The Hindu : Memories of another day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jan 22, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Memories of another day

By Our Special Correspondent

Bill Brown, a member of the 1948 `Invincible Team', with his baggy green cap and a bat presented to him by Don Bradman. — Photo: V.V. Krishnan

BRISBANE, JAN. 21. Yalumba Hamlet is famous for two things. Long ago Australia's oldest winery came up here. Now the world's oldest living Test cricketer, William Alfred Brown resides there with his wife, Barbara. Houses on either side of the Yalumba Street resemble Spanish villas. Occasionally limousines make a fleeting appearance in the street. Otherwise there is no visible sign of activity in the Northern suburb of Brisbane on Tuesday morning. Brown's house has a large lawn divided by a post box on which is written: `No Junk Mail, only Australia Post'.

At the appointed time the charming lady of the house gently opens the door. No sooner Brown, born on July 31, 1912 and 91 today, walks towards us, dressed in a grey coloured trouser, full-sleeved white shirt tucked in and a tie with black and red stripes and extends his right hand. Without wasting time, he offers his views on Sir Donald Bradman as a cricketer and person, the Bodyline series and shares his experience of sailing to England and making some money at a Casino in Monte Carlo on way to London in 1934. He says that Steve Waugh has been a wonderful asset to Australian cricket.

The old boy of Australian cricket is all courtesy and overeager to please the guests from India. Brown walks upright, unaided. He moves about in the house without missing a step and leads us to his private room to show a vast collection of prizes and memorabilia, including a framed picture of `The Invincibles' of 1948 of which he was a member and a baggy green cap presented to him by the Australian Cricket Board one year ago.

He has three sons. "My first son Geoffrey is in real estate business. Peter is the second and he has retired as a Packaging Consultant from AMCO and Steven is a construction engineer.'' He doesn't remember the number of grandchildren he has. "Bab, how many grandchildren do we have,'' he shoots a question to his wife busy arranging the table.

Brown's eyesight has not weakened and he can watch a cricket match from 100 metres. He saw the fourth and final Test between India and Australia in early January and will be travelling to Canberra to see the Australian Prime Minister's XI vs India match at the Manuka Oval and attend the Allan Border Medal presentation function on February 12. He is hard of hearing and speaks in a soft tone.

He keeps himself fit by swimming in a small pool at the back of his house. He uses spectacles only for reading newspapers and books. On occasions he and his wife spend several days at a beach house they own. When he became 90 last July the Queensland Cricket Association threw a luncheon party for his family members, cricketers and friends.

Brown, simply known as Bill, was a specialist batsman. He played 22 Test matches for Australia, 16 of them under Don Bradman. He visited South Africa under the leadership of Vic Richardson (Ian Chappell's grandfather) played under Vic Richardson's captaincy in South Africa and once was the captain for the one-Test series in New Zealand. He played before and after the Second World War and batted at various positions and opened the innings with Bill Woodfull and Jack Fingleton. His famous teammates were Bill Ponsford, Bert Oldfield, Keith Miller, Stan McCabe, Bill O'Reiily and Clarrie Grimmet just to name a few. His famous opponents included Wally Hammond, Len Hutton, Nawab of Pataudi Sr. and Denis Compton.

Talking about Bradman he says: "Don Bradman was the greatest player I played with. As a man he had very high ideals and lived upto them. He was a great credit to Australian and world cricket. He was highly respected and liked wherever he played and he was a great captain.''

Brown has been impressed by the performances of the Indian team in the four Tests. "Laxman, what a fine player he is. Tendulkar is beautiful to watch and then there is Rahul Dravid. They are all world-class players. The captain, Ganguly, is also good. This Indian team is an extremely strong side. Laxman is an all-round bat. He is not a one shot player, he plays shots all round the wicket. I think the whole side has settled down to Australian conditions and Australian wickets. The wickets here are probably harder than it is in India.''

He praised the way the Australians play the game. "The Australian teams have been daunting for many, many years. They play hard, but they are fair. It's bit of a shock when other teams come over here. But this Indian team has settled down quickly and played extremely well. They handled the wickets beautifully.''

Jogging his memory, Brown, who played three Tests against the touring Indians in 1947-48, said that Indian team had fine players. "It was a good team and Amarnath batted well in a match. But we had the upper hand at that time. Vijay Hazare was a very fine player. There's no doubt about it. I admired him as a batsman tremendously. I probably liked Hazare above everybody else. So was Vino Mankad, it was entirely my own fault that he ran me out at the bowler's end. He warned me that if I backed up too far he will run me out. And he did that at Sydney. There was no ill feeling at all.

"He (Mankad) said to me that he will never run me out again. We went to Melbourne and Neil Harvey called me for a short run and the fellow at point threw the wicket down. If anyone knows anything about cricket, throwing from point and hitting the stumps is not easy. I was run out at 99. I walked back wondering who the fielder was. Vino was a very fine bat and an excellent left-arm bowler and as I found out he was a very good fielder too.''

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