Canberra Times
25/11/2010
Page: 23
By: John Nethercote
Section: General News
Region: Canberra Circulation: 33511
Type: Capital City Daily
Size: 320.00 sq.cms
Frequency: MTWTFS-
Tied Test more than just cricket
The West Indies v Australia series delivered a spirit of unity, JOHN NETHERCOTE writes
this week's Test
match in Brisbane is against
the old enemy, England, in
competition for the most
revered of cricket's prizes, the Ashes,
there will nevertheless be great
interest in the Test played there 50
Though
years ago this summerthe famous
tied Test against the West Indies.
Few people realised that when the
two captains, Richie Benaud and
Frank Worrell, went out for the toss
on Friday, December 9, 1960, one of
the greatest contests in the history of
the game would unfold during the
following five days.
There were mighty feats with bat
and ball, and in the field.
Sobers scored a century ranked
among the best by all who saw it. He
combined with Worrell in a
memorable partnership of 174.
The West Indies scored more than
300 on the first day a marked
contrast to the corresponding Ashes
Test two years earlier when England
struggled to score 134 in nearly a full
day of batting.
The Australian opener Colin
McDonald was widely admired for
his courage in seeing off Wes Hall's
opening spell with the new ball.
Norman O'Neill played a
monumental innings of 181 the
first of his two Test centuries on
Australian soil and helped Australia
to a first innings lead of 52.
Wes Hall captured nine wickets to
add to his quick-fire 50 in the first
innings. His Australian counterpart,
the left-handed Alan Davidson,
became the first player in Test
history to score 100 runs in a match
and take 10 wickets.
Only 4160 had bothered to come
to the ground at all on the final day.
Even at the tea interval, few expected
the excitement which was to come.
Australia still needed 140 runs with
only four wickets in hand. Seasoned
observers expected a draw.
The veteran ABC commentator,
Alan McGilvray, headed back to
Sydney.
But Benaud and Davidson at the
crease decided to chase the runs.
When Wes Hall started to bowl the
final, eight-ball over, Australia, with
three wickets in hand, needed six to
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win.
Benaud was out, caught. The fate
of the match was in the hands of
three tailenders and Wes Hall.
The tension rose; after another
run-out, the scores stood even with
one ball to go. Worrell warned Hall
not to bowl a no-ball.
As the batsmen ran for that last,
winning run, a superb return saw Ian
Meckiff run out: it was a tie.
The moment was captured in a
splendid photograph by The Age
photographer, Ron Lovitt.
As journalist Jack Fingleton, a
former Test opener, recorded: "It
was bedlam in the press box. All were
standing and yelling and clapping at
once." A gripping series followed.
Australia had a relatively easy victory
in Melbourne; the West Indies
dominated in Sydney, aided by
another century by Sobers.
There was more tension in the
final session in Adelaide when an
injury-weakened Australian team
managed a draw after the stoic lefthander, Ken Mackay, and tailender,
Lindsay Kline, also left-handed, kept
the West Indies attack at bay for
nearly two hours.
The sides fought for the rubber in
Melbourne; Australia took the game
with just two wickets to spare.
The series was hailed as the
resurrection of Test cricket. In the
words of Fingleton, writing of the
tied Test, it "breathed new and lusty
life into the ailing spectre of a once
great game . . a game that can be
.
played as a game for the enjoyment
of the players themselves and the
enormous delight of those who pay
at the gate."
And what was the cause of the
transformation?
According to Fingleton, the "cause
was the simple, the unsophisticated,
the generous, the essentially carefree
and good cricketing behaviour which
Frank Worrell and his happy band
gave to Australia from the moment
their tour began". Worrell's talent, in
the words of his most eloquent
advocate, the Marxist writer and
journalist, C. L. R. James, was "to
take his collection of talented
individuals and infuse them with a
sense of belonging to a greater
whole".
To James, Worrell was "the
ultimate expression of a most
finished personality, who knows his
business, theory and practice, and
knows modern men . . His bearing
on the field, all grace and dignity,
[evokes] general admiration".
James's advocacy, as editor of The
Nation in Trinidad, contributed
greatly to Worrell's assumption of
the West Indian captaincy at a time
when the British island colonies in
the Caribbean were approaching
independence. Hitherto, apart from
occasional Tests, the West Indies
were invariably led by players of
English origin and background.
But the last such captain, Gerry
Alexander, vice-captain and
wicketkeeper on the Australian tour,
told the selectors the time had come.
Eventually they yielded after fames
wrote that "this fooling with West
Indian captaincy has gone on too
long". "The idea of Alexander
captaining a team in which Frank
Worrell is playing is quite revolting."
The tour occurred when the White
Australia policy was still in force.
This was not lost on either
Australians or the visitors.
The day after the conclusion of the
fifth Test there was a ticker-tape
parade for the teams in Bourke
Street, Melbourne.
Sobers thought it "a send-off so
magnificent and so sincere, we shall
treasure it to the end of our days".
But the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral,
the Very Reverend Stuart Barton
Babbage, struck a more sombre note
when he observed: "It is a sobering
and humbling thought that the West
Indians, whom Australia welcomes
as cricketers, would not be welcome
as citizens. Their skin is the wrong
colour. They may play with us, but
they may not stay with us. It may be
that the game of cricket will pave the
way for more generous national
policies. If only we could cultivate
the spirit of cricket in all our
dealings, one with the other."
.
J. R. Nethercote is adjunct professor at
the Public Policy Institute, Australian
Catholic University.
Ref: 00084185131