Queensland Cricket’s greatest left handed XI – part 2
Allan Border would be captain of Queensland Cricket’s greatest left handed XI – part 2. Team revealed here.
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Allan Border would captain our greatest Queensland Cricket left handed XI – a side full of Test and Sheffield Shield winning champions.
Border would bat at No.4 behind Test opening great Matt Hayden, six-time Shield champion Jim Maher and run machine Kepler Wessels.
Usman Khawaja, who has a fabulous record for the Bulls, is the only current Queensland left hander to make the team, while Ken Mackay would play as a specialist left handed batsman – he was a right arm medium pacer.
We considered players post World War II, simply because first hand accounts of pre-World War II left handers could not be verified.
Mackay was a prolific opening batsman for Queensland (6341 runs at 45.29) but batted No. 6 for Australia.
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The stoic Chris Hartley was the only choice as gloveman and his tremendous batting record – 6038 runs at 34.70 – was without peer.
The four pace bowlers – Johnson, Dymock, Tazelaar and Dell – picked themselves, while multiple Shield winning slow bowler Paul Jackson was alway going to make the 12.
Toombul’s Matt Renshaw was closely considered for a batting berth and would be next batsman into the squad, and if we repeat this story in 10 years maybe both he and Bryce Street will be in the 12.
The unlucky omission was Trevor Hohns whom we named 13th man.
Long before Hohns bowled right wrist spin for Australia and batted No. 9, he was a gutsy No. 6 or No. 7 bat.
Hohns, on countless occasions, would join all-rounder Phil Carlson and wicketkeeper John Maclean in digging Queensland out of trouble in matches where the great Greg Chappell was unavailable due to Test duties.
In 105 matches he scored 3963 runs at 28.30, but he was a better batsman than that whose batting average slid away late in his career – ironically at a time when his bowling was reaching its peak.
Although he bowled right arm, Hohns was a left handed batsman.
Honourable mentions must also go to some fine left arm performers for Queensland, including Geoff Foley, Harry Frei, Lee Carseldine, Mark Tooley, Len Balcam, Ken Healy, Steve Storey, Matt Anderson, Mick Miller, Troy Dixon, Scott Brant, Paul Twible, Geoff Gray, Paul Carew, Nick Kruger and Brendan Nash.
Carseldine, of Australian Survivor fame, would surely have played short form cricket for Australia had he not been curtailed by injury, while Anderson and Troy Dixon were Sheffield Shield winners.
Foley was a versatile, courageous batsman and handy bowler who poured everything into his 57 Shield caps.
THE TEAMS
MATT HAYDEN
Queensland’s batting battleship whose stampede toward a glittering Test career included Sheffield Shield batting performance not seen since the legendary Sir Donald Bradman padded up. He gave the dressing room confidence by the way he took on the opposition’s fast bowling enforcers.
JIM MAHER
A former housemate of Hayden’s, the Babinda boy would run over hot coals for his Queensland team mates. He was the scorer of just under 10,000 runs and was a six time Sheffield Shield winner, but Maher’s value to the side in the dressing room cannot be measured. On the grimmest of days, Maher could make a team mate smile at the drop of a hat.
KEPLER WESSELS
Courageous to the core, Wessels was a run machine who churned out almost 5000 Shield runs (average 54.30) from just 53 appearances. His batting record is put into perspective when you consider only Greg Chappell, Peter Burge, Bill Brown, Matt Hayden and Allan Border have Shield batting records superior to him. Wessels was also a winner who brought additional grit and grunt to Queensland’s pursuit - albeit unsuccessful pursuit - of Shield glory.
ALLAN BORDER
It is no coincidence the longest running drought in Australian sporting history - Queensland’s pursuit of an elusive Sheffield Shield - ended when Border dedicated himself full-time to the cause. After a 153-match Test career, Border opted to play on for two seasons with Queensland and his influence on a young crop of batsman - Hayden, Maher, Love, Symonds - cannot be measured.
USMAN KHAWAJA
A batting maestro who must surely be on the verge of a Test recall. Usman Khawaja is a class above, the most stylish batsman in the country who leads his adopted state with aplomb. Queensland cricket has had some wonderful timers of the ball - including Greg Chappell, Stuart Law and Martin Love - but Khawaja is at the top of the tree in the modern game.
KEN MACKAY
An absolute legend who was the cornerstone with bat and ball of Queensland teams throughout the 1950s and 1960s. He was so highly rated by Test captain Richie Benaud, that Benaud once said he would never enter a Test series without Mackay in his side. He was a right arm medium pace bowler, but a left handed opening batting matchwinner for Queensland. His 6341 runs in 100 matches came at an average of 45.29.
CHRIS HARTLEY
As enunciated in yesterday’s Part 1 of our series, there is no Queensland sportsman more unlucky to miss Australian selection than Chris Hartley. As stated, it is bewildering Matthew Wade was selected over him as the national gloveman for a prolonged period of time. Australia’s loss was Queensland’s gain, with Hartley glovework and run scoring deeds (6038 runs at 34.70) making him one of Sheffield Shield cricket’s finest all-rounders.
MITCH JOHNSON
Although Johnson spent a majority of his career based in Perth and moving interstate to be with his soon-to-be-wife, he will always be a Queensland boy. A stunning schoolboy tennis player in Townsville and good rugby league player, Johnson was such a rare fast bowling talent that the legendary Dennis Lillee once famously told this author he would be a “once in a generation player’’. The 18 months he spent terrorising English and South African batsman more than justified Lillee’s high praise of Johnson when he observed him as a Queensland net bowler.
GEOFF DYMOCK
Maryborough-born Dymock, a fabulous left arm swing bowler, is an old favourite of Queensland cricket tragics.
A veteran of 75 matches for Queensland, Dymock took 266 wickets at 26.43 in an era when Australia’s Test batsman played at least three quarters of the season. Although he briefly broke into the Australia side in 1975 and toured with the Ashes party in 1977, Dymock’s success at Test level (78 wickets at 27) came late when he was the country’s No.1 performing bowler away in India and at home against England and the West Indies. In his final season with Queensland he helped the Bulls to a rare domestic one-day title.
DIRK TAZELAAR
Iron-willed Dirk Tazelaar was a seam and swing bowler gladiator who bravely pushed through injury, unwilling to let his captain or team down. He was not one to run through a batting line-up, but by building pressure and with subtle late swing, he must have been a joy to bowl in partnership with. A fine rugby league player who played State League for Ipswich against Brisbane’s best, Tazelaar bowled himself into 1989 Ashes selection contention. He will go down in folklore for his role in helping Queensland win its first Sheffield Shield in 1994-95.
TONY DELL
The towering Dell was an elite bowler of his era who had the distinction of opening the bowling for Australia alongside Dennis Lillee. And what a First Test it was, dismissing the esteemed John Edrich and Basil d’Oliveira in the first innings, and taking another three wickets in the second innings.
A Churchie old boy - the same school as greats Peter Burge and Ron Archer, as well as the likes of Ken Archer, Bob Paulsen and Dennis Lille - Dell took 108 wickets at 28 for his beloved Queensland. But his greatest battle was off the field where the Vietnam Veteran was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. At one stage on the bare bones of his bottom, Dell rose to develop the Stand Tall 4 PTS organisation to raise awareness and raise funds for fellow sufferers.
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PAUL JACKSON
Left arm orthodox spinner Jackson won three Sheffield Shield titles (Victoria 1990-91, Queensland 1994-95, 1996-97).
Everyone remembers Carl Rackemann took the catch to hand Queensland’s its first Shield title, but did you know Jackson bowled the ball. Jackson was cherished by his team mates because he was an effort on effort player.
A diminutive figure, when he walked to the batting crease he wore pads that seemed too big for him, flapping as he strode out. But he would bravely slip in behind the line of the ball and was fiercely proud of putting value on his wicket batting at No.9 - regardless of the situation. In the field he was no speed demon, but team mates preferred that over a flash dan because they knew Jackson was doing his best. His bowling statistics were modest - but Kasprowicz, Bichel, Tazelaar, Rackemann and Dale loved bowling in tandem with him because of the pressure he exerted on the batsman. He may be last named in this side, but he was never, ever not going to make the side.
13th man Trevor Hohns. (see above)
Sole selector and coach: Ernie Toovey
The late Ernie Toovey would have loved to have read this article on left handers because he was one of Queensland’s original lefties.
A team mate of Ken Mackay in the 1950s, just making it onto the field to play one match for Queensland was a milestone after what he endured during World War II. Serving on the HMAS Perth, Toovey was one of the few survivors from its sinking in 1942. Captured by the Japanese, he was sent to prisoner of war camps and at one stage worked on the infamous Thai-Burma Railway. When an ulcer on his leg became infected, he resisted advice to have it amputated because of a desire to play Shield cricket. Toovey scored 1346 runs in 37 matches, but his greatest contribution came off the field where he served 25 as a state selector - many seasons as chairman.
One of Toovey’s great joys was seeing the emergence of Matthew Hayden. He rejoiced that Hayden was a left hander, an opener and a catholic - the perfect Queensland cricketer in his eyes.
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