David Hookes death: Former teammates, players remember Australian cricket legend 20 years on
David Hookes was a cricketing innovator who helped shape the game we see today. Ahead of the 20-year anniversary of his death, his compatriots remember the legend.
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On the very first training day of Australia’s 2004 tour of Sri Lanka Darren Lehmann knew in his heart he didn’t want to go to the nets … he just wanted to go home.
Still grieving after the shock death his boyhood hero turned teammate and mentor David Hookes seven weeks before, Lehmann was carrying a badly broken heart showing no sign of mending.
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“I wasn’t in a great spot,’’ Lehmann recalled as he reflected on the looming 20-year anniversary of Hookes death on January 19, 2004.
“I could easily have left and gone home (to Australia) after the first day of training. My teammates were great. Warnie, Ponting and Roy Symonds were fantastic. They pushed me forward day after day, otherwise I would have just gone home. But thanks to them I stayed.
“I don’t think I will ever get over it. You just don’t get over the tragedies in your life. Of course you fondly remember the good times as well. Time helps.’’
Lehmann ended up staying to give Australian cricket one of its truly heart-melting moments when he made a Test century in Galle, looking up at the wide blue heavens for five or more seconds with bat and glove raised, tears welling when he raised his ton.
Everyone knew Hookes sole Test century had been made in Sri Lanka, a five-hour drive away at Kandy, and there was barely a dry eye on the house as Lehmann momentarily looked as shattered as he was joyful when matching his mentor.
Hookes had been so much in Lehmann’s thoughts there were times in the innings his thoughts flashed to him as the opposition bowler was running in.
Hookes, just 48, died after being struck by bouncer Zdravko Micevic outside the Beaconsfield Hotel in St Kilda following a one-dayer between the Bushrangers and Hookes’ native South Australia, in which players and officials from both sides were enjoying some drinks.
The punch came after an argument which followed when members of the group was asked to leave the premises. Micevic was charged with manslaughter but found not guilty after five days deliberation after a jury was instructed that for a guilty verdict they had to be convinced beyond reasonable doubt the punch was not related to self-defence.
Free-stroking left-hander Hookes, who became a national idol when he his England’s Tony Greig for five consecutive boundaries in the Centenary Test, was one of the liveliest voices in Australian cricket, who delighted in playing the serial pot-stirrer.
Social media could have been invented for his provocative views. It’s a shame he never got to use it.
Lehmann was at the hotel on the night of the incident, as was Victorian fast bowler Mick Lewis.
“I wasn’t there for the actual hit, because I went and got my car and then when I came down the side of the street he was lying on the ground,’’ Lewis said.
“I just remember he was motionless. (Paceman) Robbie Cassell was cradling his head. No one was sure what to do.
“We were all in the Alfred Hospital. We were all sitting in a room, and when the doctor came in to tell us he’d passed, everyone was just in disbelief. It was a shock to everyone. No one could believe it.”
Lehmann said: “That night was the wrong place at the wrong time for a lot of people. I was recently in Melbourne for a T20 tournament and I stayed around the corner from the hospital.
“Amazingly, I sat in the same park where I sat for six hours by myself 20 years ago after the incident. I don’t smoke any more but back then I smoked a packet of cigarettes in five hours that night. I just remember it being a terrible time.
“Every time I drive down Punt Road where he used to live I look at his place … you have those memories.’’
THE ENTERTAINER
Former Victorian batting star David Hussey says Hookes was ahead of his time.
“He was the 2000s version of Bazball. He created the high tempo, high scoring at a quick rate type of batting,” says Hussey, now Victoria’s head of men’s cricket.
Hookes famously scored a century off 34 balls for South Australia against Victoria but team-mate Rodney Hogg has an off-beat memory of the day.
“I played with him that day but I didn’t see a ball of that innings,’’ Hogg said. “I was being treated for an injury after we bowled and I was in with the physio for about half an hour. That was the span of the innings. Amazing really.’’
THE COACH
By his own admission, Mick Lewis was pissed off — and that’s just what his state coach Hookes wanted.
Lewis had been dropped for Victoria’s first one-dayer after the Christmas break, away to Tasmania in Devonport.
The paceman, who would eventually play for Australia, sought chairman of selectors Mick O’Sullivan for an explanation as to why he’d been omitted.
When O’Sullivan couldn’t give Lewis a straight answer, the quick got in touch with the Bushrangers coach instead.
“He goes ‘oh look, no reason, I was just angry we lost the game, I wanted to drop someone senior. So that’s why I dropped you,’” Lewis recalls two decades on.
“He goes ‘I’ve done it to piss you off for the next Shield game.’
“It annoyed me at the time.”
In that next Shield game, Lewis removed Steve Waugh en route to figures of 4-68 in what would prove to be a famous victory in Newcastle, with a double-century from David Hussey leading the Vics to chase 455 to win by three wickets.
Lewis, who has himself become a coach in Australia and England since retiring, remembers Hookes for his enormous imprint on Victorian cricket after arriving as coach in 2002.
“He made a pretty big statement. He got rid of (Damien) Fleming, Collin Miller, all of that sort of older crew and installed myself, Maty Inness, Shane Harwood and Allan Wise as the main bowlers,” Lewis said.
“He was all for giving young guys a go. I think his greatest strength as a coach is he just gave you belief that you’re good enough to perform. Which for a lot of guys is half the battle.
“He wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade.
“Some of the fielding sessions we used to do with him were gruelling. You wouldn’t get away with anything like that these days. He used to stand five to 10 metres away from you and hit the ball as hard as he could.
“Everyone would walk off training sessions with hot spots in their hands. We used to do some bouncer evasion in the pre-season. I remember blokes getting hit in the ribs.”
THE INNOVATOR
From urging tailenders to face up using the wrong side of their bat to deliberately running “one short’’ by crossing with his batting partner mid-pitch then returning to their ends, Hookes loved challenging convention.
Lehmann’s favourite Hookes moment was when he stumped Dean Jones from first slip in a Sheffield Shield match off the medium pace of Andrew Zesers.
“I still love that one,’’ Lehmann said. “He told keeper Peter Anderson to get out of the way and took the ball. Ando told him not to miss it because it would have gone against his name as byes.
“Deano being Deano was batting two metres outside his crease, had to let the ball go, Hookesy had to take it and then it had to hit the stumps.
“Amazing. Unbelievable. Only Hookesy …’’
Originally published as David Hookes death: Former teammates, players remember Australian cricket legend 20 years on
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