Aussie cricket great Ian Redpath honoured by family, friends and former cricketers at funeral service
Test great Ian Redpath was honoured at a funeral service, where it was revealed he passed up the chance to play for his beloved Geelong Cats. See the heartfelt tributes to the man known as ‘Redders’.
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Ian Redpath played 66 Tests for his country and is a member of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, but he could have been a handy footballer for his beloved Cats.
The life of Redpath, who died at the age of 83 last month from illness, was celebrated by friends, family and a host of former cricketers at a funeral service at Barrabool Baptist Church and an additional celebration at GMHBA Stadium on Monday afternoon.
Down at Kardinia Park, Redpath’s dear friend Peter Hirst recalled how close Redpath was to turning out for his hometown club in the VFL— even getting a call from Geelong’s coach at the time, Bob Davis.
“Ian was about to play Test cricket, and he was asked to play in some practice games at Geelong,” Hirst said.
“He played a few practice games and he must have impressed them because Bob Davis rang him up and said, ‘You’re in the team, I want you to play for Geelong this weekend.’
“He ummed and ahed and said no because he had a bad knee, which he had until he died.
“It worried him all of his life, but he didn’t get it operated on because of me.”
The reason? Hirst’s knee operation gone wrong had left him on crutches for three years and nearly forced him to have his leg amputated.
“Otherwise I would have loved to see him playing for Geelong, it would have been the joy of my life,” Hirst said.
Redpath made up for that by analysing every Geelong game within an inch of its life with Hirst and whoever would listen.
The Geelong Cricket Club product would go on to plunder 4737 Test runs at an average of 43.5 with eight centuries and then coach Victoria, with Victorian Test players Damien Fleming and Merv Hughes among those in attendance on Monday.
Redpath also won four football best and fairests with Geelong Amateur in the VAFA.
The stories of Redpath dominating on the cricket field were endless, but he remained humble and much-loved by all - with just the right amount of cheekiness.
His ‘fast bowling’ and physique were two things he jokingly boasted about.
Redpath, who played 226 first class games, took the wicket of Clive Lloyd during a World Series match down in Geelong and celebrated so hard that he leapt in the air and snapped his Achilles tendon.
Test player and former Australian selector John Inverarity, who flew over from Western Australia to attend, recalled him tonking Aussie Test bowler Terry Alderman over his head for a big six at the WACA for Victoria.
Redpath turned to Inverarity in the slips and tensed his arms, tipped his cap and gave him a big wink.
He would jokingly check in with Inverarity about Alderman because of the supposed mental trauma the paceman had suffered from that maximum.
Even in the final days of his life, Redpath never lost his sense of humour.
“Speaking with him on the phone a day or just a day or two before he slipped away, he summoned his diminishing reserves of energy to say, ‘Invers, the magnificent body that was so admired and envied by so many, is not what was’,” Inverarity said.
“He was composed, dignified, and had his sense of humour right to the finishing line.”
Hirst had a similar experience while visiting him in at the hospital, where he was encouraged to wake Redpath up by firing a few barbs at him.
“I went over and said ‘Hey Redders, you’re a shocking golfer you know’,” Hirst said.
“Couldn’t hit it over a jam till, your cricket was overrated and you weren’t much of a footballer, I was much better than you.
“He looked up and me said, ‘You’re a squib, you aren’t good at anything, I was much better than you’, with a big smile on his face.”
Hirst’s phone lit up as he was driving home with a call from Redpath’s daughter, Annabel.
“He got on the phone and said, ‘Hursty, was I rude to you today?’ I want to apologise if I was rude to you, I didn’t mean it,” Hirst said.
“That just tells you a bit about the bloke. He’s dying, he’s still got his sense of humour and he is thinking of other people.”
Inverarity held back tears at the end of his touching tribute.
“He was a truly beautiful man who greatly enriched the lives of so many and especially all of you guys,” Inverarity said.
“We are all so grateful that he passed our way, and he was one who treasured so much, his gift of life.”
Off the field, Redpath was an antique shop owner who adored his wife Christine, his children Felicity, Jillyanne, Annabel and Andrew.
Redpath’s grandchildren all spoke briefly at the funeral service, bringing up an item of significance to him.
It included a golf club, a water painting – one of his passions – and a kitchen pan that he would regularly burn rice and porridge in.
Living in Geelong throughout his life, his legacy will live on at Kardinia Park through the Ian Redpath Scoreboard at Geelong Cricket Club, which was named in his honour in early October.
BOYS ON TOUR
Keith Stackpole was a roommate, teammate, opponent and close friend of Redpath over the journey.
Stackpole, who played 43 Tests for Australia, had the crowd in stitches when he claimed the only person to sleep with Redpath more was his wife, Christine.
Two highlights from their time together came while on tour overseas, where he showed he was just as competitive away from the crease.
The industrious Redpath was eager to make some extra coin on the side during one tour of the West Indies, noticing the amount of bottles of rum that were around.
“When we get there, he realised ‘I think there is a demand for squat bottles in Australia’,” Stackpole said.
“So we had a constant array of people coming into our room with squat bottles and he used to trade them.
“For a top-line bottle, you might get a day one Test ticket. For a crappy one, you get a day four Test cricket.
“All the West Indian fellas he wanted to make a buck out of and I tell you what, he was a tough man. That smile doesn’t fool me, I tell you.”
But he came unstuck on a tour of India.
Players were locked in their hotel rooms in the then-Communist state and a rug caught the keen eye of Redpath.
“We spent 10 days in the hotel, and there were a few shops in there. And there was one there that he absolutely loved, this rug,” Stackpole recalled.
“Every day he went into this poor little Indian man and got him to pull this rug down off the top and he’d bargain with him.
“It got to the last day and he brought him down to rock bottom price, he said, ‘I knew I’d do it’.
“But the little Indian fella had the last laugh, as ‘Red’ never received that at home.”
Stackpole was the only Test cricketer to speak at the funeral proper, a sign of how much the two meant to each other.
“I do have a tear in my eye at times,” Stackpole said.
“We’re all very fortunate that we have known this fellow, who is just a magnificent man.”
Originally published as Aussie cricket great Ian Redpath honoured by family, friends and former cricketers at funeral service
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