a fast bowler. His ultra-aggressive manner taking aback opponents and teammates alike and earning him the nickname of ‘Tiger’.

Every ball he bowled was charged with hostility and he had an appeal that could make batsmen jump out of their skin. ‘Hitting Bill O’Reilly for four was like disturbing a hive of bees,’ Bradman said. O’Reilly’s sheer unorthodoxy was one of the reasons why some people were slow to believe in him.

He gripped the ball in an unusual fashion and rejected the received wisdom that a leg-spinner should bowl to an array of close catchers on the leg side, preferring to target the stumps. In his way, he challenged perceptions about leg-spin bowling every bit as much as Shane Warne did later.

When O’Reilly died in 1992, Wisden among others hailed him as the greatest spin bowler the game had produced. As it happened, that was the year that Warne, who must be considered his greatest rival for that title, made his debut for Australia against India.

Although they did not oppose each other often in first-class cricket – they played together for New South Wales before Bradman moved to South Australia – O’Reilly dismissed Bradman six times and also, on one famous occasion during a testimonial match in Sydney in which Bradman had been due to bat at number 3 but O’Reilly was bowling a devastating spell prompted him to drop himself three places down the order (Bradman went on to score a double century).

Bill O’Reilly also had an excellent record against Hammond, England’s leading batsmen, whom he dismissed seven times for scores of 26 or fewer. Test cricket was a batsman’s game in the 1930s. Therefore, timeless matches in Australia, featherbed pitches there and often in England to. And it is in this context that bowling records must be assessed.

Considering the one off Test he played for Australia straight after the Second World War, O’Reilly’s figures of 144 wickets in 27 Tests at 22.59 bear comparison with anyone else’s during this period. Only Clarrie Grimmett, his leg-spinning ally in the Australia team and Maurice Tate of England took more wickets, both at higher averages.

However, Hedley Verity, England’s left-arm spinner, also took 144 wickets but again at a higher average. In Ashes Tests, only Grimmett, with 106 wickets to O’Reilly’s 102, took more wickets and he bowled many more overs and averaged 32.44 whereas O’Reilly’s figure was 25.36, remarkably low considering the conditions.

O’Reilly could bowl well on any sort of pitch. It has always been reckoned that the English climate and English surfaces don’t favor leg-spinners. But O’Reilly (and Warne) blew sizeable holes in that argument. O’Reilly was superb in England on his two tours, taking more than 100 wickets both times at around 17 runs apiece.

while in the Tests he captured 28 wickets in 1934 and 22 in 1938 (when only four matches were played due to rain washing out the game in Manchester). He was the leading wicket-taker on either side on both occasions and played a starring role in two of the three matches Australia won.

In the first Test at Trent Bridge in 1934, he bowled his side to victory with only ten minutes left on the clock on the final day with figures of seven for 54; at Headingley in 1938. He took 10 for 122 in the match. His victims including Hammond in both innings, the second time for a first-ball duck courtesy of a googly.

When there really was nothing in the pitch, he could contain better than almost anyone. At the Oval in 1938, when Len Hutton made his 364 in an England total of 903 for seven, O’Reilly still managed to wheel down 85 overs for only 178 runs. O’Reilly took more than 20 wickets in each of the five full series he played, four against England, one against South Africa.

His part in the 1932–33 Ashes series has largely been forgotten because of the controversy over England’s Bodyline tactics and the fact England won 4–1, but O’Reilly’s the contribution was immense. He took ten wickets in the one game Australia won and got through an enormous amount of work, bowling 383.4 overs in the five matches while conceding fewer than 1.90 runs per over.

It was a warning of what was to come. O’Reilly bowled with a lot of variety. His leg-break was a big weapon – Bradman said it was hard to imagine anyone could bowl a nastier one. But he also possessed top-spinners and googlies, plus a vicious faster ball. England’s Maurice Leyland said the first over he received from O’Reilly – which was in the days of eight-ball overs in Australia – contained eight different deliveries.

O’Reilly grew up in rural New South Wales. He moved to Sydney at the age of 18 to follow his father into teaching and there began a remarkable career in grade cricket. That would see him take almost 1,000 wickets at an average of 9.44. He failed a state trial when he was 20.

However, he played three games for the state in 1927–28, when he turned 22. Unfortunately teaching then took him away from the city again for three years – during which he developed his googly. He did not establish himself in the NSW side until 1931–32 after taking five wickets. Also, including that of Australia captain Bill Woodfull, in his second match of the season.

Within weeks, he was playing for Australia and bowling 81.4 overs on his first appearance. During that match, he failed to appeal for lbw and the umpire later informed him that had he appealed he would have given the batsman out. O’Reilly made sure he didn’t make that mistake again.

Bill O’Reilly putting up the consistent performance, but unfortunately, he missed eight years cricket due to the second world war, otherwise, his records would have been more impressive. After that, he played only one game against New Zealand in 1946, which turned to be his final appearance in Test Cricket for Australia. He took 5 for 14 and 3 for 19 in that game at Wellington.

In all First-Class cricket, he had 774 wickets in just 135 matches at an average of a mere 16.60 with the best of 9 for 38, including 63 times five wickets haul, and 17 times ten wickets in a match. These stats clearly show, how was he called greatest leg-spin bowler in Australian history along with Shane Warne.  

After retirement, he was considered a respectable writer and broadcaster. He served as a columnist in Sydney Morning Herald until 1988 when his health detreated. He was a keen broadcaster to serve his services until his death in 1992 at the age of 87.

Denis Compton - England Glamorous Cricketer

Denis Compton was as glamorous a cricketer as England has ever possessed. He played in a style that captivated the crowds, last-second sweeps blending with sumptuous cover drives. And there was a devil-may-care attitude to everything he did that meant he was not someone to take your eye off.

He rose fast, unknown one minute, scoring runs for England against Australia the next when only a few days past his 20th birthday. Until he developed a chronic knee problem in his early 30s as a result of a parallel career as a winger with Arsenal.

Denis Compton belongs to a below middle-class family, as his father decorator business floundered and he constraint to a lorry driver. His brother Leslie Compton also played cricket for Middlesex. But Compton never ashamed to work hard for a cricketing career. He never really struggled and perhaps as a result never really lost the boyish enthusiasm that suggested he thought everything was just a lark.

But by then, he was already the nation’s darling following his feats in the years immediately after the Second World War, when his batting touched a sublime peak and sport was providing the masses with the perfect antidote to the miseries of war.

If all that was not enough, Compton was handsome too, with an unruly mop of black hair tamed with Brylcreem, but he exhibited the kind of flaws that suggested he was perhaps not really that different from the man in the street. His running between the wickets were chaotic and his time-keeping atrocious.

The stories one has heard of him arriving at Lord’s in his dinner jacket after a night on the tiles and scoring hundreds with borrowed bats can only appeal. He, like others, missed out on some of his best years to the war but that at least meant he was hungry for the game and had reached full maturity when peace finally came.

He made his Test debut against New Zealand in the 3^rd Test at the Oval in 1937. He was playing delightful strokes before he got run out at 65. In the next summer, Compton produced a magnificent match-saving inning of 102 and 76 at Lord’s against Australia. In 1939, he played a lethal inning of 129 against West Indies at Lord’s and made a 248 runs partnership with Hutton.

His achievements for Middlesex and England in the late 1940s, and the long hot summer of 1947 in particular. When he smashed so many records, purely are the stuff of legend. That his friend and teammate Bill Edrich was also in the stupendous form at the same time, and well worth watching, only added to the attraction.

It must have seemed like a racing certainty that one or other, and possibly both, would come off on any given day. No one ever measured Compton by figures alone, but the figures say a lot about his dominance during this golden time.

In the 1946 season, he scored a plethora of runs with many hundreds than any other player (2,403 runs, ten hundred). Therefore, in 1947, he again in super form, scored a heap of runs and more hundreds than anyone, not only in that season but in any season before or since 3,816 runs and 18 hundred.

Hence, in 1948, only Len Hutton did better than Denis Compton’s 2,451 runs and nine hundred. After that in 1949, his tallies of 2,530 runs and nine hundred were eclipsed only by Hutton and James Langridge. In the winter of 1946–47 he toured Australia and New Zealand, and in 1948–49 South Africa, and on each occasion was again the leading batsman in terms of both runs and centuries.

In an up-country match on the South Africa tour he scored a triple century in just 181 minutes, which remains the fastest on record. For England, he was, along with Hutton, one of the two best batsmen in the side. Between 1946 and 1949, he scored 11 hundred in the space of 20 Tests, four against Australia, five against South Africa and two against New Zealand.

Moreover, the 753 runs he scored in the series with South Africa in 1947 still stands as the record for an England batsman in a home series. His duels with Ray Lindwall and Keith Miller formed part of the folklore of the period, and initially, at least he probably had the better of things.

Although his instinct was to play extravagantly, and take more risks than Hutton would have countenanced, his ability to score runs against Lindwall and Miller showed how good his defense must have been. He certainly applied himself when he scored twin centuries to earn England a draw in Adelaide in 1946–47.

At Old Trafford in 1948 he was forced to retire early in his innings after edging a ball from Lindwall on to his head. But he returned bravely – possibly strengthened by a brandy or two – at 119 for five to score a sparkling 145 not out and hoist his side to 363.

How appropriate that the man of the series award in Ashes Tests is now called the Compton–Miller medal. The onset of knee trouble in 1949 resulted in surgery the following year and was a contributory factor in Compton’s wretched series in Australia in 1950–51 when he mustered just 53 runs in his eight innings, a salutary reminder that even the greatest can struggle badly at times.

He had been appointed vice-captain for that tour, the first modern professional to be given the post and a step that paved the way to Hutton’s subsequent appointment to the full captaincy. After that, Denis Compton did not quite so consistently touch the heights of old, and never hit another hundred against Australia. But he nevertheless enjoyed some special moments.

He hit the winning runs at The Oval in 1953 when the Ashes were regained for the first time in 19 years. In 1954 he batted less than five hours in scoring his highest Test score of 278 runs against Pakistan at Trent Bridge. In the famous Oval Test match, he produced 53 runs on a difficult wet pitch which he inclined to his one of the best inning.

Moreover, the series against South Africa in 1955, he was again in brilliant form by scoring 492 runs. In 1952, he scored his 100th hundred in first-class cricket and took fewer innings to do so than any other player apart from Don Bradman.

That, and the fact he averaged more than 50 in both first-class cricket and Tests. That should prove beyond all doubt that his technique was much sounder than his popular reputation as a dasher would suggest. So obvious were Compton’s talents that he joined Middlesex and Arsenal when he left school at 14.

He scored 1,000 runs in the year of his county debut, at 18 the youngest ever to do so, and the following year when he scored 65 in his first match for England, he only narrowly failed to top 2,000 runs. In 1938, he scored 102 in his first Test against Australia – at the age of 20 years 19 days. Then he remains the youngest to score a century for England.

However, in the next match, he saved the game with an unbeaten 76. Nor were his footballing achievements insignificant. He won league and cup with Arsenal and played wartime internationals for England. It seems remarkable now that anyone could combine serious careers in cricket and football at the same time.

Also, Denis Compton managed it for many years, although his football did sometimes prevent him touring with England in the winter. The quick feet he needed for football must have helped his batting. It should also be remembered that Compton was a very useful left-arm wrist-spinner who took more than 600 first-class wickets, including 73 in his amazing summer of 1947!

He also handed down good cricketing genes, his grandson Nick also playing Test matches for England. Denis Charles Scott Compton played 78 Test matches for England from 1937 till 1957. He was born on May 23, 1918 at Hendon Middlesex. He was very handy slow left-arm chinaman bowler as well.  He was great national icon cricketer became a symbol of national hero.

Denis Compton married three times, having one son “Brian” from his first wife. From his second wife, he had two sons, both played cricket for Natal. He had two daughters from his third wife. Moreover, his grandson Nick Compton also played for England and made his test debut against India at Ahmedabad in 2012-13. So, his legacy is continuing to serve England.

Denis Charles Scott Compton played 78 test matches for England, in which he scored 5,807 runs at 50.06 with 17 hundred, 28 fifties, and 49 catches. As a left-arm chinaman, he managed to grab 25 wickets at 56.40 with the best of 5 for 77.

His first-class records are even very impressive. He played 515 matches, scored 38,942 runs at 51.85 with the best of 300, including 123 hundred, 183 fifties, and 416 catches. In the bowling department, he took 622 wickets at 32.27 with the career-best of 7 for 36, including 19 times five wickets haul and 3 times ten wickets in a match.

After retirement, he was commentating for BBC and columnist for Sunday Express. Denis Compton always young as heart, even towards his hip pain to the knee. The finest England batsman Denis Compton died in a hospital on April 23, 1997, at Windsor at the age of 78. His notable achievements are as below.

1.    In 1939, he was Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

2.    He was a member of the FA Cup winner in 1950, represented England in wartimes for professional football for Arsenal.

3.    He was one of 25 Batsman, who scored over one hundred centuries in first-class cricket.

4.    In 2009, he was included in the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Keith Miller, Australia 1946-1956

If the sole criterion of genuine all-rounder were glamour, Keith Miller might have come out number one. He did the things that make cricket most interesting to the masses and bowled fast. His ability to hit the ball huge distances held stunning reflex catches. To add the charm, he also possessing Hollywood looks and an unquenchable sense of fun.

Keith Miller was born on November 28, 1919, at Sunshine Melbourne Victoria. He was called “Golden Boy of Cricket” and being nicked name “Nugget”. Having survived Second World War service as a fighter pilot of (Royal Australian Air Force), a media personality and a raconteur. He wasn’t prepared to take anything too seriously. That only served to imbue his cricket with even more zest.

Alan Davidson, a fine all-rounder in his own right and among a generation of Australian players who idolized Miller. He rated him along with Garry Sobers as the best all-rounder who ever lived. He is certainly Australia’s best. He was a powerful striker batsman and varying his bowling speed to the mystified batsman.

Keith Ross Miller could turn a match with an impromptu passage of star-sprinkled play. Such as when he bowled out South Australia for 27 having arrived late at the ground as the players were taking the field. He took seven for 12. The bare statistics of the game, though, meant little to him. And scarcely did justice to his natural talents, but his figures were nevertheless hugely impressive.

Keith Miller was a successful member of Australian Rules Footballer, played 50 games for St Kilda, scoring eight goals in one game against North Melbourne in 1941. His father was a local cricketer and advise their children to play with the classical techniques with solid defense.  

Keith Miller was the second all-rounder after Wilfred Rhodes to complete the Test double of 2,000 runs and 100 wickets. A rare feat so much harder to do in those days when there was less Test cricket available to the player. Also, the difference between his batting average (36.97) and bowling average (22.97) was significantly in credit, to an extent matched only by Garry Sobers, Jacques Kallis and Imran Khan.

Miller’s fast-bowling partnership with Ray Lindwall ranks among the game’s most iconic. They were the scourge of England’s batsmen in the immediate postwar period. On their credit, 34 wickets between them in 1947–48, another 40 in 1948 and 32 in 1950–51. Therefore, all three series emphatically won by Australia. Although England then won the next three series, the two of them remained potent weapons.

England legendary batsman Denis Compton said, their bowling at Lord’s in 1953 was the fastest he faced. They were said to be still very quick when Australia toured the Caribbean in 1955. Miller had left England in 1953 with predictions that he was finished as a fast bowler ringing in his ears. But he enjoyed his biggest haul of 21 wickets.

Further, when he returned for his final tour of England in 1956. The series of few other highlights for the Australians as Jim Laker made fools of them, no one more so than Miller himself (he was out to Laker six times). Keith Miller was 37 on the final tour of England, he and Lindwall pulled a sensational victory at Lord’s in the 2^nd Test match. Miller took the responsibility in the absence of Pat Crawford, burden the bowling attack send 34.1 overs in the first inning and 36 overs in the second inning. And he took five wickets in both innings to give a great victory to Australia.

Moreover, the fielding sides were entitled to a new ball much earlier in those days. Amazingly, after just 55 overs in 1948 – which only played into the hands of this formidable pairing. They induced just as much trepidation in other sides, especially Miller. Who stood more upright in his action than Ray Lindwall and could make the ball lift alarmingly?

Keith Miller was not averse to making liberal use of the short ball and attracted plenty of criticism as a result. He was once roundly booed by the Nottingham crowd for subjecting Len Hutton to one such barrage.  The following day knocked Denis Compton, a kindred spirit and good friend, back on to his stumps to end a fighting inning of 184. However, he possessed charm enough to ensure that the hostility did not last.

His bowling, in any case, was not unrelentingly hostile. He would vary the searing pace with an assortment of leg-breaks, off-breaks or googlies. Which broke the boredom and often caught out an unwitting batsman. Miller was a substantial batsman, good enough to play most of his Test innings at number 3, 4 or 5, higher than most genuine all-rounders would be capable of doing.

He scored four of his seven hundred against West Indies, who were an emergent force in the early The 1950s.  And whose tour of Australia in 1951–52 was given world championship billing. Miller significantly contributed 362 runs and 20 wickets to that series. Therefore, he comes up with great success in the 1955 series by scoring 439 runs and 20 wickets in the Caribbean. Perhaps his finest innings was the century he scored at Lord’s in 1953. That created the opportunity for an Australian win so famously thwarted by Willie Watson and Trevor Bailey on the last day.

England ultimately won that series. But English satisfaction in the discovery of a fast bowler of their own in Fred Trueman was tempered by the mauling Trueman received at Miller’s hands in the final match of the tour. Keith Miller scoring 262 in a day. Miller, who loved to gamble on the horses and life in general. He was not inclined to take the safe course and in political terms, this might have cost him, dear.

He was never made Australia captain even though he successfully led New South Wales, was a natural leader of men. and was the most obvious to take over from Lindsay Hassett in 1953. For this, Don Bradman was widely held to be responsible, and Miller certainly didn’t share ‘The Don’s’ ruthlessly unsentimental approach to playing the game.

Don Bradman was reportedly unimpressed by Miller’s decision to give his wicket away from the first ball during the Australian massacre of Essex’s bowling at Southend in 1948, when they racked up 721 in a day. Shortly after the tour, Miller bowled bouncers at the great man during Bradman’s testimonial match. Bradman was also reckoned to have used his influence as an Australian board member to expedite Miller’s omission from a tour of South Africa. Hence, an injury to another player meant that in the end Miller did go (fully justifying his presence with 246 runs and 17 wickets in the Tests).

All this only added to the impression of Miller as a cricketing rebel. The shiniest of loose cannons. Miller made a mark in state cricket before the outbreak of war – he scored 181 for Victoria against Tasmania on debut at the age of 18 at Melbourne in 1937-38. But was effectively denied a start to his cricketing career proper until the age of 25.

He kept his cricket going between sorties during the war though and was perhaps the outstanding star of the Australian Services side. That entertained crowds in England and India in 1945. In one match at Lord’s, he hit a six on to the top tier of the pavilion. The brand of cricket he played in the ‘Victory Tests’ against England was the brand he stuck to, and it won him the hearts of millions.

Overall, Keith Miller played 55 Tests for Australia and scored 2,958 runs at an average of 36.97, with seven hundred, 13 fifties with the best of 147 and 38 catches. He was a fine acrobatic slip fielder. Miller scored three centuries against England and four against powerful West Indies side. In the bowling department, he took 170 wickets at 22.97, with a career-best 7 for 60 among his seven five wickets hauls and one time 10 wickets in a match.

In the first-class cricket, he played 226 matches, scored 14,183 runs at 48.90 with the best of 281* including 41 hundred, 63 fifties and 136 catches. He sent down 28070 balls in 326 innings, took 497 wickets at 22.30 with the best of 7 for 12, including 16 times five wickets haul and one time ten wickets in a match.

In the 1950’s West Indies captain John Goddard said, “Give us Keith Miller and we would beat the world”. Indeed, that was huge applause for him. After retirement, he was a key public figure having an affair with Princess Margaret. He was columnist and journalist for the Daily Express. He had suffered three hip operations, cancer and stroke, which has badly affected his health. His records would have been more impressive if the second world war wouldn’t damage his prime time.

Keith Ross Miller died on October 11, 2004, at Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne Victoria at the age of 84. More than 1,000 mourners gave the farewell to Australian finest all-rounder at St Paul Cathedral. Keith Miller name will live if cricket exists. The ladies of their generation loved him, even every man wanted to be like him.

His some of memorable awards were!

·         1954 – Wisden Cricketer of the Year

·         1956 – Awarded the MBE in the Year

·         1996 – Included in Australian Cricket Hall of Fame