Neil Harvey, the last survivor of Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles, is 91 this month. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year after his second Ashes tour in 1953.
Neil Harvey played 79 Tests for Australia between 1948 and 1963, scoring 6,149 runs, including 21 centuries
Sport can provide few spectacles as exhilarating as that of a gifted left-hand batsman tearing to shreds bowling which has subdued only slightly less skilled players. Upon the retirement of Bradman, the mantle of Australian batting champion passed to Robert Neil Harvey of Victoria, whose ability to change a game’s outlook by blistering attack rivals that of his former Test captain.
When, in 1953, Harvey returned home from his second visit to England, few cricketers had accomplished so much by the age of 24. Beginning at 19, Harvey had played for Australia in 29 Tests, twice been on tour to England and once to South Africa, set up a number of batting records, and given infinite pleasure to hundreds of thousands of cricket-lovers in various parts of the world. All this he accomplished without changing one iota from the quiet, unassuming, non-smoking, non-drinking lad who saw his first ball bowled in Test cricket when, at 19 years of age, he was chosen as Australia’s 12th man for the third Test with India.
Harvey, the second youngest of six boys, was born at Fitzroy, Melbourne, on October 8, 1928. In a household such as his, any lad not gripped by the fascination of cricket would have been unnatural. Cricket and cricket talk formed as integral a part of the daily round as eating and sleeping. His father, who held the family batting record with 198 for Broken Hill, a mining town in New South Wales, still scored freely in club cricket, and, almost as soon as he could walk, Neil joined the family contests, played with a soft ball in a cobbled stone lane near the house.
Next season three of the six Harvey brothers, all of whom played for Fitzroy, appeared together in two States games. Mervyn had already been honoured with Test selection, against the 1946/47 English team, but the younger Neil began to attract more attention, and three months after his 19th birthday he made his entry into international cricket, in the last two matches against India. His dazzling 153 on his home ground at Melbourne Stadium in the fifth Test was Harvey’s first century in three-day cricket. His place for the tour to England became automatic.
At first, the turning pitches in England troubled him, but, as soon as he adjusted his game, he played many brilliant innings and won a place in the side for the fourth Test, at Leeds. The Australian position was precarious when Harvey, still 19 and the youngest player in the party, joined Miller at the wicket. Three wickets, including Bradman’s, had gone for 68 in face of an England total of 496.
Defence was expected and would have been justified. Australia’s two young cricket cavaliers were in no mood for dead-bat play. Instead, they scattered England’s attack in hurricane assault which brought Australia 121 runs in an hour and a half. Harvey, whose second successive Test hundred contained seventeen fours, then shared another century stand, with Loxton. Unmistakably, Harvey had arrived as a Test cricketer and to the end of the 1953 tour of England, he did not miss a Test.
In South Africa in 1949/50 Harvey created several Australian records. His Test figures of 660 runs and average 132.00 exceeded the previous best there for Australia, as did his 1,526 runs and eight centuries in first-class games. He also broke the Australian home record against South Africa by his 834, average 92.66, in the 1952/53 season. In 1953, he was only the third Australian in 25 years to reach a 2,000 aggregate in England. Bradman (three times) and McCabe were the others. Harvey made 2,040 runs, average 65.80.
When not abroad on cricket tours Harvey plays baseball in the close seasons for Fitzroy. Twice he has been in an Australian named baseball team – one which is named for the distinction thus accorded, but which plays no matches. As a baseball infield, Harvey developed his half round-arm throw, the speed and accuracy of which have cost many batsmen their wickets. Baseball training was also responsible for his habit of catching the ball above his head. For him to miss a catch is so rare as to excite comment.
The theory of this method of catching is that the catcher need never take his eyes off the ball and, should it bounce out of his hands the first time, he will stand a good chance of a second attempt. Seeing that Harvey also covers ground quickly and is magnificently swift and certain in picking up and returning, he merits the description of the finest outfielder in the world. Off the field, Harvey is a sports goods traveller. He was married on his return to Australia.
