Ian Craig

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Ian Craig
Australia
Personal information
Full name	Ian David Craig
Nickname	"The Colt"[1]
Born	12 June 1935 (1935-06-12) (age 73)
	Yass, New South Wales, Australia
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Role	Specialist batsman, captain
Batting style	Right-hand batsman
International information
Test debut (cap 165)	6 February 1953: v South Africa
Last Test	28 February 1958: v South Africa
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1951/52–1961/62	New South Wales
Career statistics
	Tests	First-class
Matches	11	144
Runs scored	358	7,328
Batting average	19.88	37.96
100s/50s	0/2	15/38
Top score	53	213*
Balls bowled	–	130
Wickets	–	1
Bowling average	–	130.00
5 wickets in innings	–	–
10 wickets in match	–	–
Best bowling	–	1/3
Catches/stumpings	2/–	70/–
As of April 7, 2008 Source: [1]

Ian David Craig (born June 12, 1935 in Yass, New South Wales) is a former Australian Test cricketer who represented Australia in 11 Tests between 1953 and 1958. A slightly built right-handed batsman, Craig holds the record for being the youngest Australian to make a first-class double century, gain Test selection and captain his country. Burdened by the public expectation of being the "next Bradman", Craig's career did not fulfil its early promise. In 1957, he was appointed captain of a young team as part of a regeneration plan following the decline of the national team in the mid-1950s, but a loss of form and illness forced him out of the team after one season. Craig made a comeback, but work commitments forced him to retire from first-class cricket at only 26 years of age.

A teenage prodigy, Craig made his first-class debut for New South Wales in the last match of the 1951–52 Australian season, aged only 16. The following summer, Craig earned comparisons to Don Bradman, widely regarded as the greatest batsman of all time, after becoming the youngest player to score a first-class double century with an unbeaten 213 against the touring South African cricket team. The innings secured Craig's Test debut in the final match against South Africa, making him the youngest player to represent Australia in a Test, aged 17 years and 239 days. Craig started his Test career well, scoring 53 and 47 to ensure his selection for the 1953 Ashes tour, making him the youngest Australian player to tour England. Craig's arrival precipated media attention likening him to the arrival of Bradman in 1930, but he was performed poorly, failing to gain selection for all five Tests.

Having missed a season due to national service and university studies, Craig returned to first-class cricket in 1955–56, earning himself a place in the 1956 Ashes touring squad. Craig regained a Test position for the final two Tests of the series. Australia had suffered three consecutive Ashes series defeats and captain Ian Johnson and vice-captain Keith Miller retired upon arriving back in Australia. The selectors gambled on youth to rebuild the team, appointing Craig as the skipper for the 1957–58 tour of South Africa despite him having played in only six Tests and not being an established member of the team. Aged just 22 years and 149 days, Craig was the youngest captain in Test history and led a team derided as the worst to have left Australian shores. Craig led his team to a convincing 3–0 victory, but his batting was poor, averaging less than 20. He contracted hepatitis before the start of the 1958–59 season and withdrew from cricket. Craig returned in the following season for New South Wales, but could not regain his position in the Test team. He retired from first-class cricket at the age of just 26 as work commitments as a pharmacist increasingly restricted his ability to train. In later life, Craig was the managing director of the Australian subsidiary of the British pharmaceutical firm Boots. He has continued his involvement in cricket as an administrator, working with the New South Wales Cricket Association, the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust and the Bradman Museum.

[edit] Early years

Shortly after his birth in the rural town of Yass, Craig's father John jokingly told his friends that "Australia's second Don Bradman has just been born".^[2] Having moved to Sydney from his home town at the age of three, Craig studied at North Sydney Boys High School. He showed his aptitude for ball sports from an early age.^[2] Craig was a member of Australia's schoolboy baseball team for three years, making his first team at only 13 years of age.^[2] He was also a member of the state's schoolboy rugby union team and captained the school team,^[3] but was only vice captain of the First XI cricket team behind Peter Philpott, another future Test player.^[4] At the time, cricket was only his third priority.^[2] He joined Mosman Cricket Club on Sydney's North Shore and scored a first-grade century at the age of 16.^[3] He was selected to make his first-class debut for New South Wales at the age of 16 years and 249 days, during the 1951–52 season, making him the youngest ever Sheffield Shield player.^[5][6] He struck 91 against South Australia in his only first-class innings of the season,^[7] before falling leg before wicket.^[5] In January 1953, at the age of 17 years and 207 days, Craig became the youngest double centurion in the history of first-class cricket, in only his 13th innings.^[4][5] He compiled 213 not out against the touring South Africans, helping to build a total of 416 runs for the loss of seven wickets (7/416). Craig his runs quickly, making 98 of the 159 runs scored in a partnership with captain Keith Miller,^[3] a Test player known for his attacking strokeplay.^[8] Craig brought up his double century by sweeping Hugh Tayfield for a boundary. Craig is still the youngest Australian to have achieved the feat, although it is no longer a world record.^[4][5] The innings generated comparisons with Don Bradman, widely regarded as the finest batsman in cricket history. Bradman had dominated Australian sports media coverage for two decades until his retirement in 1948 and the Australian public were eager for another sporting hero of his magnitude. Bradman was not playing first-class cricket at 17 and did not make his Test debut until the age of 20,^[9] so Craig's quicker rise up the ranks caused much excitement. Miller cautioned against heaping so much media pressure on Craig, but the newspapers persisted, even comparing Craig's batting grip to that of Bradman.^[5][10]

The double century caught the eye of Australian selectors and Craig was selected for the Test team. He was named twelfth man for the Fourth Test, before making his debut in the Fifth Test after Miller and Ray Lindwall were rested.^[4][11] Craig had been one of the leading batsmen of the summer, scoring 867 first-class runs at a batting average of 54.18 with seven half-centuries in addition to his double century. This placed him fourth among Australian batsmen for the season in terms of run-scoring, with only leading Test batsman Neil Harvey averaging higher.^[12]

[edit] Test debut

Craig was one of many players burdened with the tag of being the "next Bradman" (pictured).

Craig's debut Test was against South Africa at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.^[13] At the age of 17 years and 239 days, he became the youngest ever Australian to play Test cricket.^[4] He received a standing ovation from the 47,000-strong crowd as he walked out to bat under heavy public expectations.^[2][14] According to Ray Robinson, Craig walked out with "quick short steps, straight-backed as a pupil coming forward to receive a prize".^[2] Australia were comfortably positioned at 3/269 with his partner Neil Harvey on his way to a double century.^[15] Short and slightly built at 173 cm (5 ft 8 in) and 63 kg (139 lb),^[14] Craig was a boy among men. In an innings marked by leg glances and fine cuts, Craig progressed to 53 before the new ball was taken. Craig hit a ball into the covers and was caught, ending the 148-run partnership with Harvey and silencing the crowd.^[2][11][15] Craig top-scored in the second innings with 47, giving him exactly 100 runs for the match. Given Bradman's Test average of 99.94,^[16] Craig's match aggregate prompted further press discussions of Bradmanesque similarities.^[2][17]

Craig was selected for his first tour of England in 1953 as the last player to make the cut,^[18] after only 10 first-class matches.^[17] The youngest Australian player ever to be sent to England, Craig was 15 months younger than Clem Hill had been in 1896.^[5] He was again the centre of media speculation, with some media likening his arrival to Bradman's first tour of England in 1930.^[17] Bradman had scored a world Test series record of 974 runs in 1930, a mark that remains unsurpassed.^[16] However, the trip was unsuccessful: Craig made only 429 runs in 27 innings at a third-last average of sixteen, with a top score of 71 not out and was not selected for any Tests.^[13][19] Craig had difficulty adjusting to the English pitch conditions and his confidence plummeted.^[4][17][20] Craig has particular trouble against off cutters on the seaming pitches.^[20] In a reception at Lord's, the home of cricket, Queen Elizabeth II asked him "I understand this is your first visit to England?", which prompted Craig to reply "Yes, your majesty, and unless my batting improves, it will be my last."^[17][20][21] Upon returning home, Craig was unable to maintain the level of performances that he displayed in the previous Australian summer. In a purely domestic season, he made 395 runs at an average of 35.90, placing him 20th in the season's run scoring list.^[22]

[edit] Recall

Craig's career was interrupted by final year university studies for a diploma of pharmacy at the University of Sydney and national service,^[1] causing him to miss the entire 1954–55 season, including the home Test series against England, the early 1955 tour to the West Indies and the Sheffield Shield season.^[17][23] Craig returned to first-class cricket during the 1955–56 Australian season, and a healthy aggregate of 495 runs at 45.09 with 1 century,^[24] saw him selected on the 1956 Ashes tour as the last player picked.^[17] His tour started poorly, with food poisoning hampering his ability until after the Second Test—one particular severe bout forced him to be hospitalised.^[17][20] Craig's tour began to improve during a match against Somerset. He was dropped before going on to score 62 and 100 not out—his first century in 38 innings in England.^[20] This was early, He was selected for the Fourth Test at Old Trafford,^[13] after Australia had suffered a heavy defeat at Headingley in the Third Test at the hands of the Surrey spin pairing of Jim Laker and Tony Lock, Australia's first innings defeat in 18 years.^[25] The Fourth Test was to be known as Laker's Test in which Laker took a record 19 wickets and routed the Australians. Laker trapped Craig leg before wicket for eight in the first innings as Australia were skittled for 84.^[26] In the second innings, Craig came out to bat at 1/28 in the second innings on a sticky wicket and combined in a defiant third-wicket partnership of 59 with Colin McDonald.^[26] During what Jack Fingleton dubbed "the toughest period of the match",^[27] he battled for over four hours in compiling 38 before being dismissed by Laker,^[1][4][26] whom he "played [...] as well as anybody".^[28] His stubborn display saw him retain his position for the Fifth Test at The Oval when he scored two and seven.^[13][17] He finished the tour fourth in the first-class averages, with 872 runs at 36, and eighth in the Test averages, hitting 55 at fifteen.

Despite his failure to reach double figures at the The Oval, Craig maintained his position in the playing XI on the tour of the Indian subcontinent en route to Australia in late 1956, playing Test matches against Pakistan and India. However, he failed to pass 40 in any of his five innings. He made 4 and 10 on a matting wicket in Australia's one-off Test against Pakistan in Karachi before playing in the First Test against India, scoring 40 in Madras. He was dropped for the Second Test but returned to make 36 and 6 in the Third Test in Calcutta as Australia took a 2–1 series win.^[13][17] The matches were the first time that Australia had played a Test in Asia.^[25] Craig finished them with a trifling aggregate of 100 in five innings.

[edit] Youngest ever Australian captain

Craig was unexpectedly made Test captain ahead of Neil Harvey (pictured).

The 1956–57 season marked the start of a renewal phase in Australian cricket. Australia had lost three consecutive Ashes series and had fallen from the heights of the Invincibles of 1948. Australia were not scheduled to play any Tests until a tour of South Africa in 1957–58 and captain Ian Johnson and his deputy Keith Miller had retired upon their return to Australia, with both being in the late 30s.^{[4][8][14][25][29]} Craig replaced the retired Miller as state captain and staked his claim to be a part of Australia's long-term future with a consistent season in which he scored 521 runs at an average of 47.36, with two centuries.^[1][30] At the end of the 1956–57 season, the selectors met to choose a team for a short non-Test tour of New Zealand. The leading contender for the captaincy was 28-year-old Victorian Neil Harvey, who had been a regular member of the team for eight years and was the senior batsman.^[16][31] Instead, the selectors thrust Craig into the leadership at the age of 21 and a half. He was a young player leading a young team—the youngest cricket team from any country to be sent overseas.^[32] It was seen as a bold move,^[4][14] as Craig had only played six Tests and was far from being a regular member of the team and had only a year of captaincy at first-class level. Craig was seen as being personable, level-headed and well educated and was seen as an investment in the future following a trough in Australian cricket during the 1950s.^[4][14] Personal skills were seen as important in an era when captains were expected to make many after-dinner speeches at functions on tours, especially to England.^[4][14] Jack Fingleton viewed this (for which he had little regard), together with Craig's youth and the selectors' insistence on doing the unexpected, as a far stronger reason for his taking the plum than his leadership credentials. Especially worrying was the fact that he had yet to secure a place in the Test side and was averaging below 25 at the highest level.^[33]

Ray Robinson opined that "a sincere nature and unassuming manner" reduced the risk of team friction in the rebuilding phase and that Craig was "level headed and tactful beyond his years".^[4] Craig's lack of leadership ambition was cited as a major reason for the improvement in team harmony,^[32] but already there were signs that his playing credentials were problematic. Although he managed a century in one of the unofficial Tests, he was placed seventh in the first-class averages for the New Zealand tour, behind (in order) Norm O'Neill, Benaud, Harvey, Bobby Simpson, Les Favell and Peter Burge.

In the 1957–58 season, the responsibility was raised to another level when Craig was made captain for the Test tour to South Africa, making him the youngest captain in Test history at the age of 22 years and 194 days,^[34] with Harvey as his deputy.^[4] The appointment came despite his poor batting form during the New Zealand tour. The selectors further demonstrated their view to the future when they dropped veteran Ray Lindwall altogether.^[35] The average age of Craig's team was two and a half years younger than the Australian squad sent to England in 1956,^[36][37] and had only one player over the age of 30,^[36] whereas the 1956 team had five members over the age of 30.^[36][37] The relative inexperience resulted in Craig's men being described as the worst to have left Australian shores.^[38] Craig joined his team in Johannesburg after flying in from London, where he had been working for six months as a pharmacist with the approval of the Australian board.^[1] He made a good start to the tour in two warm-up matches against Rhodesia, scoring a century.^[14] The workload grew when the team manager Jack Jantke suffered a heart attack before the tour, leaving Craig to handle things off the field until a replacement was found after two weeks.^[1][14][36]

Craig led his team into the First Test at Johannesburg with an extremely inexperienced Test bowling attack. With Lindwall dropped, the pace attack was led by Alan Davidson,^[39] who at the time had managed only 16 Test wickets in 12 matches.^[39] Davidson's partner Ian Meckiff was making his debut. Benaud was in his first Test as the lead spinner, while left arm wristspinner Lindsay Kline was another debutant.^[40] In all, Craig's team had four debutants.^[41] Craig made only 14 and 17 as his team held on for a draw.^[13] Craig again struggled with the bat in the Second Test in Cape Town, making a duck, but this was overlooked by the media as his team won its first Test by a decisive innings margin. In the Third Test at Durban, Craig made 52 on a bowler-friendly pitch as Australia managed a draw, his first Test half-century since his debut.^[13] In the Fourth Test at Johannesburg, Craig promoted Benaud ahead of him in the batting order, feeling that flexibility in the team interest was paramount.^[42] Benaud scored a century, prompting Robinson to describe Craig's action as "the most imaginative piece of captaincy of the season".^[43] The innings allowed Australia to seize the momentum and set up a 10-wicket victory.^[43] Craig failed to pass 20 in the Fifth Test as Australia won again to take a creditable 3–0 series win, something that was highly unexpected at the beginning of the tour.^[42] Overall, Craig's men won 11 of their 20 first-class games on tour, and the South African Cricket Annual recognised the Australian captain's leadership by naming him as one of their Five Cricketers of the Year.^[44] Springbok stager Eric Rowan disagreed, dubbing Benaud "the brains of the Australians".^[45]

Although the match results were encouraging for such a young and inexperienced team, Craig's batting was a problem,^[42] scoring only 103 runs at 14.71.^[13] Despite his contributions as a leader, Craig's batting was not up to standard:^[4] he finished tenth in the Test and ninth in the first-class averages, scoring 591 runs at 36.9 in the latter. He had trouble with his defensive skills, being bowled eight times in 17 innings. His debut Test innings remained his highest-scoring.^[43] "Unless a miraculous run of good form lifts Craig out of the batting mess he has been in for years," wrote Bill O'Reilly, "his disappearance from the Australian team is a foregone conclusion. I hold no hope whatever for him after his long string of disappointing failures." Wrote Fingleton, "No other Australian in cricket history has had as many chances that have yielded so little."^[46]

Don Bradman was lucullan in his praise of Craig's generalship. Ian Johnson (cricketer) and Fingleton favoured Lindwall but agreed that Craig had done well, Johnson holding that another appointment was in order. Lindsay Hassett, with whom Fingleton also agreed, withheld his judgement, wanting first to see Craig make runs against England before the start of the 1958/59 rubber. Arthur Mailey and Keith Miller (who plumped for Benaud), and O'Reilly and Sid Barnes were categorically opposed to Craig, the last-mentioned asserting that he "hasn't got what it takes".

The selectors avoided having to reverse their youth policy when Craig contracted a bout of hepatitis before the start of the 1958–59 season.^[4] Craig returned to cricket at the beginning of the season, but was underprepared, scoring two ducks in his only two innings of the season. Craig declared that he was not ready for a return to Test cricket and relinquished the Test captaincy, which the selectors handed to Benaud. Benaud went on to defeat England 4–0, widely regarded as the best team at the time, thereby establishing himself as captain of a resurgent Australia.^[16][42]

The illness-enforced layoff left Craig facing an uphill battle to regain his place in the national team. In 1959–60, Craig recovered his health and had a moderately successful season, accumulating 376 runs at 31.33 with three half-centuries.^[47] Despite this, the selectors named him to lead an Australian Second XI to New Zealand while the first choice team toured the Indian subcontinent, hoping that he could still be good enough to secure a long-term future in the Australian team.^[4] Craig had strong Sheffield Shield seasons in 1960–61 and 1961–62, accumulating 710 and 629 runs at respective averages of 59.16 and 37.00,^[48][49] but found himself under increasing pressure for his place in the state team. New South Wales had a streak of nine consecutive Shield titles up until 1961–62,^[50] and the batting lineup was particularly strong.^[42][51][52] In total, Craig acted as captain in 48 matches first-class matches, winning 27, tieing one and losing only two.^[4] Although Craig's record as the youngest captain in Test history has now surpassed,^[34] he remains the youngest Australian to have scored a double century, gained Test selection and the national captaincy.^[4]

[edit] Style

Standing 173 cm (5 ft 8 in) and weighing 63 kg (139 lb),^[14] Craig was a lightly built and frail looking batsman.^[3] He had a neat, fluent^[53] and compact batting style. Craig was known for his leg side batting repertoire, in particular his ability to clip the ball from his pads. He had an unorthodox grip, low on the bat handle with the back of the top hand pointing to point. This caused him to have a tendency to close the face of his bat.^[5] He bent his knees "to a marked extent when playing the ball, and this," wrote Fingleton, "could account for some flaw in defence. It could also account for the fact that he sometimes skies the ball on the drive, not being over the top of it."^[54]

Although Craig was small in stature, he was still able to hit the ball a long distance. During the testimonial match for Lindsay Hassett at the end of the 1953–54 season, Craig struck four sixes in five balls from the off spin of Johnson.^[4][20] During his first tour to England, Craig had difficulty with off cutters bowled by pacemen and eschwed the hook shot,^[20] but after his comeback from illness, he transformed himself into an opening batsman, earning praise for his performances against the express pace of Wes Hall and Ian Meckiff.^[44] Benaud felt that Craig was finally reaping the rewards of his early experience.^[44] On Australian pitches, Craig had a reputation for having difficulty with the left arm wristspin of Kline and David Sincock.^[20] Craig's light build allowed him to move quickly while fielding, prompting Robinson to call him "the Bambi of the fielding side".^[5]

There arose near the end of his career the feeling that Craig was rather more English than Australian. At one stage, he had played only 37 Shield innings in Australia to his 36 in England. Added to that was his business trip to the Mother Country in 1957 and his membership to the MCC and Free Foresters.^[55] From Salisbury in October 1956, RS Whitington wrote that Craig's side was employing some extremely English window dressing: "Craig is sporting the orange-and-yellow striped Marylebone Cricket Club tie. His explanation: 'Quite. It was the only one I had that would go with my suit.'^[56] Commented an Australian now resident in Rhodesia: 'What's this—a cricket team or a bow-tie brigade?'" Whitington reported that a fines committee (very popular with the English clubs) had been instituted and, while championing the call for the increased donning of ties (for which Craig had a weakness),^[57] hoped that the team would "keep this in mind in the midst of its penchant for ersatz Anglicised fripperies."

In his early years, Craig was a non-smoker, but the pressure and tension brought on by the burden of captaincy resulted in him taking up the habit.^[43] He was known for being softly spoken, with his players often having to ask him to repeat his instructions.^[43] Craig had a reputation for being good-natured; he did not complain about his cricket career and said that he had "no regrets".^{[3][20][44][58]}

[edit] After cricket

Craig retired from first-class cricket at just 26 years of age in 1962, but continued playing for Mosman in Sydney grade cricket on weekends until 1969.^[4][59] His marriage to Rosslyn Carroll^[3][4] and his pharmaceutical career prevented him from applying himself fully to cricket.^[3][4] The couple had a boy and a girl, as well as an adopted son. Craig joined the Australian subsidiary of the British pharmaceutical firm Boots, rising to the position of managing director. He later served on the board of directors of the Bradman Museum in Bowral and later became its chairman. He was a member of the New South Wales Cricket Association Board for three years and served on the Trust of the Sydney Cricket Ground for varying periods from 1968 to 1996, totalling 18 years.^[60] Upon first being appointed in 1968 to replace Stan McCabe, Craig was the youngest ever trustee of the SCG.^[59] Craig retired as the managing director of Boots' Australian subsidiaries.^[4]

[edit] Test match performance

Ian Craig's Test career batting graph. The red bars indicate the runs that he scored in an innings, with the blue line indicating the batting average in his last 10 innings.^[13]

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Cashman, Franks, Maxwell, Sainsbury, Stoddart, Weaver, Webster (1997). The A-Z of Australian cricketers. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-550604-9. 
• Fingleton, Jack (1958). Masters of Cricket: From Trumper to May. Heinemann. 
• Perry, Roland (2000). Captain Australia. Random House Australia. ISBN 1-74051-093-3. 
• Pollard, Jack (1990). From Bradman to Border:Australian cricket 1948–1989. Harper Collins. ISBN 0-207-16124-0. 
• Robinson, Ray (1996). On top down under: Australia's cricket captains. Wakefield Press. ISBN 1-86254-387-9. 

[edit] External links

• Cricinfo profile on Ian Craig
• CricketArchive profile on Ian Craig