Twenty\u2011five kilometres north of the SCG, the world\u2019s oldest living Test cricketer is sitting in his La-Z-Boy armchair and watching the Test. Neil Harvey was once the youngest of Bradman\u2019s Invincibles; now he\u2019s 97, his old cricketing buddies gone. His body is a little worn around the edges, but mentally he\u2019s astute.<\/p>\n
Harvey was Australia\u2019s sweetheart, the second youngest of six brothers, a dashing left-hander, who stalked the covers and hunted at slip. During a 15-year Test career, he cut and shimmied to more than 6,000 runs at an average of 48, making his mark with 153 in his second Test. He was a regular at the SCG, attending every Test from 1949\u00a0up until four years ago, when, in the words of his son Bruce he \u201cgave up public appearances\u201d and he has very fond memories of the place.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had such a good time here,\u201d he says over the phone. \u201cProbably the most satisfying moment was 92 not out against Frank Tyson in 1954. We would have won that game, but no one else could stay in with me. [Australia needed 223 to win, no one else made more than 16.] Tyson was as quick as you\u2019ll get, he and Wes Hall were the two fastest bowlers I ever played against. They\u00a0didn\u2019t let up on you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Christmas tree has been packed away, but Harvey is surrounded by other sparkling souvenirs from a life well lived: a crystal cabinet containing napkin rings from Sir Donald Bradman and drinking glasses from Lindsay Hassett, his MBE and OAM. On the walls, a handsome young fellow in his black and white prime smiles back, alongside an award celebrating his membership of the Australian Test team of the 20th century.<\/p>\n
He still loves Test cricket, but, despite the attacking nature of his own batting, isn\u2019t crazy about Bazball. \u201cI\u2019ve been disappointed in England. I think the way they approach the batting side of things, they get too reckless, nobody seems to want to build an innings, like a Cowdrey or a Boycott.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might work against ordinary teams but when you get a class side like Australia it\u2019s a different ballgame. I used to score runs relatively quickly, and everyone gets a lot of enjoyment out of it, but when you try to play this Bazball thing it takes the odds away from winning an important Test. I\u2019d like to see them pull their hooves in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neil Harvey in his heyday when playing for Australia. Photograph: PA Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n
He loves to watch Kane Williamson and Joe Root \u2013 \u201cThey\u2019ve been the best batsmen for quite some time, I guess it\u2019s time someone else took a bit of responsibility and challenged them for that\u201d \u2013 and thinks Mitchell Starc is a marvel. \u201cHe\u2019s got everything, pace and bounce and swinging the ball, he can do anything with it, that\u2019s why he\u2019s up there with one of the greats now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The future of the Test game, though, concerns him. \u201cAshes cricket is holding the game together out here, there are so many poor cricket teams playing international cricket, I only wish I\u2019d have played against them. I think these bats they use today are unfair, you don\u2019t have to hit it any more, all you have to do is flex your wrist and hold your bat there, the ball flies off and goes for four. If you have two even teams playing against each other, the stronger batting side will win.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was nearly 78 years ago that Harvey came to England with Bradman\u2019s great side. He was 21 years younger than his captain, who described him as having the brilliance and daring of youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a great bunch of fellas to go away with, we went by ship and all got to know each other on the way over. It was just a learning curve for me which I never forgot. I learned so much about life in general from those blokes, they were instrumental for putting me on the right track. They allowed me to have a very nice cricket career, I\u00a0played the game with great fellas and against some great fellas like Alec\u00a0Bedser and Freddie Trueman, Peter May and Colin Cowdrey.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got lots of memories but suppose the obvious one was I my very first Test match against England. I was 19, I never thought I\u2019d get into the side, it was so strong, but through an injury I got a game at the Leeds Test and managed to scrape together a century, it was most satisfying.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neil Harvey, the Australian cricket legend, with his family. Photograph: Family handout<\/p>\n
Arriving in war-damaged London from Australia was a huge culture shock. \u201cEngland was very damaged, I can still see St Paul\u2019s cathedral, all the buildings around it were flattened \u2013 there must be a message there somewhere. I did four tours over your way, and I\u2019ve actually seen the marvellous city of London just about rebuilt. I\u2019ve always said that it\u2019s the best city I\u2019ve ever been to.\u201d<\/p>\n
No cricket life passes without disappointments, and Harvey\u2019s was the Australian captaincy. \u201cI thought I had it actually, I thought I was next in line to take over, but the selectors decided that Ian Craig was the man for the job, which hurt me a bit, a 21-year-old taking over the captaincy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI only captained Australia once, at Lord\u2019s in \u201961 [he won], but it couldn\u2019t have happened at a nicer or more beautiful place than Lord\u2019s, my favourite in world cricket. I love what it stands for, I\u2019ve always been a strong follower of history and if you go back to \u201948 I\u00a0met Jack Hobbs there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zak Crawley and Jacob Bethell have followed Ben Duckett back into the pavilion during our conversation. Shortly afterwards, Harvey will switch over to the horse racing, another passion, alongside the odd glass of Barossa Shiraz. He also, says Bruce, knows exactly what is going on in world affairs. \u201cIn other words,\u201d Harvey chuckles, \u201cI\u2019m not quite dead yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Twenty\u2011five kilometres north of the SCG, the world\u2019s oldest living Test cricketer is sitting in his La-Z-Boy armchair…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-356283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}