The great cricketers who graced Victorian District/Premier Cricket
West Indies batsman Carl Hooper dominated so much as an international for Carlton one opponent suspects he only got out so he could watch Formula 1 on TV. And he’s just one name in a long list of imports who have shone in our top club competition.
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Tim Hooper played cricket against Carl Hooper, and he’s pleased to say he did.
In fact, he regards it as among his most memorable days in his long association with Victorian Premier Cricket, despite he and his Dandenong teammates being on the end of a thrashing from the West Indies batsman.
It was 20 years ago.
Carl Hooper was engaged as an international player for Carlton and blitzed 215 against the Panthers at Princes Park.
Tim Hooper recalls that his namesake batted in a vest, despite it being a hot day, wore a white floppy hat and employed no thigh pad.
He also remembers that Hooper launched Dandy medium pacer Matty Lawrence back over his head with such startling force that the ball hit the main stadium on the full. “It was a massive hit,’’ he said.
Tim Hooper suspects Carl Hooper got himself out so he could stroll off and watch the Grand Prix on the TV in the Carlton clubrooms.
“He just did it on the bit,’’ he said.
“I loved watching him bat. When he would come on the TV dad would say, ‘Here comes cousin Carl’. I didn’t beg to Matty Lawrence but I did suggest I should have a bowl at Carl. He resisted so I didn’t get to bowl to him. But it was a great experience. He absolutely took us apart but it’s probably my most memorable day of Premier Cricket, other than our premiership (2006-07). It was a joy to play against him.’’
Hooper had saved his most dominant innings for the final round, spanking nine sixes and 17 fours against helpless and hapless Dandy bowling.
Twelve months earlier, Carlton had the legendary leggie Abdul Qadir as its international and Hooper faced his bowling.
He jokes that his claim to fame in Premier Cricket was sweeping the great slowie for four.
“I’m pleased to say he didn’t get me out, mainly because his wrong ‘un kept fizzing past my bat and I would miss the ball by about a foot,’’ he said. “I’ve never seen the ball fizz so much. Unbelievable.’’
At the age of 43 Qadir won the Ryder Medal with a remarkable 72 wickets at 15.4. He asked competition officials if the medal was made of solid gold!
A year later Carl Hooper kept the Ryder in Carlton’s custody after totting up 1041 runs and taking 24 wickets with his off-spin. He polled 39 votes to win from Warren Ayres (32) and Richmond’s Ian Hewett (31), Ayres also having passed the 1000-run mark.
Ian Wrigglesworth was captain-coach of Carlton when Hooper and Qadir played with the Blues, and he said it was “a hell of an experience’’.
Both were supremely talented players but in both seasons the team missed the finals.
Hooper flew in from Adelaide on Saturday mornings.
“We had 10 blokes warming up an hour and a bit before the start of the game, and Carl turned up when Carl turned up,’’ Wrigglesworth said. “He was back on the plane on Saturday night so we never got to know him, whereas we did get to know Abdul a bit more because he trained with us.’’
With few gaps in international fixtures thick with T20s, the appearance of imports has been less common in Premier Cricket in recent years.
Still, last season former Sri Lankan offie Suraj Randiv played at Dandenong, ex-Sri Lankan opener Kaushal Silva coached Greenvale Kangaroos and Sussex batsman Luke Wells captained Casey South Melbourne.
Randiv and Silva could be added to the list of Test-level imports to turn out in the competition.
It’s a long roll-call and includes some of the game’s most illustrious names: Sir Garfield Sobers, Ian Chappell, John Snow, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd and Ian Botham, all of whom played in the 1970s, Aravinda De Silva and Gus Logie.
As Victorian cricket operations manager and former St Kilda all-rounder Shaun Graf pointed out, it was a different time in cricket, when players like Chappell and Kanhai were recruited and created great interest in the District scene.
Clubs could gain a top-liner relatively inexpensively, paying for airfares and accommodation, putting up a few bucks for spending money and arranging a little work on the side if necessary.
“Nowadays you couldn’t afford to get that calibre of player out here, but back in those days it could be and was done,’’ Graf said.
As a young cricketer on his way to Australian ODI selection, he played against some of the 1970s imports and regarded it an invaluable experience.
“It certainly added a bit to the games, coming up against a big name,’’ Graf said.
“The competition was very strong – you were one step away from playing for Victoria and only two steps away from playing for Australia – and highly competitive. It was an interesting time because you had so many competitive players. There was an article about ‘Murchy’ (Nigel Murch) not long ago … you can imagine him bowling to someone like Kanhai. There was a little bit happening!’’
West Indian fast bowler Hartley Alleyne played for the Saints alongside Graf in 1981-82 and 1982-83.
He never reached Test level “but he was lightning, possibly the quickest bowler I’ve seen,’’ Graf said.
Legendary District/Premier Cricket figure and former Victorian all-rounder Brendan McArdle has vivid memories of briefly facing Snow, who played at Carlton, and watching Kanhai craft a century for North Melbourne against Northcote.
“He was struggling early on and it seemed as though he wasn’t picking the ball up,’’ McArdle said of Kanhai.
“He got off the mark with a six from a hook shot off me, and he’d been there for a long time before he scored. After that he didn’t look like going out for the rest of the day.’’
He also played against Sobers, Botham, Qadir, Aravinda, Sadiq Mohammad, John Emburey, Jonathan Agnew and Mark Butcher.
But he never lined up against Chappell, who was engaged by North Melbourne as a fly-in player from Adelaide.
Northcote and North Melbourne were to meet on Melbourne Cup Day at Arden St in 1976, but it hosed down (wet tracker Van der Hum won the Cup) and the players adjourned to a nearby hotel that was sponsoring the Roos.
“It worked out well because we could sit in the pub all day and listen to him talk,’’ McArdle said. “That was better than going out and making a fool of yourself on the pitch. I couldn’t have been happier! It was a fantastic day, so much fun to hear his memories and stories.’’
McArdle made the point that a lot of the internationals weren’t at their peak when they played District cricket; some had already performed their best deeds on the Test stage and others were still working towards them, using a stint in Melbourne for experience.
In cricketing terms, Sobers and Kanhai were old men. Botham, who came out on a Whitbread scholarship, had yet to play a Test match (he had only four matches for Melbourne University, for modest results).
Fast bowler Snow and Aravinda were exceptions.
“Snow was just fantastic for District cricket because he’d just bowled Australia out in an Ashes series,’’ McArdle said. “Sobers and Kanhai were legends. We were just happy to look at them and watch them and talk to them. That was enough.’’
He said the imports “brought a great aura to the competition, especially the older blokes’’.
Aravinda played at Prahran in 1988-89 and was runner-up in the Ryder.
“His attacking and attractive style had cricket lovers totally in awe of him,’’ ex-True Blues president Ian Crawford wrote years later.
Former Victorian cricket administrator Peter Binns said District/Premier cricket had been much the stronger for imported players.
He said most performed well and some performed exceptionally, including Paul Collingwood, who shared the Ryder Medal with Darren Dempsey in 2000-01.
“I thought Paul was a fantastic ambassador for English cricket,’’ Binns said.
“He came out here as a Crusaders scholarship player and apart from playing for Richmond every week he’d play for the Crusaders against the schools.
“Guys like him have added so much to the complex tapestry of Premier Cricket. They’ve got so much to offer, and they enhance the competition.’’
DISTRICT/PREMIER TEST CRICKET IMPORTS
Sir Garfield Sobers: cricket’s greatest all-rounder was well past the age 40 when he turned out for North Melbourne in 1979-80. Hit 103 runs at 25.75 and took one wicket.
Ian Chappell: the former Australian captain played with the cricketing Kangaroos in 1976-77, flying in from Adelaide. His 12 innings brought him 404 runs at 36.72 and 11 wickets.
Rohan Kanhai: the champion West Indian spent three seasons (from 1975-76 to 1977-78) with North Melbourne, which Cricketer annual described as the “six-million dollar club of the district competition’’. His best cricket was behind him, but in 29 matches he put up 1135 runs at 47.29, with a highest score of 126 not out. He hit two centuries for the Roos as well as nine half-centuries.
John Snow: the English quickie played at Carlton in 1971-72 and 1972-73, harvesting 72 wickets at 14.41 in 26 matches. Had best figures of 6-56.
Sadiq Mohammad: the star Pakistan opener joined Ian Chappell at Arden St in 1975-76, hitting 326 runs at 40.75, with a highest score of 90.
Clive Lloyd: the West Indian great played seven matches for South Melbourne in 1972-73, but never got going: his best performance came with the ball, a haul of 6-17. Lloyd averaged 16.83 in his seven hands as a Swan. After starting out with 5no, 3, 1, 26, 6 and 17, he told the Melbourne Herald: “I don’t have to prove anything but it’s impossible not to think about it (his slump). I don’t want to let the team down. It’s one of those situations where you try too hard because everyone is expecting so much, and then you do stupid things and get out.’’
Ian Botham: had yet to play for England when he made four appearances for Melbourne University in 1976-77. He made 44 runs at 11 and took six wickets at 51.16 in the season he famously took a disliking to Ian Chappell at a pub near the MCG. Fellow Englishman Graham Stevenson also played for Uni that year and Shaun Graf for one thought him a better player than Botham. Stevenson played Test cricket. But Botham played it at an all-round level few have matched.
Abdul Qadir: lit up Carlton and the competition like a Catherine wheel in 1998-99, capturing 72 wickets at 15.87, with a best return of 8-67. Little wonder he won the Ryder Medal.
Carl Hooper: flew in from Adelaide to play with Carlton in 1999-2000 and dominated with 1041 runs at 61.23 and 24 wickets at 28.
Derek Randall: the Englishman was an established Test batsman when he joined Prahran in 1980-81. He had a handy season, putting up 422 runs at 32.46, highlighted by an innings of 139 not out.
John Emburey: the English offie played at Prahran in 1977-78 and at St Kilda from 1979-80 to 1984-85, figuring in a Saints premiership. His arm ball a threat to batsmen, he took 87 wickets at 21.06 in 38 matches. Emburey also punched out 748 runs at 28.76, including a century.
Gus Logie: the little West Indian was with South Melbourne in 1994-95 and had a good time of it. There were 686 runs at 57.16, including a double century (213).
Barry Knight: the English Test all-rounder was among the first overseas players to hit the District scene. Spent a successful summer with Carlton in 1968-69, cracking 607 runs at 40.46 and snaffling 36 wickets at 13.66. Knight settled in Australia and became one of the country’s most respected coaches, guiding Allan Border and Steve and Mark Waugh.
Paul Collingwood: came to Melbourne on a scholarship and with Darren Dempsey shared the Ryder Medal in 2000-01 after a strong season for Richmond: 600 runs and 33 wickets. Returned for a handful of appearances in 2002-03 before being called into the English squad.
Mark Ramprakash: the Englishman finished his career with more than 100 first-class centuries, but he battled for runs at North Melbourne in 1989-90, coming in with 231 at 16.50.
Asanka Gurusinha: the Sri Lankan left-hander played 36 matches for North Melbourne and 33 for Prahran, making a total of 2040 runs at 26.49 and chipping in with 69 wickets.
Roshan Mahanama: the Sri Lankan right-hander played for Fitzroy-Doncaster in 1985-86 and was a useful performer with 311 runs at 22.21.
John Shepherd: the five-Test West Indian was a class act for Footscray in 1976-77 and 1977-78, grabbing 80 wickets at 11.78 and contributing 907 runs at 37.79.Won the Ryder Medal in his first season with the Dogs.
Mark Butcher: before advancing to Test cricket the left-hander spent the 1993-94 season with South Melbourne, returning 368 runs at 31.66 with a highest score of 50.
Rob Bailey: the Englishman hit 747 runs at 49.80 for Fitzroy in 1985-86. Later played four Test matches.
OTHERS
Jonathan Agnew: Essendon, 1978-79, 1980-81.
Richard Blakey: Waverley, 1985-86.
Joey Benjamin: Prahran, 992-93/1993-94
John Stephenson: Fitzroy-Doncaster, 1983-84, 1987-88.
Sanath Kaluperuma: Prahran, 1986-87.
Chandika Hathurusinghe: Prahran, 2000-01.
Ryan Sidebottom: Ringwood, 1997-98
Chris Schofield: Ringwood, 1998-99.
Graham Barlow: St Kilda, 1978-79, 1980-81.
Graham Stevenson: Melbourne University, 1976-77
Suraj Randiv: Dandenong, 2019-20
Alex Hales: Dandenong 2010-11, Fitzroy-Doncaster 2016-17
Kaushal Silva: Dandenong 2014-15, Greenvale Kangaroos 2019-20
Brendan Taylor: North Melbourne, 2008-09