Alan Davidson, one of Australia’s greatest all-rounders, turns 90 on June 14. When he was a Cricketer of the Year in 1962, Wisden asked his captain, Richie Benaud, to write the profile.
When a cricketer can make fifty runs in a Test match he immediately becomes a valuable commodity to his side. When he has the ability to add to that five wickets and a brace of catches he is beyond price to his associates and skipper. Such a cricketer is Alan Davidson, born on June 14, 1929, of cricket loving parents at Lisarow on the Central North Coast of New South Wales, and latterly one of the great all-rounders in the history of the game.
Davidson is a dynamic cricketer: a superb left-hander with both bat and ball. Many of his exploits are legendary among his fellow modern-day players. New Zealand tourists tell of the match at Wairapa where he took all ten wickets for 29 and then made a brilliant 160 not out to complete the day. The following game he relaxed by merely throwing out a scuttling batsman from the boundary with one stump at which to aim.
Davidson has announced that he will not tour again with an Australian side, but with his fitness restored and some sterling performances against his name in the 1961/62 Sheffield Shield season, Australians are looking to him for a great season against England later this year and justifiably so; for he has never let them down yet.
