Australian cricket legend Doug Walters gets an Order of Australia in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Parramatta cricket is synonymous with Richie Benaud but a loyal Test legend who refused to leave the area so he could remain at the club of his youth has been made an Australia Medal recipient.

When Australian cricketer Doug Walters moved from Dungog to Sydney as a fresh-faced 17-year-old in 1963 he joined the Central Cumberland District Cricket Club and has remained one of its most loyal members.

Walters’ elite talents as an Australian batsman and part-time bowler took him overseas and saw him made a member of the Order of Australia for the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

He was an Australian Test team member from 1965 to 1981 when he played 74 Tests and played 28 One Day internationals, achievements which saw him being inducted into the Cricket Hall of Fame member in 2011.

His passion translated to penning books including Doug Walters Looking for Runs in 1971 and top seller One for the Road in 1988.

For all his international success, all roads led back to North Rocks, so he would be a stone’s throw from the club he joined on the cusp of becoming an Australian cricketer.

Doug Walters competes against South Africa at Norwood Oval, South Australia, on October 14, 1968.

The club became known as Parramatta and District Cricket Club when he retired in 1982.

Rules dictated that players had to live within a “150 yards’’ of the club and Walters refused to budge so he could continue being part of the heart and soul of the organisation, where he has coached players and is a life member.

“I had some good times playing for Parramatta and enjoyed it all,’’ he said.

The 76-year-old grew up in Dungog and debuted his Test career with 150 against England in December 1965. His brother and sister supported Australia so he grew up backing England and the West Indies to inject some rivalry into the household.

He sometimes competed against players he idolised such as Sir Garfield Sobers and Wes Hall.

“As a kid I was more a bowler than a batsman,’’ he said.

“All my success as a youngster was with a ball. In my second Sheffield Shield game I got none from 128 so I thought I better convert with my batting capers.’’

He welcomed his Queen’s birthday honour as “terrific’’ but he is no stranger to such accolades — he was awarded a member of the British Empire in Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 1975, for services to cricket.

He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1994.

He named friendships as the highlight of his cricket career, many which he forged back when he would endlessly puff on cigarettes and players had to have a second income.

“We were paid but we all had to have jobs,’’ the father of four recalled.

“We couldn’t afford to live on how much we were paid as a cricketer. When I first started we were on about two pounds a day when I started playing Sheffield Shield.’’

Doug Walters still calls North Rocks home.

A chain smoker, Walters supplemented his income as a salesman with Rothmans cigarette company. He probably puffed on 50 ciggies if he “slept in and went to bed early”.

He kicked the habit 13 years ago but his love of cricket remains strong.

He is also confident of his beloved Parramatta and District Cricket Club’s future and is a regular talent scout there.

“We’ve got heaps of talent in the area,’’ he said.

“Trying to keep them in the area might be a problem. When I started you had to live in the area.’’

MORE NEWS

Studebakers nightclub returns to Parramatta for ‘80s, ‘90s special from July 2

Eels matches, Riverside Theatre plays, free family fun at Parramatta in June