Bob Simpson: Australian Cricket Captain And Influential Coach

Bob Simpson: Australian Cricket Captain And Influential Coach (Image Source: X/Twitter)

Bob Simpson, who has died at the age of 89, was the archetypal granite-jawed comic-book Australian cricketer who opened the batting, bowled leg-spin and is still cited as the greatest slip catcher the game has seen.

Across four decades, in different roles, he was a key figure in Australian cricket.

Picked for the first time on the 1957-58 tour of South Africa, Simpson took 30 Tests before scoring his first hundred against England at Manchester in 1964, by which time he was also skipper.

He made sure to cash in, going on to post 311 in that Old Trafford innings, the first of his Test centuries - at that time the second highest individual score by an Australian after Don Bradman's 334 against England in 1930.

He is one of only three batsman whose maiden Test centuries were triples, the others being the great West Indian Garry Sobers and India's Karun Nair.

In 62 Tests, which stretched between 1957 and 1978, Simpson racked up 4,869 runs at an average of 46, took 71 wickets and pocketed 110 catches.

He had two spells as captain, first in the 1960s and then again as a 41-year-old recalled to the side a decade later when Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket deprived Australia of its most experienced cricketers.

And in the mid-1980s he took over as coach, working alongside captain Allan Border to rebuild a mediocre Australia team and turning them into the dominant force in world cricket.

- 'Discipline' -

Robert Baddeley Simpson was born in the Sydney suburb of Marrickville on February 3, 1936, the third son of immigrant parents from Scotland whose belief in physical and mental toughness rubbed off on young Bobby.

"I was a naturally ambitious person anyway and never had any doubts I could go further," said Simpson. "It sounds cocky but I always believed in my own talents."

He was still only 16 when he made his debut for New South Wales against Victoria in the 1952/53 season.

It took a move to Western Australia though to get enough cricket to nudge the selectors. Once on the boat to South Africa he was to become a fixture in the side although it was not until he was paired with Bill Lawry at the top of the order in 1961 that he really made his presence felt.

Over a seven-year period they averaged over 60 for the first wicket and posted nine century partnerships, including a monumental 382 against the West Indies in Bridgetown in 1965.

It was the first time that two openers had both scored double-centuries in the same Test and remains a record for Australia's first wicket.

He took over the captaincy from Richie Benaud during the 1964/65 home series against South Africa but retired three years later to find a find a more secure living, initially as a journalist and then in public relations.

When World Series Cricket split the game in 1977, causing most of Australia's leading players to be barred from the national team, Simpson came out of retirement to captain both NSW and Australia.

Leading them in a five-Test series against India he began well with 89 in the first Test and then made 176 in Perth, and 100 and 51 in the final Test in Adelaide as Australia scraped the series 3-2.

He was less successful on the subsequent tour to the West Indies with just one half-century in the 3-1 loss and the selectors drew the curtain for the second time on his playing career.

In 1986 he was appointed coach of an underperforming Australian team with his first priority to improve the quality of the fielding.

"He basically maintained that if you become a really, really solid and high-quality fielding team, even if you have not got the best cricket team, you can stay in the contest for longer, if the other side is better than you," said skipper Border.

"You can win games just on fielding alone."

The result was almost instant as Australia won the 1987 World Cup and then embarked on a period under Border and then Mark Taylor, helped by the burgeoning talents of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Steve Waugh and his twin Mark, when Australia finally overshadowed the West Indies as the best team on the planet.

He wasn't loved by all with some such as Ian Chappell vocal in their disdain but the players he worked with until he stepped back after the World Cup final defeat in 1996 almost universally appreciated his tough manner.

"He was very hard and focused a lot on discipline," said fast bowler Mike Whitney.

"If you didn't have that and if you didn't work within the parameters that he wanted, you were out of the side in a blink of an eye. And everybody knew that."