BILL LAWRY

'William Morris (Bill) Lawry' (born 11 February 1937, Melbourne, Australia) is a former cricketer, 32nd Australian Test captain and first Australian ODI captain. Lawry captained Australia in 25 Tests, winning 9, losing 8 and drawing 8. He also captained Australia in the inaugural One-day International. Lawry had a reputation for resolute defence and the ability to spend long periods of time at the crease. As his career progressed he wound back his strokeplay to the point where he was described as "the corpse with pads on". Lawry was unceremoniously dumped as captain and player for final Test of the 1970/71 Ashes series in Australia. Lawry had failed to post a century in his final three series as captain and had averaged 32.86 from 28 innings in that time. Lawry's dumping is regarded as one of the more distasteful incidents in Australian cricket. Lawry was not informed personally of the selectors' decision; the decision was first broadcast on radio and he only became aware of his fate when confronted by reporters.

Contents

Early career

Test debut

Later career

Overseas decline

Sacking

Style

Commentary career

Miscellaneous

References

Captaincy

Early career

Born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury, Lawry had no family cricketing pedigree. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team; he spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's Grade competition playing for Northcote's fourth team. He spent two years there, before one for each of third and second division. Aged sixteen, he made his first grade debut.

Bill Lawry's career performance graph.

A few months before turning nineteen, Lawry made his debut for Victoria, against Western Australia at the Junction Oval in 1955-56. He played in all of Victoria's matches in 1956-57, but was dropped completely in 1957-58 and for half the next season. He was recalled for Victoria's match against the touring English cricket team in 1958-59, scoring 24 and 22 and since then played continuously. He performed modestly over the following seasons until scoring 266 after being dropped on 12 against New South Wales in Sydney in 1960-61 shortly before the selectors chose the team for the 1961 Ashes tour.

Test debut

Lawry was sent to England as a promising young reserve opener. He soon adapted himself to English pitches. He made his first century on the tour against Surrey at The Oval, described by Wisden as "one of the most significant of the whole season" and "a flowering of technique and temperament". Batting for four and a half hours, Lawry scored 165 out of 286. He produced powerful drives through the off side and he and pulled firmly. He was particular severe against any loose deliveries from Test spinner Tony Lock. His hooking prompted Denis Compton to compare it to that of Don Bradman. He went on to strike a century on his first appearance at Lord's, 104 against the Marylebone Cricket Club, and was on target in the second innings with 84 when Australia declared.
Subsequently, Australian selectors installed him as Bob Simpson's Test opening partner, ousting Colin McDonald. Lawry made his debut in the drawn First Test at Edgbaston, making a steady 57 in Australia's only innings. His innings in the Second Test at Lord's dubbed the "Battle of the Ridge" was described by Wisden as "an indomitable effort of sheer graft under severe pressure with the ball flying about". Taking bruising blows from the hostile pace bowling of Fred Trueman and Brian Statham on a pitch with irregular bounce due to the presence of a ridge, Lawry resisted for six hours, to register his maiden Test century of 130. It helped Australia to take a match-winning lead. It was his fifth hundred of the tour, giving him over a thousand runs inside two months. Lawry then scored a pair of 28s as England squared the series in the Third Test at Headingley. In the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, Lawry played a part of innings that was crucial in Australia winning the series. After making 74 in the first innings, he and Simpson put on an opening partnership of 113 in the second, the first century opening partnership of the series. Lawry went on to make 102, helping to set a match winning target before skittling England on the final afternoon. Despite making a duck in the final Test at The Oval, Lawry topped the batting aggregates with 2,019 runs at 61.18 in first-class matches and 420 at 52.50 in five Tests. He struck the most centuries with nine. Only Bradman and Neil Harvey had made over two thousand runs in an English tour since the Second World War. As a result, he was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1962.

Later career

Upon his return to Australia, he became the captain of Victoria for the 1961-62 season. After a purely domestic season in 1961-62, Lawry made his Test debut on Australian soil in the First Test against England in 1962-63 in Brisbane. He narrowly missed making a century, being dismissed for 98 in the second innings. The Second Test, his first in his home town of Melbourne saw two 50s, but an unhappy result as Australia went 1-0 down. Lawry did not pass fifty again in the series, ending the drawn series with 310 runs at 34.44.
1963/64 saw a tour to Australia by South Africa. Lawry began well with 43 and 87
★ in a drawn First Test overshadowed by the no-balling of Ian Meckiff. He then made his first century on home soil with 157 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground to help Australia take a 1-0 lead. He made another half century in the Third Test in Sydney, and ended the series with 496 runs a 55.11.
1964 saw Lawry return to England, the venue of his first Test series. After failing to pass 20 in the first two matches, he scored 78 in the Third Test at Headingley which Australia won to take a 1-0 series lead. With Australia only needing a draw in the Fourth Test at Old Trafford, Lawry scored 106, combining in a double century opening stand with Simpson which lay the platform for a total of 8/656 in over two days, as Australia batted England out of the match. The match only reached the second over of Australia's second innings, leading Wisden to note "a bad taste was left in the mouth of the cricket enthusiasts."^[1]
Lawry's first full series in command was the 1968 Ashes tour of England. He scored 81 in the first Test as Australia took a 1-0 lead. After failing in the next two drawn Tests, Lawry missed the Fourth Test before returning in the final Fifth Test at The Oval to score 135 in a losing effort. He finished the series with 270 runs at 38.57.
The five Test series against the West Indies at home in 1968-69 saw the peak of Lawry's career as a batsman. He made 109 in the First Test in Brisbane but was unable to prevent defeat, as Australia trailed in a series for the first time under his leadership. He responded with 205 in the Second Test at Melbourne, forcing an innings victory to square the series. After the Third Test was drawn, Lawry scored 62 and 89 in a drawn Fourth Test in Adelaide. With the series at 2-1 leading into the Fifth Test in Sydney, Lawry struck 151 in the first innings to set up a 3-1 series win. His 667 runs at 83.38 was the highest series aggregate of his career.

Overseas decline

Lawry's last success captain came during the Five Test tour to India in 1969-70. The 3-1 win was to be Australia's last series victory in India for 35 years, standing out among a series of subsequent failed attempts by Australian leaders to conquer the subcontinent. However, at the time, Lawry and Australia's victory was overshadowed by the public relations disasters which beset the tour. The first Test in Bombay was marred by a controversial umpiring decision on the fourth day when Srinivas Venkataraghavan was given out caught behind after missing the ball by roughly a foot. It resulted in crowd rioting and projectiles being thrown at the Australians after Lawry refused to lead his team off the field. Australia went on to win by eight wickets, and after a draw in Kanpur, the teams proceeded to Delhi where Bishan Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna bowled India to victory. In the Fourth Test at Eden Gardens, a surge in the demand for tickets caused a last day stampede, compounded by riots following an Indian batting collapse. Australia won again, but not before Lawry had an on field altercation with a local photographer during a stoppage. The crowd responded by stoning the Australian team bus as they left the ground. A 77-run win in the Fifth Test in Madras clinched the series 3-1, but Lawry's team left India with Australia's reputation severely dented.^[2] Perhaps as a result of the controversy, Lawry could only manage 239 runs at 34.14 for the series. On reflection, Lawry stated "It was the toughest tour I've ever been on. There were very pleasant memories on the field, but very unpleasant ones from the accommodation, the type of travel, the food we were getting and lack of support we were getting from the board."^[3]
Lawry's men left directly South Africa. Already tired, they confronted fast and bouncy pitches in conrast to low, slow and dusty spinning pitches in India. After two weeks of prepartion, they fell to a 170 run loss in the First Test in Cape Town, with Lawry giving finger gestures to the crowd. They were whitewashed 4-0 by Ali Bacher's side – regarded as one of the finest in Test history, losing all matches by large margins. It was the heaviest series defeat in Australian cricket history. In the four Tests, sixteen catches were dropped and the tired pace spearhead Graham McKenzie took 1/333. Behind the scenes, the South African Cricket Board approached the Australian Cricket Board attempting to extend the tour to five Tests. The players were unreceptive to this after spending five months overseas in what was then an amateur sport. The proposed extra match fell through after a standoff lead behind the scenes by Ian Chappell, later to spearhed the breakaway World Series Cricket which offered players substantial remuneration. The dispute was the genesis of WSC, and on the team's return to Australia, Lawry sent the Board a letter expressing player grievances. According to Chappell, "That was the end of Lawry as captain of Australia. Then it was just a matter of finding any excuse to get rid of him." Lawry was largely ineffective, with 193 runs at 24.13 with only one half century in the First Test.

Sacking

The 1970-71 home series against England was the longest in Test history, with seven Tests scheduled. Lawry was to bow out of international cricket in one of most acrimonious series in Test history. Lawry had gone through a difficult phase on the previous tour, with only 432 runs at 28.80 in nine Tests on the tour. With Australia losing, and as a non smoker and non drinker, he became more distant from his own team. Lawry had been under pressure after a highly critical report by team manager Fred Bennett.
During the series, Lawry increasingly came under criticism for some uninspiring leadership marked by a safety-at-all-costs strategy. The first two matches were drawn and the third was washed out. After the Fourth Test at Sydney, England took a series lead with a 299-run win, and his critics became more vocal, despite a defiant unbeaten 60 as Australia fell in the second innings. His own batting saw him described by Ian Wooldridge, as "a corpse with pads on". He had batted for more than 24 hours in the series, averaging around 13 runs an hour. In addition, he had declared with Rod Marsh within eight runs of a maiden Test century. Australia continued to play defensively and after a two further draws in the Fifth and Sixth Tests, Australia needed a win to draw the series and retain the Ashes. With Lawry's defensive leadership under heavy fire, he became the first Australian captain to be dropped in the middle of a series. He had scored 324 runs at 40.5 with three half centuries during the series. He was not informed privately by the Board and only found out after his axing was made public. Chappell condemned the Board's actions as "unbelievable". Victorian and Australian teammate Paul Sheahan said "The fact that no-one had the courage to tell him he was to lose his job as Australian captain was disgraceful." Lawry was public dignified, stating "I hadn't been playing well in that series and I had no compassion when I was dropping players as a selector." ^[4]

Style

Along with Bob Simpson, he formed an opening partnership that was regarded as one of the finest in Test history. Lawry was fast between the wickets, and the pair were especially well known for their understanding, as exemplified by their fluency in rotating the strike with quick singles. Lawry was known for his peculiar stance. He had little bend in his knees, and as a result batted with a stoop over his bat. He used his long reach to blunt spin bowling. He played with a very straight bat, combining well-organised defence with a somewhat limited range of strokes, marked by an efficiency of placement and an unusually heavy reliance on the hook shot. His strengths were regarded as his composure and intense concentration which powered a relentless single-mindedness. His defiant style was accentuated by his habit of tugging on his cap after every ball, as though starting afresh. Lawry was also a left-hander during his winter baseball recreation, which equipped him with a powerful throwing arm.^[5][6][7]

Commentary career

After retiring from playing, Lawry worked as a commentator on radio and on Channel 9 television, beginning in the days of World Series Cricket. His distinctive and excitable style has often been parodied, especially in the The Twelfth Man series, particularly the phrase "Got him, yes!" and "It's all happening!" and "bang" (when a batsman attempts a long hit) and for his love of racing pigeons. Lawry's long-running, argumentative but humorous commentary partnership with former English captain Tony Greig is one of the mainstays of the Nine Network's commentary offering.

Miscellaneous

In Australia a bottle opener is sometimes called a ''Bill Lawry'', on account of him being a famous opener.^[8]

References

1. Eleven featherbed fixtures Lawry proceeded to make 94 in the Fifth Test at The Oval, helping to secure a draw and the Ashes 1-0. He ended with series with 317 runs at 39.62.
On the 1964/65 tour of the Indian subcontinent, Lawry batted consistently and defiantly against the Indian spin attack led by Bhagwat Chandrasekhar in three Tests, compiling three half centuries and two 40s without managing to convert any into a century. He ended the series with 284 runs at 56.8. In the same season Lawry failed to pass fifty in two one off home and away Tests against Pakistan, before the season ended with a tour to the West Indies. He managed only 79 runs in the first three Tests as Australia trailed 2-0, before combining with Simpson in a 382 run partnership in the Fourth Test in Bridgetown, Barbados. Lawry went on to make 210, his highest Test scored, and added a further unbeaten 58 in the second innings of a high scoring draw. Primarily due to that match, he ended the series with 368 runs at 52.57.
Lawry had one of his best seasons in 1965/66 when England toured Australia for a five Test series. His 166 in the First Test in Brisbane helped Australia to set a large total and force England to follow on, but they managed to hold on for a draw. Lawry continued his run scoring with 88 and 78 in the Second Test at Melbourne, before a duck and 33 coincided with Australia losing the Third Test in Sydney. Lawry scored 119 in the Fourth Test in Adelaide to help level the series with an innings victory, and a further 108 in the Fifth Test helped ensure the match was drawn and the Ashes retained. Lawry scored 592 runs at 84.58.
He was less successful in 1966/67 as Australia toured South Africa and lost the five Test series 3-1. Lawry's best score was 98 in the First Test in Johannesburg, which ended in defeat. Hs aggregated 296 runs at 29.6.

Captaincy

Lawry started the 1967/68 home series against India well, making an even 100 in the Second Test in Adelaide to help secure an innings victory. After the Test, Lawry became Australian captain when Simpson retired. His form remained consistent, scoring 64, 45, 66 and 52 in the two remaining Tests as Australia completed a 4-0 clean sweep. He had a productive summer with 369 runs at 52.71. WM Lawry - Tests - Innings by innings list
2. Drawing inspiration from Benaud
3. A tour too far
4. The end of a Victorian hero
5. The A-Z of Australian cricketers, , , Cashman, Franks, Maxwell, Sainsbury, Stoddart, Weaver, Webster, , 1997,
6. Cricket the Australian Way, , Jack, Pollard, , 1969,
7. Wisden 1961 - Bill Lawry
8. ''Word Map'', Kel Richards and The Macquarie Dictionary, 2005, ISBN 0-7333-1540-2, page 14, recording the term in Perth