Great wicketkeeping all-rounders (part two)

Last week, I featured wicketkeeper-batsmen all-rounders Les Ames, Godfrey Evans and Alan Knott from England, along with Australia’s Rod Marsh and India’s Farokh Engineer.

Who to include and who to leave out has provided a conundrum, especially after the suggestion of many names by Roarers after part one.

Here are my choices for part two.

John Waite (South Africa)
Before Mark Boucher came on the scene, John Waite was the best wicketkeeper-batsman to represent the Proteas.

He was a legend for over a decade in 1950s and 60s as he became the first cricketer to represent his country in 50 Tests.

His Test debut was in the 1951 Nottingham Test, when he opened, scored 76 runs and took four catches. In all matches on the tour, he amassed 1011 runs at 33.70 and made 148 dismissals (124 caught and 24 stumped).

He was a self-effacing perfectionist, neat behind the stumps. He took slow bowlers unobtrusively and efficiently and accepted diving catches standing back to fast bowlers. As a batsman he had a sound defense and a wide range of strokes.

In the final Test against Australia in Melbourne in February 1953, he did not concede a single bye as Australia piled on 520 runs. It was the famous topsy-turvy Test which Australia lost by six wickets despite their huge first innings total. It was heart-breaking for Neil Harvey who had scored a glorious 205.

Waite’s first Test century (113) was in the thrilling Manchester Test against England in July1955 which the visitors won by three wickets.

His best all-round series was against Australia in 1957-58, when he scored 362 runs at 40.22, including 115 and 59 in the first Test in Johannesburg, and 134 in the third Test in Durban, when he added 231 runs for the third wicket with Jackie McGlew.

He had a memorable home series against New Zealand in 1961-62, scoring his fourth and last century (101) at Johannesburg and making 26 dismissals (23 caught, three stumped) in the series, then a world record.

In 50 Tests he scored 2405 runs at 30.44, with four centuries and 16 fifties.

He took 124 catches and stumped 17.

Most of his records in Test cricket for South Africa have been surpassed by Dave Richardson and Boucher although he still holds, with Boucher, the record for most dismissals in a series.

He was a dynamic player and reacted when provoked. When the South Africans were slow hand-clapped in their match against Lancashire in 1951, he and Eric Rowan sat down on the pitch as a protest and resumed batting only when the barracking stopped.

Jeff Dujon (West Indies)
If facing the West Indies’ fiery pace was like walking on burning coals for batsmen, ’keeping to the likes of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Joel Garner was like placing a burning coal on the tongue.

Mike Selvey wrote: “It was one of the most spectacular sights of cricket in 1980s. A great West Indian fast bowler roared on by a partisan Caribbean crowd, a short ball rearing, the batsman fending and edging, and behind the stumps, a lithe athlete leaping and plunging to take another one-handed blinder. Jeff Dujon was the gymnastic hub of these all conquering Windies sides.”

His sideways and horizontal leaps were spectacular. He made his international debut when touring Zimbabwe and Australia in 1981-82, and impressed with an unbeaten 104 against New South Wales in Sydney and played many dashing innings in one-day internationals.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica on 28 May 1956, Peter Jeffrey Leroy Dujon made five Test centuries, and his top score of 139 came at a critical juncture.

In the first Test in Perth in November 1984 the Windies were struggling at 6 for 186, and his 149 run-stand with ‘Larry’ Gomes enabled them to total 416.

During this innings he was struck a nasty blow off Terry Alderman’s bouncer and retired with blurred vision. The pitch was so difficult that the Australians were shot out for 76 and 228 and the visitors won by an innings and plenty.

In 81 Tests he scored 3322 runs at 31.94 with five centuries and 16 fifties and made 272 dismissals (267 caught, five stumped). A genuine all-rounder, he could have represented the Windies as a pure batsman, as he scored a century against all countries except New Zealand.

“He always had the special touch which gave his batting the stamp of class,” wrote Tony Cozier in Wisden. “His build is slim and he lacks the sheer power of those, such as Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Clive Lloyd. … But there is unmistakable evidence of Lawrence Rowe’s influence in Dujon’s classically stylish batting.”

As a wicketkeeper he was as good as any against super-quicks, nimble on his feet and acrobatic in his movements. He was less impressive against spin but he hardly got the opportunity as the Windies attack lacked spinners.

Cool Dujon was a diving pigeon among soaring hawks.

Ian Healy (Australia)
He is recognised as among the best wicketkeeper-batsmen in the game’s history and the first ’keeper to play 100 Tests.

A veteran of 119 Tests, he held the record of most dismissals (395) in Test history until Boucher went past him in October 2007.

Healy’s 29 stumpings are exceeded by Australia’s Bert Oldfield (an incredible 52 stumpings in 54 Tests), England’s Godfrey Evans (46 in 91), India’s Syed Kirmani (38 in 88) and Australia’s go-getter Adam Gilchrist (37 in 96).

Healy also scored 4356 runs at 27.39 in Tests, hitting four centuries, his unbeaten 161 against the West Indies in the Brisbane Test of November 1996 being his highest and the highlight of his career.

He went in to bat at 5 for 196 on a moist, swinging Gabba pitch and calmly added 142 runs with Steve Waugh, enabling Australia to reach 479. He had batted for six hours and hit 20 fours. He also made an unbeaten 45 in the second innings.

Thus, he had scored 206 runs in the match without being dismissed, and was adjudged Man of the Match.

“Apart from my strokes against the likes of Curtly [Ambrose] and Courtney [Walsh], my glove-work was satisfying, we won the Test to go one up in the series,” Healy reminisced to me during the 2003 Sydney Test against England.

He has a mischievous look and almost purrs as he talks; his eyes sparkle through his glasses. One wonders how he could have ever sledged on the field but he often indulged in mind games.

Just ask Sri Lanka’s captain Arjuna Ranatunga with whom he had an on-field altercation during a one-day final in Sydney.

As a batsman, Healy was in the same groove, if not the same class, as Ian Chappell. Both were compulsive hookers and were indefatigable in temperament. These days, the Ians go hand-in-glove in the Channel 9 TV box, intelligently dissecting players’ techniques.

Healy was born in Brisbane on 30 April 1964. As a boy, he was inspired by the wicketkeeping of Rod Marsh. Young Ian rode his bicycle to practice and play cricket, soccer, basketball, squash and rugby league.

Despite solid performances with gloves and bat, he found it difficult to break into the Queensland Sheffield Shield team, as Peter Anderson was their regular ’keeper. Healy had played only six first-class matches when, out of the blue, he was selected for the tour of Pakistan in 1988.

It was the most surprising selection since wrist-spinner John Watkins was picked in 1972-73 and off-spinner Peter Taylor in 1986-87. Many asked “Ian who?”

Healy was just as staggered at his selection. “Was I being had?” he wondered. He has national selector Greg Chappell to thank for this sudden promotion. Having played with Marsh throughout his Test career, Greg was aware of the advantages offered by a wicketkeeper-batsman.

It turned out to be an inspired choice as ‘Ian who’ became a fixture of the Australian team for twelve summers, giving his unconditional support to captains Allan Border, Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh.

“Greg was impressed by Healy’s tough temperament and efficient glove work,” remembers John Benaud. “What I like most about ‘Heals’ is the way he takes up a challenge with his opponents. A forceful personality, he was a revivalist and the best in the world in the 1990s. More importantly, he kept so well to Shane Warne who turns the ball square. Healy was up there with the best.”

His nasal ‘Bowwwling Warnie’ was his signature tune and it echoed at all cricket grounds.

Healy’s most dramatic moment was as a batsman. It came in the thrilling Port Elizabeth Test against South Africa in March 1997. After more than three days of twists and turns, it peaked to a climax. Australia needed five runs to win, South Africa needed two wickets. Amid cliff-hanging suspense, skipper Hansie Cronje came to bowl the final fateful over. Let Healy take over the narration.

“Mmm, I didn’t know what was going to come out. My legs were stiff, my adrenaline pumping and my nerves running everywhere. Well, the ball drifted down the leg and I thought I’d go after it. I got it sweet, really sweet.”

It was a six, which won the Test. The Aussies had beaten the Proteas with what Healy recalls as a “lottery shot.” He had become only the seventeenth batsman to win a Test with a six.

Healy remembers his 100th Test with affection and sadness.

“Many people, over fifty friends and relatives, had especially come from Brisbane to Adelaide to support me in my hundredth Test. But I was not quite focused throughout this Test. It was a sad period for me and the family as my father, Neville, had died a week before.

I could concentrate when keeping wicket but not so much when batting. I played shots which I should not have as my mind kept drifting, thinking of dad.”

For almost a decade, Heals was the pulse of the Australian team. His record of 395 dismissals was overtaken by Boucher and Gilchrist but the cat-like finesse of Healy will be difficult to emulate.

Marsh said, “I’ve not seen a finer wicketkeeper – standing up to the stumps. He became an integral part of Australian cricket.

His understanding of Shane Warne and Tim May behind the wickets had done a lot of good for their careers. He was an outstanding ’keeper, as good as any.”

When an Australian team of the 20th century was selected, Healy got the job ahead of the legendary Don Tallon, Wally Grout and Marsh.

Roarers, guess who will be featured in the next two parts?