Satya Narayan Misra
Cricket was in chaos in 1977 when billionaire Kerry Packer was hunting for cricketers for his rebel series WSC, with the best of players from Australia and West Indies getting lured. Except of speed merchant Thomson, the best in business in Australia,Lillie, Greg, Marsh and Ian Chapell were playing for the rebel series. Even Richie Banaud , the ace commentator of ABC switched sides, The story goes that Asif Iqbal came to India to shop Sunil Gavaskar and Bedi, but failed. That is when the Australian Board lured the mothballed Bobby Simpson , then 41 who had retired playing his last test against India in 1968 to skipper the Australian side with callow newbies to lead the side against the turbaned BishenBedi.
The desperate decision turned out to be a masterstroke. Simpson who passed away on Saturday, not only won the thrilling series 3-2 , became the team’s leading run scored ,with 539 runs .In the three tests that Australia won , his resolute batting was vital, 7& 89 in Brisbane, 176 & 39 in Perth and 100 & 51 in Adelaide . Unlike, in his prime, when he was opener and paired with doughty Lawry to post nine century partnership, Simpson turned up in the middle order for this series. While the Packer circus and big boys playing with colour gears at night hardly drew any crowds, the series drew heavy crowds andrated among the finest and closest that India was ever involved in. Roy Robinson revealed that Simpson’s century in the decisive test against India had come under exceptional circumstances.” Not till after the match did he reveal that he batted with a broken little finger from a dropped catch in the fourth test”. The traditional game proved that nothing could replace traditional test matches!
Simpson was the archetypal granite- jawed Australian who opened the batting, bowled leg spin and is considered as the greatest slip catcher the game has seen (110 in 62tests& 383 in first class matches).He was always a middle order batsman playing for New South Wales for four seasons, before Neil Harvey suggested that Simpson should attempt to fill Australia’s lack of opening bat , for the tour of South Africa in 1957-58. He was always a deep fieldsman with NSW, till Keith Miller his captain, waved himto slip. , where he made two catches within half an hour and remained a slip catcher for the rest of his career. Many great batsmen like Len Hutton were amazed by the catches he made off them. He never seemed to be in a hurry, yet his certainty was extraordinary.
He galloped away with 902 runs in six innings in South Africa but took 30 tests to score a century against England at Manchester. In 1964, by which time he was the skipper.He is one of only three batsmen whose maiden test century was a triple century (311) , the others being of Gary Sobers(365) at Jamaica in 1958 against Pakistan and Karun Nair, 303 against England at Bangalore in 2016.When he first retired in 1967-68 against India he had made 4131 runs in test cricket at an average of 48.6.After his recall to skipper the India series he played a total of 62 tests, with his average dropping marginally to 46.81.Neat on his feet and a correct stroke maker , Simpson was a brilliant square cutter and driver. He rarely hooked but moved out of line of the short pitched ball. On the other hand, he exploited the pull stroke,with immense profit, which his fellow Australian, Ricky Ponting excelled lateron. He spun the leg break well, and would have probably have bowled at test level, if his career had not coincided with Richie Benaud’s.
Apart from his seminal contribution as a leader of a fledgling Australian team , on throes of a a split in 1977-78 . his contribution as a coach in the mid 80s was indeed seminal. This was the time when the Big Three of Australian cricket, Lilee, Greg and Marsh retired and Border led side was enduring a huge decline in fortune. This was the time Simpson took over the full time coaching role for the Baggy Greens.He identified Australia’s golden generation in Mark Taylor, Langer , Healey , Waugh, Warne , Hayden , Martyn, McGrawth& Ponting and groomed both Border and Taylor as captain to lead these burgeoning talents for Australia to dominate te world cricket in 90s and 2000s , after West Indies dominated the land scape in the 80s, before he stepped down in 1996.One of his biggest achievement was winning the World Cup in 1987 at Eden Garden defeating the arch rivals England . The turning point of the match was when Gatting , who swept England to victory against India attempted to reverse sweep a delivery from Border and was caught by the wicket keeper.Simpson emphasized on discipline and fitness, helped in refining batting techniques and improving the fielding skills.
Simpson was an influential cricketer for more than four decades as a player, captain and as a coach. He also made a mark as a law maker, referee and commentator. Steve Waugh posted “He was simply the best cricket coach with an unparalled knowledge of the game together with an insatiable appetite for learning and imparting his knowledge. He made me a better player”. His decision to come out of retirement to successfully lead the Australian team during the dystopic advent of world series cricket was a wonderful service to the game &its spirit. During that series Gavaskar scored three splendid centuries . Simpson called the youngsters to watch how Gavaskar was thumping thunderbolts from Thomson for straight dives past the bowler. Simpson understood class and used his balanced mind to resuscitate Australia as a champion. Those who watched him, John Arlott, the ace commentator writes”One will never forget the masterly ease of his slip catching. Or him as a pleasant and personable cricketer “
Satya Narayan Misra has been watching cricket since 1969
(The writer is a Professor Emeritus, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar. Views expressed are personal.)
