Why Australian cricket exile Ian Meckiff has no regrets

Ian Meckiff’s career was effectively ended by a series of no-ball calls for an illegal action. He had beers with the umpire after play and still bears no grudge, writes ROBERT CRADDOCK.

This month is the 60th anniversary of the day Ian Meckiff was thrown out of cricket and never played again.

But it says something about the inoffensive nature of this gentleman of the game that the milestone will pass without any sense of bitterness or lingering pain.

“That incident did not change me at all,’’ Meckiff said. “I still feel exactly the same. I joke about it, which helps.

“It’s 60 years ago. A long while. If you cannot get that out of your system in that amount of time, you are in big trouble, I would say.’’

“That incident’’ was the December afternoon in 1963 when umpire Col Egar no-balled Victorian Meckiff out of cricket for allegedly having an illegal action during a Test at the Gabba against South Africa.

It was rumoured at the time and later confirmed that Sir Donald Bradman played a major role in the push to have Meckiff no-balled after feeling his action was occasionally illegal.

Ian Meckiff’s career was effectively ended by a series of no-ball calls.

The Meckiff no-balling was shrouded with mystery because Egar had never questioned Meckiff’s action in 111 overs he had stood in judgment of him in five first-class games, yet he called him four times in one over for illegally straightening his left arm.

Bizarrely, he and Meckiff had won a bowls trophy together a few weeks before the Test and Egar brought it to Brisbane and gave it to Meckiff over a beer the night before the game.

Sensing that even at club level he may meet an umpire trying to make a hero of himself by calling him, Meckiff never played at any level again though remained a popular figure on the national scene doing occasional pieces of commentary for Channel 7.

Meckiff will be a guest of Victorian Cricket at the Test against Pakistan but, strangely, sadly, and for no particular reason, he has not been invited back to an Australian dressing room since the fateful day.

That is unfortunate because players of any era could learn from the good grace of a man who was dealt one of cricket’s hands and handled it by being thankful for what the game had given him, not what was taken away by the abrupt ending of his 18-Test career.

You think you have problems with a tight hamstring, try walking on to the Gabba as a well-credentialed Test bowler, being no-balled out of the attack and never playing again.

Umpire Colin Egar and cricketer Ian Meckiff.

Meckiff could have been excused for reworking a line from a Four Seasons hit to “December, 1963, was not a very special time for me’’ but, remarkably, his friendship with Egar continued after the incident.

“I never had a problem with him,’’ said Meckiff, who had to change schools for his then six-year-old son after he was targeted with “chucker’’ taunts.

“I had some beers with him later at that Test and used to catch up with him when I visited Adelaide for the Test over there.

“My family had to cop more than I did, that was a challenging part of it.”

Meckiff was part of two of the most famous incidents in Australian cricket history – the other being the tied Test at the Gabba in 1960 when he was the last man run out by West Indian Joe Solomon in a direct side-on hit that produced the most famous cricket photo of the century.

“I got a cutting just the other day about the death of Joe Solomon,’’ Meckiff said.

“At the end it said there were four from the West Indies still alive out of that match and three in Australia – myself, Neil Harvey and Bobby Simpson.’’

Originally published as Why Australian cricket exile Ian Meckiff has no regrets