The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Miller to be honoured with a state funeral

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Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

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Miller to be honoured with a state funeral

MELBOURNE, OCT. 13. Australian cricket great Keith Miller will be honoured with a state funeral in downtown Melbourne next week, Victoria's State premier Steve Bracks said on Wednesday.

Miller, Australia's finest all-rounder and a member of Sir Donald Bradman's `Invincibles' touring team to England in 1948, died on Monday aged 84 at a nursing home on the Mornington Peninsula, near Melbourne.

Bracks, describing Miller as the greatest sportsman Victoria had produced, said a state funeral would be held next Wednesday at St. Paul's Anglican cathedral.

Miller, a dashing and unconventional man who flew fighter planes over Europe in World War II and was also a highly accomplished Australian Rules footballer, made his Test debut in 1946 and was voted Wisden's Cricketer of the Year in 1954.

Considered one of the world's greatest all-rounders, Miller played 55 Tests for Australia, scoring 2,958 runs at an average of 36.97 and claiming 170 wickets at 22.97. He and fellow fast bowler Ray Lindwall formed a winning partnership to dominate the Australian bowling line-up in the aftermath of WWII. He was also a big-hitting batsman who compiled seven Test hundreds and 13 half centuries. Tributes flowed in from all over the world following Miller's death. — AP

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