Jim Higgs - the unrealised match-winner?

I’ve always been interested in the career of Jim Higgs.

I think this was mostly because when I first got into cricket he seemed like this incredibly exotic creature – a player who was inept with the bat and in the field yet who also practised this strange art called leg spin which was apparently devastating on the right day.

Higgs took part in the first full season of international cricket I remember vividly, 1980-81, participating in a famous and notorious stand with Doug Waters – famous because it helped Australia save a game we probably would’ve lost, notorious because Higgs was given not out when he should’ve been dismissed by Lance Cairns because of “intimidatory bowling” (New Zealanders deservedly still get upset by that).

Gideon Haigh called Higgs “Australia’s best legspinner between Richie Benaud and Warne” whose “misfortune was to play at a time when wrist-spin was nearly extinct, thought to be the preserve only of the eccentric and the profligate, and so to find selectors and captains with little empathy with his guiles.”

I’m not sure I’d agree with the first part – John Gleeson and Bob Holland could also lay claim to that position (Haigh may have had a soft spot for a fellow Victorian) – but the second was definitely true, as it was for Holland and Gleeson. And as we are coming up on a life without Nathan Lyon, it made me want to revisit Jim Higgs’ career.

He was born in 1950, and made his first class debut for Victoria in 1970-71. Higgs’ form went up and down for a number of seasons until enjoying a red-hot summer in 1974-75, getting 42 wickets at 21.92. This earned him selection on the 1975 tour of England as the second spinner, much to the anger of Terry Jenner who considered himself a far more consistent bowler.

Australia’s first-choice spinner was Ashley Mallett, much beloved by captain Ian Chappell, so Higgs didn’t get much of a look in on tour.

(Photo by Pradeep Gaur/Mint via Getty Images)

Famously he scored no runs for the whole tour (Geoff Boycott described Higgs as the sort of batter who would “carry a bat for decoration rather than as a useful weapon”) although in fairness he did actually only bat in two innings (there were a lot of declarations), and he did take 27 first class wickets at an average of 32.

Higgs dropped back in the pecking order after that – Ray Bright became the number one spinner for Victoria and Kerry O’Keefe and Jenner the preferred leggies for Australia. Ian Chappell wrote in a 1977 article that discussed Higgs and fellow leg spinner David Hourn saying, “In my opinion neither of them are real cricketers. “By that I mean they are only bowlers, not cricketers. They are both well below standard as fieldsmen and batsmen.”

Ouch. Not necessarily inaccurate though.

The situation changed later that year when news broke of World Series Cricket. O’Keefe, Mallett and Bright had signed up for the new competition and were thus banned from first class cricket, meaning Higgs was a real chance for national selection against the touring Indians, especially after Higgs took 6-131 against them for Victoria.

However, the selectors went for Tony Mann, an inferior leg spinner but a far better batter and fielder. Mann did okay with the ball in his first innings but was soon found out by the Indian batters and had a torrid time of it. However, he did help Australia win the first and second Tests with his batting.

Mann was dropped for the fifth Test, replaced by Bruce Yardley, a far less experienced spinner than Higgs but a far better fielder and batter, and he played a crucial role in Australia’s victory. However, Higgs was selected on the 1978 tour of the West Indies. Incidentally his stats that summer (22 wickets at 36) weren’t as good as Hourn’s (49 wickets at 22) or those of Mann (39 at 30) or Graham Whyte (25 at 32).

This was was an excellent tour for the Victorian. He ensured his selection in the first Test with 12 wickets against the Leeward Islands and played alongside Yardley (with Bob Simpson as a third spinning option). Higgs took 4-91, one of the best performers in a disastrous Test for Australia.

In the second Test, he took 1-46 in another defeat. Higgs did not play the third Test which Australia won but was recalled for the last two. In both those games Higgs helped put Australia in a winning position. In the fourth Test he took four wickets but Australia blew the game with some poor batting.

In the fifth Higgs took five wickets and was on the verge of bowling Australia to a victory (only one wicket needed off 6.3 overs) when the crowd rioted and the game was called off. Ray Robinson wrote a chapter on this match in his book The Wildest Tests and described Higgs as follows:

“No bowler in the 1970s looks less likely to cause a riot than Jim Higgs. The old Trinity Grammarian’s four-step approach is one of the shortest by any right-hander. His round face has an innocent expression—no steely glint in blue eyes influenced by a mouth as ready to smile as appeal to the umpire.

“Yet in his wind-up Jim appears to be smuggling the ball from his left armpit. His high, coiled-wrist action gives slow leg-breaks and wrong’uns a flighty loop. They bounce higher than other leg-spinners. So do some of the quicker flippers, launched to take batsmen by surprise.”

Higgs’ tour record was 42 first class wickets at 22 and 15 test wickets at 26.

(Steven Paston – EMPICS/Getty Images)

Higgs returned to Australia as our first-choice leg spinner. The summer of 1978-79 would be a mostly excellent one for him – he took 51 first class wickets, helped Victoria win the Sheffield Shield, and played five Tests, taking 19 wickets at 25).

Most of his Tests were played in tandem with Bruce Yardley which made sense as Yardley’s excellent batting and fielding counterbalanced Higg’s. Unfortunately they were also mostly played in tandem with fellow Victorian Alan Hurst, who was similarly challenged with the bat, meaning Australia had a long tail.

To make it longer, the selectors picked bits and pieces all-rounders at 6 (Phil Carlson, Trevor Laughlin) for half the Ashes Tests and appointed Graham Yallop captain. While Yallop captained Higgs for Victoria, his fielding placings for the leg spinner were frequently and deservedly criticised by English captain Mike Brearley.

Higgs’ best international performance of the summer came in the fourth Ashes test, where he took eight wickets including 5–148 in England’s second innings, meaning Australia only had to score 205 to win. Howeve,r they collapsed and Australia lost.

Mike Brearley, writing of this, said the bowler’s “analysis of 5-148 could, with luck, have been 7-70. Leg-spinners are often humourous — they need to be these days, like flower-sellers, rag-and- bone men, and boot-blacks.

“Jim, when asked how he marks the beginning of his run-up, says he usually gets a mouldy old comb from the umpire. It is sad, for cricket, that Higgs cannot bat better, for then the leg-spinner might have been seen in the World Cup, and would be irreplaceable in the Test team.”

Higgs also took three wickets in Australia’s third Test win and five wickets in Australia’s disastrous sixth Test loss.

Writing of Higgs in this series David Frith said, “His drooping eyelids suggested an unflappability and his long legs lifted him confidently to the stumps. The arm was beautifully high, the cocked wrist well controlled, and through several dreamy afternoons in the 1978-79 Ashes series the decades were rolled back as the Victorian bowled tidily for hour upon hour against Randall and Boycott and Brearley and Gooch.

“The dead pitches made his task more difficult, and his captain was not always aware of the best time to use him, but his economy (2.38 runs per eight-ball over) was admirable, his results (19 wickets at 24.63) highly satisfactory in support of the penetrative fast man Rodney Hogg.”

Jack Pollard wrote: “Higgs bowled from an economical run, favouring the angled approach used by most spinners. He bowled the googly and leg-break and had a most unusual flipper, a delivery which skidded from the pitch and brought many mis-hits from batsmen attempting to pull what appeared to be short deliveries.”

Hogg, Hurst and Higgs bowled brilliantly that summer. If the selectors had picked John Inverarity as captain and used six specialist batters (or five plus two all-rounders in tandem) in all the Tests, Australia would have been far more competitive, possibly even victorious.

Higgs was selected on the 1979 tour of India, along with Yardley and Peter Sleep. He began the tour well with 7-143 in the first Test. After that things were more challenging, Higgs being, to quote Wisden “mastered thereafter”.

Despite playing all six Tests his figures were only 14 wickets at 50 (29 first class wickets on tour at 33). India is a happier hunting ground for Australian offices and medium pacers than leggies and pacemen.

Back in Australia Higgs had another superb domestic summer, with 41 wickets at 20. This helped Victoria win the Sheffield Shield again with Higgs’ role being particularly crucial on the last day of their last game – he took 5 for 9 off 36 balls to help defeat South Australia.

World Series Cricket players were available for selection that summer; Higgs was overlooked in favour of Ray Bright for two Tests, was picked for the next two Tests with minimal impact, then was replaced by Ashley Mallett for two Tests.

Higgs withdrew himself for selection on the 1980 tours of Pakistan (Australia took Bright and Graeme Beard on the first – a happy hunting ground for spinners – and Bright and Mallett on the second).

Higgs performed well over the 1980-81 summer and was recalled to the national team. His first innings effort 4–59 against New Zealand helped Australia win the first Test, with Dennis Lillee saying Higgs “bowled beautifully.” For the second test Lillee said Higg’s return of 4–25 “broke the back of the New Zealand innings” helping Australia win that game, too.

In the third he took three wickets but is remembered better for his batting in Australia’s first innings. The score was 9-279 and Higgs was on one when Lance Cairns bowled a bouncer which was snicked to the wicketkepeer. Umpire Robin Baillache ruled the delivery an illegal one as it was too intimidatory.

Higgs went on to score 6 off 69 balls, Walters hit a century, Australia made 321 and the game ended in a draw.

In the first Test against India, Higgs’ second innings effort of 4-25 helped Australia win. He was dropped for the second Test in which India narrowly held on for a draw.

Lillee felt Australia would’ve won that game with Higgs, writing: “I couldn’t believe it when I learnt he was to be 12th man. He’d been such a good contributor throughout the season and you didn’t have to be a Rhodes Scholar to work out that an extra spinner would be required in those conditions.”

Higgs was recalled for the third Test, which Australia lost.

In February 1981 Ian Chappell said he would not pick Higgs for the Ashes tour that winter even though he felt the Victorian was “the most productive spinner in Australia. English wickets are no help to leggies and Jim really struggled on the 1975 tour.”

Higgs was overlooked in favour of Graeme Beard and Ray Bright (both recommended by Ian Chappell incidentally). Mike Brearley was surprised Australia only took the one specialist spinner, Bright, and felt Bruce Yardley or Higgs should have gone – and indeed, in hindsight, Australia should have taken Yardley and Higgs to England that winter. Higgs took 38 first class wickets in 1980-81 at 36.7

He never played for Australia again, though he kept playing for Victoria until 1982-83, leading his club, Richmond, to a premiership in that last season. Higgs went on to become a Victoria and Australian selector, crucial to the early career of Shane Warne by encouraging Jack Potter to take the young blonde to the cricket academy.

His final tallies were 399 first class wickets from 122 games at 29.66 and 66 Test wickets from 22 games at 31.16 – which is very good. Batting stats were 384 first class runs at 5.4 and 111 Test runs at 5.55, which is very bad. Even Glenn McGrath got his average up to 7.36.

What takeouts can be made from the Test career of Higgs?

* He played a crucial role in three Australian victories, all in 1980-81, two against New Zealand, one against India.
* He most likely would have bowled Australia to victory in the fifth Test in ’77-78 had it not been for the riot, and the fourth Test in ’78-79 had it not been for inept batting.

Should he have played against India in 1977-78? I would’ve picked him – he was the best spinner in the country. Mann’s batting was crucial to those early Test wins – but maybe Higgs’ bowling would’ve compensated.

He should have been used more at home in 1979-80, when in red hot form, and was a better bet to take to England in 1981 than Beard or Bright. He should’ve toured New Zealand in 1981-82 despite a relatively underwhelming summer (29 wickets at 39.3).

He did have to play a lot of Test cricket under captains who weren’t particularly good with leg spinners (Greg Chappell, Kim Hughes, Graeme Yallop). I wonder how he would’ve done under Rod Marsh and John Inverarity.

Still, it was a terrific career. And a lot of us nuffies remember him with great fondness.