Based on interviews by Ashley Mallett with Ian Chappell, this book presents Ian Chappell's reflections on his career, players he played with and against, and on current and past cricketing issues.
This remarkable true story pays tribute to a band of Aboriginal boys who grew up together in one group home - many succeeding spectacularly in later life. In 1945, Anglican priest Father Percy Smith brought six boys from their Northern Territory home to an Adelaide beach suburb. There, they became the first boys of St Francis, a place that would house 50 such boys over 11 years. Some were sent, with the blessing of their mothers, to gain an education. Others were members of the Stolen Generations. In their interviews with Ashley Mallett, many of these men recall Father Smith's kindness and care. His successors, however, were often brutal, and the boys faced prejudice in a wider world largely built to exclude Indigenous Australians. The Boys from St Francis is a multi-layered tale of triumph against the odds - using the early building blocks of education and sporting prowess. Many of them went on to become fiercely effective advocates for Aboriginal causes, achieving significant progress not just for themselves, but for Aboriginal people, changing their world for the better. Activist Charles Perkins, the first Indigenous man to receive a university degree, commenced his status as a national icon with the 1965 Freedom Rides. John Moriarty, the first Indigenous man picked for the national soccer team, designed the famous Dreaming images for five Qantas planes. Harold Thomas created the iconic Aboriginal flag. Vince Copley played football for the Port Adelaide Magpies. George Kruger worked with Fred Hollows in remote Indigenous communities for nearly 20 years. The Boys from St Francis is a sometimes shocking, but ultimately hopeful book about black and white Australia, told through one constellation of lives, sharing one seaside address.
An entertaining collection of insider yarns by an Aussie Test cricket legend. In the Test arena, Dennis Lillee wasnever beaten. West Indian champion Viv Richards had taken the sword to all theinternational bowlers of his era. But when he came up against Lillee, it was a heavy-weight fight between unrelenting combatants. Their contests werealways take-no-prisoners affairs. A bowler himself, author Ashley Mallett played 38 Tests during the heyday of Australian cricket in the 1970s and 1980s and has been hailed as one of Australia's best spinners. His divingleft-handed grab in the gully to dismiss Colin Cowdrey off Lillee at Adelaidein the explosive 1974-75 Ashes summer was a catch for the ages. Now Mallett shares his vast knowledge of the game and its heroes in Great Australian Test Cricket Stories, a collection of fascinating cricket yarns that spans centuries and continents. Stories of famous contests and clashes sit beside personal anecdotes as well as insights and opinion that only an elite cricketer could provide. All the greats get a guernsey, from Victor Trumper, to Keith Miller, Don Bradman, Boycott, Benaud, Border and Warne, in this engrossing read for fans of the game.
The best of the best, these are the greatest players of the 20th Century playing in the same side. Former Test cricketer and author Ashley Mallett describes the agony and ecstasy in selecting the best Eleven of the past 100 years. From the short list to the final selection, he provides the reason and argument towards achieving the perfectly balanced side. The outcome is a team with great batting depth - nine players who have scored Test Centuries, and specialist batsmen who are courageous, consistent and adaptable. There are one batting all-rounder and two bowling all-rounders. The attack is a potent mix of genuine pace bowling, complemented by two brilliant spinners- one a leg-spinner, the other an off-spinner. This Eleven would beat any combination - anywhere and at anytime.
From the moment he first stepped onto a test pitch, cricket fans around the world were dazzled by Doug Walters' red-blooded strokes, his immaculate timing and his great enjoyment of the game. But they also loved him because he refused to be a star. He drank, he smoked, he loved a punt. The boy from Dungog was one of us. In One of a Kind, the ma...
This remarkable true story pays tribute to a band of Aboriginal boys who grew up together in one group home. Many of them went on to become fiercely effective advocates for Aboriginal causes, achieving significant progress not just for themselves, but for Aboriginal people, changing their world for the better.
An amazing account of the establishment and reception of the Aboriginal team which represented Australia in the 1868 tour of England. Written and researched by well known cricket author Ashley Mallett.
Thommo was feared by batsmen all around the world. Sri Lankan Sunil Wettimuny recalls facing one of Thommo's balls: Never before or since that day did I know fear on the cricket field. Mike Brearley, the Middlesex captain who led England during the World Series Cricket incursion, said of Thommo: Broken marriages, conflicts of loyalty, the ...
Neil Harvey: The Last Invincible is the first major biography of Australian cricketer Neil Harvey, the last living member of Donald Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles. Neil Harvey was one of Australia’s greatest left-handed batsmen and a prolific run scorer. He was the youngest member of Bradman’s famous team, the Invincibles, which toured England in 1948 and remained undefeated in their 34 matches. Representing Australia, Harvey’s stunning test career spans from his moment as the youngest Australian test cricketer to score a century, to vice-captain of the Australian team from 1957 until his retirement. Harvey played 79 Tests for Australia, making more than 6000 runs and 21 centuries. Bowlers rarely found a way of disrupting his concentration or curbing his attack. Harvey has been inducted into the Australian and ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, named in the Australian Test Team of the 20th Century and awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. Now, for the first time, there is a full-length biography to capture the career and life behind this living legend. In Neil Harvey: The Last Invincible, biographer and former Australian test cricketer Ashley Mallett draws not only on Harvey’s own recollections but those of Australian and international cricketers, commentators and officials to bring to life his remarkable story.
An entertaining collection of insider yarns by an Aussie Test cricket legend. In the Test arena, Dennis Lillee wasnever beaten. West Indian champion Viv Richards had taken the sword to all theinternational bowlers of his era. But when he came up against Lillee, it was a heavy-weight fight between unrelenting combatants. Their contests werealways take-no-prisoners affairs.A bowler himself, author Ashley Mallett played 38 Tests during the heyday of Australian cricket in the 1970s and 1980s and has been hailed as one of Australia's best spinners. His divingleft-handed grab in the gully to dismiss Colin Cowdrey off Lillee at Adelaidein the explosive 1974--75 Ashes summer was a catch for the ages. Now Mallett shares his vast knowledge of the game and its heroes in Great Australian Test Cricket Stories, a collection of fascinating cricket yarns that spans centuries and continents. Stories of famous contests and clashes sit beside personal anecdotes as well as insights and opinion that only an elite cricketer could provide. All the greats get a guernsey, from Victor Trumper, to Keith Miller, Don Bradman, Boycott, Benaud, Border and Warne, in this engrossing read for fans of the game.
The talented black cricketers who toured England in 1868 have become one of Australia's enduring sporting legends. Aboriginal sporting heroes are found in many sports today, from football to tennis, boxing and athletics, but it was very different in the nineteenth century when the pastoral frontier was still bitterly disputed by whites and blacks. Aboriginal workers on the Wimmera sheep stations began to develop and organise their cricketing skills during the 1860s and were recruited into a team by station owner and former Test cricketer Tom Wills. On Boxing Day 1866 they played before 8000 people at the MCG, followed by a disastrous Sydney tour which lead to the deaths of some players. Former test player Ashley Mallet has dramatically reconstructed this important pioneering tour of England and has also included the careers of later black players, including the famous fast bowler Eddie Gilbert who died tragically without fulfilling his potential.
On ABC TV in February 2007 Nugget Rees featured in an Australian Story, 'Man of the Century', and viewers' response to it was quite extraordinary. The ABC's switchboard was inundated with callers wanting to know more about this remarkable man." "Rising from the most unlikely of circumstances, Nugget has been described as the secret weapon of Australian cricket. He has become the trusted confidante and companion of some of its biggest names, and forged a unique place in the hearts of generations of Test and State cricketers. This is his story."--Back cover.
Don Bradman is the Eternal Flame of cricket. As the greatest batsman of them all, Bradman consumed bowlers like a firestorm. Such a fabled and long career cast an immense shadow over Bradman's peers and opponents alike. Their stories are gathered here to make up Bradman's Band, the cricket legends who played alongside or against him in the Test arena. Among them are Larwood, Miller, Compton, Hutton, Headley, Allen, O'Reilly, Mailey, and Kippax.Author Ashley Mallett skilfully rekindles the Bodyline Ashes conflict, and the great religious divide Down Under of the 1930s. His description of the vendettas and jealousies among Bradman's peers are fascinating reflections on the players and the game. Bringing us closer to home is a profile of what The Don describes as his "greatest partnership", his sixty-five-year marriage to Jessie Bradman.The is a fascinating story of the cricket legends in Bradman's Band.
The Diggers' Doctor tells of Dr Donald Beard's extraordinary life as a surgeon, as well as his love of cricket and deep friendship with cricketers, including Sir Donald Bradman.
Ian Chappell was loved by the Australian public for his no-nonsense approach to captaining his country. An exceptionally talented batsman, a superb slip-fielder and occasional leg-spin bowler, he also developed a reputation for not suffering fools gladly, and for calling a spade a spade. His seemingly abrasive personality led to clashes with the likes of Don Bradman and Kerry Packer. Swearing on TV in Australia only cemented his legendary status at home.On the pitch he presided over a hugely successful Australian side, which featured the talents of his brother Greg (both brothers once scored a century in the same Test against New Zealand in 1973) and the fast bowlers Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, and had many a notorious battle with English sides featuring the likes of Geoffrey Boycott. His mother apparently believes he's mellowed, but Chappell himself believes he has 'just got smarter with age'.The book includes his thoughts on (recent passions of) opera and classical music ('try that on me thirty years ago and I would have said it was bullshit, there's drinking to be done'), but will also feature controversial views on Steve Waugh 'a selfish cricketer and ordinary Test captain' and details of how he's 'gone into bat' for asylum seekers in Australia. All in all, a controversial but humorous look at the career of one of the Australian greats, as told to former team-mate-turned-journalist and author Ashley Mallett.
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