Once again the ugly controversy claiming Don Bradman’s vindictiveness against Clarrie Grimmett and Keith Miller is doing rounds. Arunabha Sengupta looks at some facts and some numbers to underline that they are largely unsubstantiated.
So, once again we have the ugly controversy rising its head.
One understands that these days of zero cricketing action makes the cricket press grope about for publishable material. And one also understands that groping in such cases is quite blind. Groping, when it comes to cricketing stories, has never been quite renowned for the quality of clear-sightedness, with the Carduses leading the way.
Hence, Ian Chappell talking about Don Bradman and his ‘marginalising the careers of Clarrie Grimmett and Keith Miller’ is once again regurgitated. In the most renowned of cricket magazines (okay Wisden article on 24 May 2020, engineered from Ian Chappell’s appearance in the Time To Talk with Sean Sennett show).
The disappointing bit is that the writer makes no effort to check his facts, even given that it is Chappelli he is quoting— a man without a sterling track record of adhering to factual correctness. In fact, there are errors in the fillers that he inserts between the quotes
The Miller Myth
First of all, Keith Miller never missed a Test match because of Bradman. He arrived late on the tour of South Africa in 1949-50 because of controversy with selection. The team departed from Fremantle on board Nestor on 22 September 1949 and reached Durban on 7 October.
After Bill Johnston was hospitalised after a car crash early on, Miller was selected as replacement on 5 November. [Ernie Toshack was asked first] He flew from Sydney to Fremantle and sailed on Dominion Monarch along with team masseur Charlie O’Brien, reaching Cape Town on 4 December.
The first Test at Johannesburg took place on 24 December and Miller played all five Tests. Yes, the team spent 78 days in South Africa before playing the first Test. They did such things during that era.
For Miller, the sojourn was 20 days. He missed 58 days of the tour, but his Test career was in no way compromised.
Whether Bradman was responsible for the non-selection of Miller or not is not really the issue here.
The headline in the Wisden states Ian Chappell on the great Australia Test careers diminished by ‘vindictive’ Don Bradman. The article further says: “While Miller, one of the greatest all-rounders in cricket history, didn’t have his career ended by Bradman, he did miss a tour to South Africa in 1949/50 when the man with the highest Test average of them all had progressed from being a player to a selector.”
This is plain wrong, and they cannot even blame Chappell for misquoting. It has been added by the writer of the piece.
Besides, there is the oft repeated story about Miller throwing his wicket away against Essex when Australia were piling 721 in a day is not substantiated. We have dealt with this here.
And furthermore, the issue of The Mail (Adelaide) dated 12 November 1949, clearly has Miller stating that his omission had nothing to do with his supposed rift with Bradman. He has given multiple versions down the line. That is natural, because Miller was no acolyte of truth and a self-mythologist of great proportions. But this effort to ignore his contemporary press statement seems too convenient.
The Mail, Adelaide 12 Nov 1949 (Thanks to Vijay Arumugam for the press clipping)
The Grimmett Grumblings
Now, let us turn to Grimmett. Namely, to the continuing allegation that Bradman was vindictive in ending his career.
In 1935-36, Grimmett toured South Africa under Vic Richardson. He picked up 44 wickets on the tour. And that happened to be his last series for Australia. When Gubby Allen’s men visited, he was 45 but available, picking up wickets in domestic cricket. Bradman preferred Frank Ward, the 30-year-old leg-spinner who, like Grimmett, bowled for his own team South Australia.
This very event has led to plenty of tongues to wag about the vindictive Bradman, not least because Ward had a rather ordinary Test career, which contrasted rather strikingly with Grimmett’s glittering deeds.
However, there was no way to know how Ward’s Test career would shape before he had played a game. And if we do look at the available data , Bradman did have adequate cricketing reasons.
Grimmett did capture 44 wickets in South Africa. However, the Springboks at that point of time were not really a terribly good side. It was an easy series, and many Australians maximised it for their records. Stan McCabe was magnificent, but Leo O’Brien and Jack Fingleton did things that they could never come near to doing in the rest of their careers, before or since. It was a very easy series —there is no way to deny it.
For Australians it did seem that domestic performance against the state sides was as important—if not more—as an indicator of quality. In the same 1935-36 season while Grimmett was picking up wickets in South Africa and the rest of the Australians were having a grand time under Vic Richardson, Ward made his debut in first-class cricket and picked up 50 wickets at 20.94 apiece.
He led the field by quite a distance, the next best Australian bowler in the season being Ted White with 33.
When Grimmett and Ward both bowled in the domestic season in 1936-37, the results are interesting.
Let us run through their performances before the first Test match.
1. The first match of the season saw Vic Richardson’s XI, featuring Grimmett, play Don Bradman’s XI, which included Ward. Grimmett did not do badly with 4 for 146 and 3 for 82. Only Ward returned with figures 7 for 127 and 5 for 100. Bradman’s side won by 6 wickets.
2. The next match Grimmett played was against Western Australian Combined XI against the visiting MCC. His returns were 1 for 137 and 1 for 13 as Wally Hammond and the rest got stuck into him.
3. The following outing is most revealing. Grimmett and Ward both represented South Australia against MCC. They played under Vic Richardson, and so we cannot claim that the eventual figures were due to Bradman’s vindictive handling of the spinners. Bradman did not play the match. MCC scored 233, Grimmett 2 for 62 and Ward 5 for 79. In the second innings, Grimmett bowled just 9 overs for 26 without taking a wicket. Ward captured 5 for 98 from 22. Hammond hit two hundreds in the match. Ward dismissed him in the first innings.
4. After this, both of them played for South Australia against Victoria. Grimmett 1 for 112 and 1 for 85. Ward 6 for 107 and none for 111. This time Bradman led the two, and bowled Grimmett a bit more than Ward.
Matches leading up to First Test 1936-37
Hence, in the matches leading up to the first Test against England Bradman was confronted with the following figures.
A 45 year old Grimmett —11 wickets at 51 apiece
A 30 year old Ward — 28 wickets at 22.21 apiece.
So, should Bradman have gone for potential of a bowler in his early days? Or the past record of a 45-year-old?
Of course there is the cliché of class being permanent and all that. Numbers are quite uncomfortable and therefore is best to ignore … a regular ‘logical’ construct of cricket fans
Hence, let us look closely at the bit about ‘permanent class’.
· Grimmett did capture 216 wickets in 37 Tests at 24.21.
· However, against England that became 106 wickets at 32.44. (These days the approximate equivalent would be minnow-basher)
· The last time England played in Australia, 1932-33 the Bodyline series, his 5 wickets came at 65.20 apiece.
· He did pick 25 at 27 apiece in the 1934 tour of England, but his last Ashes series at home was far from great
Bradman put a lot of faith on numbers. A top class cricketing mind can do little else.
Hence, in front of him stood a middle-aged man, still wheeling on, but with less than great figures in Australia in the last few years.
And on the other hand there was a young (comparative) leg-spinner who seemed immensely promising. What is more, he had outshone Grimmett in the three matches they played alongside each other. Most importantly, against the tourists Grimmett had 4 wickets at 238 in two matches, at 59.50 apiece. In the only game Ward played against them, he had a ten-for.
One has to also keep in mind that Bill O’Reilly was already in the team and Grimmett/Ward would be the second leg-spinner.
I don’t think Bradman made the wrong decision.
In the second innings of his debut Test, Ward picked up 6 for 102. (2 for 138 in the first innings)
He was not that successful in the other two Tests that he played.
Yet, Ward finished with 53 wickets that season at 28.41. Grimmett had 48 at 30.06.
If we consider only non-Test first-class matches, Ward 42 wickets at 25.57, Grimmett 48 at 30.06.
It does seem Ward was quite the better bowler in 1936-37.
Of course, Grimmett not being chosen for the England tour 1938 still rankles some.
Let us check the figures for 1937-38 season.
A 46-year-old Grimmett 41 wickets at 20.60.
A 31-year-old Ward 51 wickets at 21.56.
In the 1938 season Ward played just one Test and went wicket-less. But, Bradman, great as he was, did not have access to a crystal ball. He could not have known how successful or otherwise Ward would have been in the plumb heart-breaking wickets of the 1938 summer. Neither do we know how successful Grimmett, at 46, would have been if he had been taken along.
There could have been vindictiveness indeed. But that is speculation and gossip. There were enough cricketing reasons for Bradman’s choice.
O’Reilly refused to criticise The Don with his famous quote ‘You don’t piss on statues’. However, Ian Chappell seems to have no such inhibitions. In fact, he seems to have taken it to another level , to mark this as his territory.
But, as far as I see, the vindictiveness here is purely towards the memory of Bradman. And without facts to substantiate it.
This needs to be laid to rest once and for all.