Kim Hughes is best remembered for crying as he quit the Australian cricket captaincy, but few realise how close it came to those tears never being shed.

It is almost 25 years since Hughes was unable to get through his resignation statement, after one too many defeats by the West Indies, dwindling personal form and mounting pressure from outside.

That day, in Brisbane in November 1984, is etched into cricketing folklore.

Not so well known is how close Hughes came to losing the captaincy at a board vote, and later how he bowed to encouragement from those close to him to quit.

In the book Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian cricket, author Christian Ryan outlines how in March 1982, the Australian board nearly voted in favour of appointing Rod Marsh to skipper that year’s tour to Pakistan in place of Greg Chappell, who had withdrawn from the trip.

The board voted 8-6 Hughes’ way, but only one change of heart would have altered history, as Marsh had the chairman’s casting vote.

Fifteen months later, after Australia’s disastrous World Cup campaign, Hughes again found himself under pressure, this time through the encouragement of allies to hand back the leadership and focus on his own game.

Eventually Hughes agreed he would do himself a favour and wrote a note to the board, which he gave to then team manager Bob Merriman, asking not to be considered for the captaincy.

One of the opinions voiced often about Hughes in the book is that he always did things his way, and damn the outcome.

The day after that dinner he telephoned Merriman and told him he had changed his mind and would be staying on as skipper.

The decision eventually went to another board vote, and in November 1983, Hughes again beat Marsh for the job.

Ryan hypothesises about how easily things could have been so much different.

Had Marsh got the job, he would have continued playing beyond the retirements of contemporaries Greg Chappell and Dennis Lillee, before Hughes got the job when he was ready.

Hughes in turn could have bequeathed the captaincy to Allan Border, who in 1984 felt he was not ready for the job.

As Ryan points out, it is a wonder Hughes’ story has not been told before, as it is remarkable.

As a teenage cricketing prodigy, he grew up as a boy in a world of men. Hard, tough, hairy men.

At times, his cricketing upbringing was brutal.

He was constantly subjected to vicious bowling from Lillee in the nets, and his cricketing smarts and captaincy were admonished by Lillee and Marsh, the engine of the national team. The dynamics sank to the point where Border called it the “cold war”.

Hughes’ international career coincided with a period of tumult.

He made his Test debut when Australia’s best players were signed with Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket, but soon rose to become the golden boy of the Australian cricket establishment.

He was in charge at the time of the fateful defeat to England in the 1981 Ashes.

He only once got to lead an Australian side at full strength, and was left with the rebuilding when Chappell, Lillee and Marsh departed, all while a new group of players were signing as rebels, this time to play in South Africa. Hughes later joined that group.

Ryan’s book outlines the details behind these events, even though Hughes, Marsh and Lillee all declined to take part in the project.

Through interviews and a wealth of research, Hughes comes across as a young man confident and talented enough to find his way, but also desperate to be liked.

He could be pig-headed, but was also far more courageous than most would assume given his infamous exit at the Gabba.

Oh, and boy, could he bat.

He rarely built big innings and he often sacrificed starts with rash shots.

But on those occasions it came off – like at Lord’s in 1980 and at the MCG in 1981 – he was an artist, an entertainer and played cricket for the love of it.

Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian Cricket, by Christian Ryan, Allen & Unwin

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