It’s November 1984 and I’m 16 years old. I’m at school with a small yellow transistor radio close to my ear, listening to the last day of the second Test between the Aussies and the Windies.
My heroes are being pummelled, and before the end of the day Clive Lloyd’s men will enjoy a 2-0 lead in the five-Test series. But I am savouring every last forlorn moment because I know this is the last Test match I will enjoy firsthand for several years.
I am about to embark upon both the most challenging calamity in my early life and the greatest adventure – in a week’s time my father’s job will see us yanked from our comfortable life in Sydney and parachuted into a new life in Tokyo for several years.
The Japanese are yet to embrace the timeless art of Test cricket, so I won’t be turning on my TV in Komazawa at 10:50am to hear Richie Benaud intone, “Good morning and welcome to the Adelaide Oval for the third Test in this intriguing series”.
My father, keenly aware of the horrible sacrifice I am making, has purchased me a short-wave radio. In the years to come I will sit alone and watch its light, my only friend through teenage nights. I will spend hours searching aimlessly for the Radio Australia signal, because everything I need to know, I hear it on my radio. Too often my search will be in vain and I will have to rely upon the BBC World News to hear the score or, worse still, wait until the English-language papers are published in the morning.
If only the internet had been invented 20 years earlier.
But on that epochal day in 1984 – for me, the last of its kind ever – I am walking to Hornsby train station with my transistor to my ear. The West Indians need only 23 to win in their second innings, but they’re stumbling at 2-18. I’ve mentioned my clinically insane optimism in previous Roar articles. Well, on this day my condition is at the florid end of the spectrum. I am actually contemplating, with rising excitement, whether two more wickets might just provoke a Calypso panic and an unlikely Australian victory!
The Windies, however, somehow manage to maintain their collective composure and secure an eight-wicket victory.
So, that was that. My last Test match for three Australian summers, done and dusted.
I will admit to feeling a tremendous cloud gather over my head and descend over my soul. I don’t think I ever felt so sad. But more sadness was about to hit my young cricketing heart for six.
As I trudge home from the bus stop I turn on my transistor radio again and am alarmed to hear that my boyhood hero, Kim Hughes, had chucked it in as Australia’s captain! What?
I had been Kim’s strongest advocate in the quadrangle of my private school. I always took his side against those arguing the case for the Chappell brothers and their henchmen, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh. I had defended him at every opportunity with gravity due the moment. I was infamous for it.
And now Kim had surrendered to forces both within and without the team. Could a greater tragedy befall my young life? Not only was I facing a future without ready access to the sport I loved, but I would embark into the unknown without my hero at the helm.
Later, when I saw the embodiment of the cricketer I wanted to be blubbering on the TV news, my soul was crushed.
History demonstrates, however, that good emerged from the Ashes of that tragic distant day. On a personal level, those years in Japan helped sculpt the man I am today. And Kim’s teary resignation ushered in the Allan Border years, which provided the foundation for Australia’s dominance in the 1990s and 2000s.
Border was the right man at the right time.
A reluctant captain at first, Border’s staccato triumphs were slow to gather momentum. But with the World Cup win in 1987 and the Ashes glory in 1989, Captain Grumpy slowly cultivated a formidable team built on an ethos of uncompromising, hard-fought cricket.
By the time Border retired in 1994 we had a team of which we were proud and the final triumph – a series win against the Windies in the Carribean – awaited us just over the sunlit horizon.
Nothing on a cricket field has provoked the same level of gloomy depression until the grating sandpaper scandal earlier this year. Everything I cherished about Australian cricket was cast asunder. For weeks, perhaps months, I walked around in a daze trying to make sense of it.
I have written before on the Roar about the cost not counted. Yet, I can now see the good which is emerging from the bleak cesspool of the ball-tampering abomination.
In Tim Paine’s men I see an Australian team I am proud of. They are playing with a spirit and a determination which I admire. They have heart.
(Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images/Gallo Images)
I concede that one Test victory does not a summer make. But when you add the tenacious draw in Dubai and the stirring last-day fight in Adelaide, there is a trend line which illustrates the character of the team. These guys have the heart to achieve results many commentators have declared are beyond them.
In the meantime Paine’s predecessor has demonstrated his disturbing lack of good judgment. First is the admission that he turned a blind eye to Dave Warner’s plan to cheat in Cape Town. That confirmation alone is condemning.
Then there is his ill-advised Vodafone advertisement. Did it really never occur to him that it was a horrible idea to use his community service – a service he was obligated to provide, by the way – to help a corporation sell its product? Whether he donated some or all of his fee to charity is irrelevant. The advertisement twists a reprehensible failure of leadership into some kind of heroic comeback for the purpose of boosting a corporation’s profits.
When I compare Smith’s actions to Tim Paine’s quiet determination to represent his country with honour I actually feel visceral anger.
Which leads me to this point: like Border in the mid-1980s, Tim Paine is the right man at the right time. As far as I am concerned, he is my cricket team’s captain. He’s no ‘stand-in’. If Smith thinks he can walk back into the captaincy once his exclusion period ends, he can forget it.
It’s Tim’s job for as long as his form merits selection in the team.
Peter Hunt
Roar Guru
Also Paul, your comment about choosing the best players and then choosing the best captain from those players reminded me of something Mike Brearley wrote. He contrasted that Australian approach with the English approach of selecting the best captain ( ie: him) and building a team around him. He observed that if Australia and England swapped policies in 1977/78, neither he nor Yallop would have been playing!
Richard Islip
Roar Rookie
Exactly. Very well put. I am convinced Smith was originally named captain, because he was seen as another malleable character in the Australian cricketing setup....easily influenced by others to continue the destructive culture. And so he did, and has shown that he is still unable to distinguish a basic commonsense approach to the correct move or the wrong move, and all the implications. All he had going, was the tag of the best batsman in the side. Period. He is clearly not captaincy material, and Tim Paine clearly is. Smith, you just focus on getting back into the side first, and forget about a leadership role. You have blown it several times. And can we just have journalists write one article without mentioning, for the umpteenth time, the seriously boring fact that the Australians are struggling without Smith and Warner and their batting prowess? We have got that for months now.
RobPeters
Roar Rookie
Good article. I think understanding the past gives us a better understanding of not repeating those same mistakes to avoid future calamity. However, watching highlights and reading the happenings of Australian cricket over the past nine months all I can say is that I thought the 80's in general were bad for Australian cricket, but this seems worse. At least the team then had an excuse for losing - forced rebuilding through retirements and a rebel tour, which by itself sidelined and derailed careers of at least 12-13 quality players who had been, or were on the cusp of playing internationally. Here, the team has lost two and a half players and there doesn't seem to be a high quality tough as nails batsman like a Border (let alone a KJ Hughes who might I add was completely screwed over by Australian cricket which was kinda ironic because he was always a "loyalist", but then again he was in a situation where Packer through his controlling interest of Australian cricket, as well as his WSC underlings had immense power, but I digress...) within or without the current Australian dressing room, and Langer is no Bobby Simpson. And even then, even when Kim's team was getting hammered by the WI, or when ABs team got put through the wringer by all and sundry between 1985 and 1987 not once did they in an effort to win sink to the level of ball tampering. Sure, this is a team that has fight, but this current batting line up is more Hilditch, Ritchie and Phillips than Boon, Border, and Jones.
John Erichsen
Roar Guru
I grew up convinced that Greg Chappell was the best batsman of his era. However, it was Kim Hughes who was my favourite batsman. Without the abhorant treatment of those senior players, Hughes' career would have looked very different.
Peter Hunt
Roar Guru
I love that documentary. For anybody who hasn’t seen it, it’s available on YouTube.
Peter Hunt
Roar Guru
That’s a great comment. Thanks Paul. I agree that the tendency to make the best batsman captain makes little sense.
Peter Hunt
Roar Guru
It puts even more strain on the bowlers when they have to do all the batting too!
Peter Hunt
Roar Guru
I have great memories of listening to the cricket on the radio as a kid; usually Ashes tests after my ‘bedtime’ and day night matches in Sydney because they were not televised. Commentators like Alan McGilvary, Lindsay Hassett and a young, hip and happening, Jim Maxwell. They really brought the game to life.
Peter Hunt
Roar Guru
I think the culture may have been pretty ordinary throughout the 70s, unless you were mates with the Chappells. I remember reading that when Graham Yallop was first selected he was given a very cold reception because he replaced one of their mates.
Peter Hunt
Roar Guru
Thanks Bigbaz. I highly recommend Golden Boy: Kim Hughes and the bad old days of Australian Cricket. The book describes how in the 1970s and early 1980s, the Australian Cricket Team was a club run by the Chappell Brothers with Lillee and Marsh as their ‘door bitches’. They way they ganged up on Kim was incredible. The culture was shocking. Lillee would bowl vicious bouncers at Hughes in the nets and Marsh would actively undermine him on the field. It’s a great read.
peter chrisp
Guest
An excellent comment i have to agree, with the ban due to be lifted in March next year, it will be interesting to see if both players are automatic selections. It's difficult to say & with Finch's lackluster performances as an opener would Warner take over top spot immediately? And with Mitchell Marsh's woeful batting Smith would take over M & M's spot?
One eyed dogs supporter
Guest
The Elephant in the room is commentating on the BBL right now. How is it that the bloke who presided over the demise of Australian Cricket gets treated so respectfully? He never gets asked any difficult questions, it’s almost like everyone’s forgotten he was there. And why did Gilly think it was a good idea to drag up the past in those stupid interviews?
1st&10
Guest
AB actually approached Kim and told him to reconsider. Saying to Kim and I quote, “Mate, what are you doing. There is no need for this. We are up against the best team in the world” (source: Cricket in the 80s documentary)
Paul
Roar Guru
hi Peter, another well written piece but there a one liner that stands out for me; "When I compare Smith’s actions to Tim Paine’s quiet determination to represent his country with honour I actually feel visceral anger." You mentioned in your article about good coming from the evil of SA and I completely agree but in terms of the captaincy, for different reasons. Australia has persisted for well over 100 years with choosing the best player in the team to be captain. In theory, that sounds great, but in reality, this person has to be a man manager on & off the field, on field tactical genius, off field acrobat able to juggle his time with competing priorities and all the while they're under the glare of both media and now social media. The reality is, there are maybe 5 or 6 Test captains across the history of Australian cricket who could do ALL of these things well. Billy Murdoch, Vic Richardson, Lindsay Hassett, Ritchie Benaud, Ian Chappell and Mark Taylor. The problem with guys like Smith, Kim Hughes and Ian Craig - they were too young to manage the men around them even if they might have been great tacticians, great batsmen, etc. Smith should not stir feelings of anger, rather your anger should be directed at the guys who made him captain. He simply did not then and does not now, have the maturity to manage difficult situations, which is very clear from his recent comments. He should not be considered for captaincy given these failings and CA needs to stop making the best batsman captain and look for the guy who can all the things I mentioned and right now, the standouts for me are Lyon and Cummins, once Paine gives it away.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
I was lucky enough to meet Kim Hughes at Adelaide Airport as I was flying in from Canberra and he was heading off to Perth on the 4th day of the First Test. Had to tell him he was one of my favourite players back in the day. People should check him out on Youtube against the Windies in Melbourne and England at Lords to see some of his classic shot making. Kim would have murdered T20 cricket if it was around at the time. Still remember his teary press conference after he resigned the captaincy - must have been absolutely devastating for him. The old guard of the Australian cricket team really had tickets on themselves at the time when they could have been more supportive of their captain.
Simoc
Guest
This is nonsense. His keeping is fine. The wicket makes the job difficult but he is still as good a gloveman as we've got or had in recent times. If Starc was bowling for India the bye count would be the same. And the right captain as well. Nice article.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Kim Hughes was the first victim of the bad culture of senior Australian cricketers
Larry1950
Guest
Someone needs to address the elephant in the room, Paine is a great choice as captain during this tumultuous period for Aussie cricket but his keeping standards have dropped substantially since he's had those finger surgeries. Anyone else letting through the number of byes & dropping the hard catches he's missed would be seriously under the pump from critics but Paine has everyone blaming the pitches. The selectors have locked him in long term & that's going to come back to bite Australia if his form drops any further. Maybe we need him to move up the batting order to inject some sanity into the style we're seeing from guys like Head.
Rooster lover
Roar Rookie
I really liked that article Peter. I am just a bit younger than you but remember that great West Indies side from the 80's and what a side that was. Australia were not as good as them but always had a go and never took a backward step, such is the aussie spirit. Our team from the 90's and early 2000's nearly compares to that great Windies side but since the retirement of those great players such as Mcgrath,Warne ,the Waugh brothers, that great opening combo of Langer and Hayden,Boony,Gilchrist etc (i know i have missed some other great names) we have really struggled as a team. As mentioned in a previous post both Smith and Warner scored most of our runs so without them we have really struggled in the batting department which puts immense pressure on our bowlers to perform even having probably close to the best bowlers in the world.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
Great article Peter. I used to have the radio glued to my ear late into the night as a young boy listening to the Ashes series in England in the 60s and 70s before the advent of TV satellite coverage so I can identify with how you kept up with what was happening. The BBC commentators such as John Arlott and Trevor Bailey were wonderful to listen to. And like you I'm really liking the way this Australian team is playing their cricket even if their first innings yesterday was pretty dismal. I was expecting the Indians to grind us in to the dirt in the afternoon session given how flat the Aussies would have been after that batting performance so to take 5 wickets for not many was a real sign of their resilience. And I think your right that Tim Paine is displaying the sort of grit and character that you want in your captain. Just hope the whole team can show some fight in the second dig and maybe pull off an impossible draw.