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Jim Burke (cricketer)
Encyclopedia
James Wallace Burke was an Australia
n cricket
er who played in 24 Tests
from 1951 to 1959.
north shore suburb of Mosman
, where his parents had immigrated to from Bromley
in Kent
. His great-uncle Percy Burke had played for Kent
as a wicket-keeper. His mother was a talented golfer. Burke was a talented golfer and cricketer in his childhood, but was refused membership of Balgowlah Golf Club at the age of 12 on the grounds that he was too young. He began his cricket training aged seven at Manly Oval. Burke attended Sydney Grammar School
and aged 14 played in the First XI. At 15 he rose from Manly's Third XI to First XI in Sydney Grade Cricket
. At 16 his batting average for Sydney Grammar was 94, a record for a school which has produced many first-class cricketers.
in the 1948–49 Sheffield Shield season, even though there was no international touring team during the season and his state was thus at full strength with many Test players. In his first match, Burke scored 76 not out
and bowled two wicketless maidens against Western Australia
as his state took an innings victory. He then scored half-centuries in his only innings in the next two games, before his form petered out towards the end of the season, failing to pass 40 again and totalling only 46 runs in his last five innings. This included an opportunity in the Test trial match between the strongest players in Australia at the end of the season, as part of Hassett's XI
. He scored only 11 and 19, and was not selected for the 1949–50 tour of South Africa
. Burke ended his debut season with 336 runs at 37.33 in seven matches, and his occasional bowling yielded three wickets at 39.00, having delivered only 29 overs. His first wickets at first-class level were Victoria's Test batsmen Ken Meuleman
and Sam Loxton
as he took 2/38 in the second innings of his fifth match.
The following season, with the Test players in South Africa, Burke had more opportunities in the New South Wales team, but he failed to pass 20 in two early-season matches, and was dropped, spending six weeks out of the team before returning in mid-December. Aged 20, he scored 62 and took 3/54 upon his recall against South Australia, and then carried his bat
to score for 162 not out against Victoria
, whose bowling was headed by Jack Iverson
, whose folded-finger spin took 6/27 in a Test the following year. In his five Shield matches for the season, Burke scored 292 runs at 41.71 and seven wickets at 33.42.
Burke was selected for an Australian Second XI that toured New Zealand
under the leadership of Bill Brown
at the end of the season, with the first-choice team still in South Africa. He started his career for Australia productively, scoring 101 in a non-first-class match against Hutt Valley on debut. Burke then scored 60 and 68 not out in the next match against Auckland—a first-class fixture—before taking 3/24 in the second innings as the hosts held on for a draw with two wickets in hand. He scored 89 in the next match against Waikato—another non-first-class match—but did little else on the tour. He failed to take another wicket and passed 20 only once in his five remaining first-class innings. He made nine in his only innings in the one-off match against New Zealand, which was drawn.
and Bill Johnston
. Burke then scored half-centuries in consecutive Shield matches and was selected for an Australian XI to play against England in a Test trial. He scored 128 in his only innings and took the wicket of Denis Compton
but this was not enough for Test selection. He had another opportunity against England two weeks later in a match for New South Wales, but had to retire hurt in the first innings and then made 40 in the second innings. Burke also removed England's top-scorer Reg Simpson
for 259.
He was selected for his Test debut against England at the Adelaide Oval
, replacing the out-of-form Loxton for the Fourth Test. Burke made 12 before being bowled by Roy Tattersall
in the first innings as Australia took a 99-run lead. He then scored 101 not out in the second innings as Australia made 8/403 and set England 503 for victory. His innings was marked by cutting and glancing. Australia went on to win by 274 runs. He was promoted to opening the batting in the following Test and struggled, making 11 and 1 and being dismised by English seam spearhead Alec Bedser
in each innings as the tourists ended Australia's run of 26 Test without defeat with an eight-wicket win. Burke bowled only three overs in the series, all of them in the second innings of his debut Test, without taking a wicket. He ended the season with 705 runs at 50.35 and took eight wickets at 37.12.
Burke did not have a high-scoring start to the 1951–52 season. After scoring 32 against Queensland, and 11 and 38 not out for New South Wales against the touring West Indies, Burke was made twelfth man for the first two Tests. A late injury to Australian captain Hassett and an Australian Board of Control
veto on fellow New South Wales Test opener Sid Barnes
for disciplinary reasons, meant that Burke was recalled for the Third Test on a wet Adelaide pitch. He scored only 3 and 15 as the tourists took a six-wicket win. When Hassett returned, Burke was duly dropped and missed the remaining two Tests. He returned to New South Wales and scored fifties in consecutive matches late in the summer; he ended the season with 319 runs at 29.00 and took five wickets at 45.60.
.
He declined further in the following season, which was purely domestic with the Test representatives available for the whole season. He lost his New South Wales place multiple times, playing in only five matches as his state won the 1953–54 Sheffield Shield, starting a run of nine successive titles. Early in the season, Burke took 6/60 in the second innings of a match against South Australia, removing Gavin Stevens
and Phil Ridings
before running through the tail, helping to set up an eight-wicket triumph. He scored an unbeaten 58 against Queensland, his only score above 35 for the season, which ended with 171 runs at 24.42 and 10 wickets at 29.30.
, his best batting and bowling figures for the whole season. He took five or more wickets in an innings in 11 matches.
Burke started the new Australian season in 1954–55 with 137 against Queensland. They then scored 6 and 34 not out in his state's match against Len Hutton
's touring Englishmen. This was not enough for him to gain selection in the First Test, which AUstralia won by an innings. The Australian selectors recalled him for two Tests in the 1954–55 series against England
. The first came in the Second Test in Sydney when Keith Miller
was injured. Burke scored 44 and 14 as England levelled the series in a low-scoring 38-run win.
He was dropped for the Third Test when Miller returned. He was recalled for the Fourth Test in Adelaide and made 18 and 5 as England sealed the series with a third win in a row. In the final match of the season, Burke scored 62 in the second innings after New South Wales and England had both scored 172 in the first innings. His team went on to take a 45-run win, the only defeat inflicted on the tourists for the summer apart from the First Test. Burke removed Hutton in the run-chase, taking his only wicket for the season. Overall, Burke did not have a successful season, scoring 404 runs at 36.72.
Burke was omitted for the fifth time when left out of the 1955 squad to tour the West Indies. At this stage, he began to take a defensive attitude, trying to eliminate all risk in order to increase his productivity, something that prompted crowd heckling and demonstrations by Sydneysiders when he walked into bat. There was also a Test opener's berth available, as one the incumbent openers Arthur Morris
had retired after returning from the West Indies.
The dour batsman started the 1955–56 season, which was purely domestic, strongly, scoring 85 and 56 in the opening match of the season against Queensland. In his third game of the summer, he made a defensive 189 against Western Australia in Perth
, prompting Don Bradman to advise him to utilize more strokeplay. Burke responded, scoring 150 in the next innings, against South Australia, helping to set up an innings win. These strong performances saw Burke called into Lindwall's XI
in the Test trial against Johnson's XI. He made 192 in the first innings and was unbeaten on 6 in the second when his team scraped to a two-wicket win. Towards the end of January, he hit 98 and was unbeaten on 57 as New South Wales slumped to 7/121 and avoided a defeat to Victoria when time ran out, helping his state take a third consecutive Shield title. Up to this point in the season, he had only taken 2/125, but he had scored 899 runs at 89.90.
ner Jim Laker
, dominate, Burke topped the Test match averages, as well as Australia's first-class aggregate with 1,339 runs in 37 innings.
In the second match of the tour, Burke scored 123 against Leicestershire, but the next month before the Tests was frequently truncated by rain. He only had four completed innings in three matches in that time, and did not pass 20. He went into the Tests with 212 runs at 35.33.
His tour was highlighted by his second innings of 58 not out in the First Test at Trent Bridge
in Nottingham
, defying the English bowlers for four hours to force a draw on a rain-affected pitch; more than half the playing time was lost to the weather. Between Tests, he made consecutive fifties in county matches and was unbeaten on 37 in his third innings. In the Second Test at Lord's, he put on 151 with McDonald, making 65 to set up an Australian first innings total of 285. The tourists took a lead of 114 and Burke was only able to make 16 in the second innings, but Australia wen on to a 185-run victory. With 138 and 125 not out against Somerset
before the Third Test, Burke became the first Australian since Alan Kippax
in 1930 to score a century in each innings of a match in England.
After this innings, Burke and Australia's fortunes declined. In the Third Test at Headingley
, Australia were crushed by an innings and 42 runs, bowled out for 143 and 140. The opener was one of the few to resist, scoring 41 in the first innings and 16 as England levelled the series.
This was followed by the Old Trafford Test dubbed "Laker's Test", Burke was the only Australian to not be dismissed twice by Jim Laker
, who took 19 of the 20 wickets; he was dismissed by Tony Lock
in the first innings. He scored 22 of Australia's 84 in the first innings and then 33 of 205 in the second innings as the hosts won by an innings and 170 runs to retain the Ashes.
Burke then made 194 on a spinning wicket against Warwickshire
, the highest innings of his career to that point, as Australia won by an innings. He then had a lean run for the next month, scoring only 54 runs in six innings in that period. This included eight and one in the Fifth Test at The Oval
, dismissed by Laker twice on the latter's Surrey home ground. English captain Peter May
set Australia a target of 228 on a rain-affected wicket late on the final day, and they collapsed to 5/27 before a final weather interruption saved them from another defeat.
Burke ended the series with 271 runs at 30.11.
The dominant Laker took two-thirds of Burke's dismissals in the series, but Burke survived the second highest number of deliveries from Laker, behind Neil Harvey
. Burke was noted for his strategy of playing back against Laker on spin friendly and wet wickets, fearing that he would be caught by short leg fielders if he played forward.
After a lean month, Burke ended his stay on English soil with 94 and 21 as the Australians ended the tour with a five-wicket win over TN Pearce's XI. He then made 81 and 58 in two non-first-class matches against Scotland. In recognition of his performance on the tour, he was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year
in 1957.
He then toured India
and Pakistan
on the return trip to Australia, where the tourists played four Tests with no other tour matches. On this campaign, Burke's batting became increasingly dour. In Australia's inaugural Test against Pakistan in Karachi
, Burke made 4 and 10, dismissed both times by Fazal Mahmood
as the tourists fell to a nine-wicket defeat. His poor run continued in the First Test against India in Madras
, scoring 10 in an innings win. Burke then scored 161 in the Second Test at Bombay
in 368 minutes, which remains the slowest by an Australian Test player. The match ended in a draw and Burke struggled again in the deciding Test in Calcutta
, falling both times to the spin of Ghulam Ahmed
for 10 and 2 on a pitch affected by flooding. He had been dismissed all four times against India by spinners.
On the rain-affected pitch in the second innings, Burke took his first wickets in Test cricket, helping Australia to defend their target of 231. He trapped opener Pankaj Roy
leg before wicket
for 24, and then bowled Gulabrai Ramchand
, had Prakash Bhandari
caught, and then bowled Ahmed for a duck. He ended with 4/37 as India were dismissed 95 runs short of the victory target.
to raise himself out of bed to bat. The score proceeded to 145, whereupon Burke returned upon the fall of Richie Benaud
. Craig fell three runs later with the score at 148. Burke reached 8 and the scores were on 9/160 when he edged Ian Meckiff
to wicket-keeper Len Maddocks
, ending the match in a tie.
Burke ended the season with 444 runs at 55.50 and three wickets at 39.00 as New South Wales took a fourth consecutive title.
The following year, he toured South Africa in 1957–58. He topped the Australian run scoring aggregate, with 1,041 at an average of 65.06, the only Australian to pass 1000 runs.
The tour started with a stopover in Northern Rhodesia
, where Burke scored 102 against the national team in a non-first-class match. The Australians then travelled to Rhodesia
where they played two matches against the hosts. He struck 106 in the second innings, setting up a ten-wicket win. Upon entering South African soil, Burke made centuries in consecutive matches, scoring 112 and 133 against Natal and Eastern Province
respectively, before adding 72 in the next match against Western Province
.
Burke struggled in the First Test, scoring 16 and 10 retired hurt as South Africa held the upper hand for most of the drawn match. However, he recovered in time for the Second Test at Cape Town
in the following week. He reverted to his dour, watchful style, and his 189, his highest Test score, took 578 minutes. It laid the foundation for an innings victory after South Africa were forced to follow on. After making 86 against Transvaal
, Burke scored 83 in the second innings of the drawn Third Test in Durban
. He had made only two in the first innings and Australia were in trouble after the hosts took a 221-run lead, but his second effort helped Australia to 7/292 and avoid defeat. His 81 in the first innings of the Fourth in Johannesburg helped set up a ten-wicket victory, and an unassailable 2–0 series lead. Burke made only eight in the Fifth Test, but Australia were able to seal the series with an eight-wicket win.
During the Tests, Burke took two wickets at 38.50, but his bowling action came under suspicion.
He ended the tour with a successful all-round display against South African Universities. In the first innings, he took 6/40, his career-best bowling figures, bowling four of his victims. He then scored 81, helping Australia to a lead of 179. He took 2/54 in the second innings but was unable to finish off the hosts and secure a victory. The African campaign was Burke's most productive with the ball, taking 21 first-class wickets at 22.28.
Burke started the 1958–59 season strongly. He scored 113 and took 3/23 in the opening Shield match of the season against Queensland. After adding a helf-century in the following match against Western Australia, he compiled 104 against the touring England team for New South Wales ahead of the Tests.
In the First Test against the England team at Brisbane, he scored 20 in the first innings of a low-scoring and slow match. After Australia had made 186 to take a 52-run lead, English all-rounder
Trevor Bailey
, notorious for his defensive batting, took 357 minutes to compile the slowest half-century in first-class history.
Australia required 147 on the final day to win, and Burke gave a display similar to Bailer, taking 250 minutes to score 28 not out and anchoring the hosts to an eight-wicket win, scoring less than 20% of the runs added while he was at the crease. Between Tests, Burke scored 53 and 77 in New South Wales' 162-run win over Victoria. Burke then suffered a month of low scores in a run of four matches against the ENglishmen. He made 3 and 18 not out in an eight-wicket win in the Second Test in Melbourne, and was then dismissed for 12 and 7 in the drawn Third Test by his old nemesis Laker. In the second innings of the Test, Burke took 2/26 including the wicket of English captain Peter May
for 92, and he was frequently accused by the touring journalists of throwing.
His run of low scoring continued in his state's match against England before the Fourth Test. He made 5 and 22 not out, dismissed by Bailey although he did remove his slow-scoring English counterpart with the ball. In the Fourth Test, Burke made 66 in the first innings to help set up a lead of 236 and he was unbeaten on 16 as the Australians sealed the sereis with a ten-wicket win. He then took 4/52 and 1/19 against Victoria before playing in the Fifth Test, his last match for Australia. He made only 16 and 13, dismissed twice by Frank Tyson
, the fastest bowler of the era, as Australia won by nine wickets to take the series 4–0.
Criticised for slow scoring and for his bowling, and declaring himself unwilling to face fast bowling of increasing fierceness, in particular short pitched bowling, Burke retired suddenly after series, having scored 199 runs at 28.43. He played in the two Shield matches after the Tests, scoring 103 and 65 in the penultimate match, a 174-run win over South Australia. He then made five in his final match against Western Australia, which New South Wales won by an innings and completed sixth consecutive Sheffield Shield title.
He continued to play grade cricket for 13 further seasons and later became a well-known commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
.
bowler and took 101 wickets in first-class cricket
at an average under thirty. His jerky bent-arm action was considered to be suspect and was no-balled for throwing in grade cricket. His action was likened to a policeman hitting a small offender with a truncheon
. At the height of the "throwing" controversy in 1958–59 he was not risked in Test matches. He was often effective on uncovered wickets in grade cricket, often skittling opposition batting lineups.
Outside the pressure of Test cricket, Burke was an entertaining and attacking batsman, characterized by a clean line, quick movement back or forward and good balance, notably in playing the on-drive. Standing a little under six feet, Burke played with a low grip on his bat with little backlift. He played square-on while on the back foot, with chest facing the bowler, preferring to have his body behind swinging balls rather than the textbook side-on stance. Lantern jawed and poker faced, Burke showed little overt reaction to crowd sentiment over his batting approach, tugging his cap lower before every delivery. He was known for his sense of humour, often enlivening the team with his piano playing and jokes.
A popular and humorous figure and an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club
, Burke hid personal and financial worries. In February 1979, while a member of the regular ABC commentary team for The Ashes
Tests, he
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who played in 24 Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
from 1951 to 1959.
Early years
Burke grew up in the SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
north shore suburb of Mosman
Mosman, New South Wales
Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Mosman.-Localities:In February...
, where his parents had immigrated to from Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. His great-uncle Percy Burke had played for Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
as a wicket-keeper. His mother was a talented golfer. Burke was a talented golfer and cricketer in his childhood, but was refused membership of Balgowlah Golf Club at the age of 12 on the grounds that he was too young. He began his cricket training aged seven at Manly Oval. Burke attended Sydney Grammar School
Sydney Grammar School
Sydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
and aged 14 played in the First XI. At 15 he rose from Manly's Third XI to First XI in Sydney Grade Cricket
Sydney Grade Cricket
Sydney Grade Cricket is a cricket competition played in Sydney, Australia. The competition began in 1893 when a number of clubs, which had been playing for many years on an ad hoc basis, voted to create a formal competition structure....
. At 16 his batting average for Sydney Grammar was 94, a record for a school which has produced many first-class cricketers.
First-class debut
At the start of the 1948–49 season, Burke scored 134 and took a total of 2/8 for New South Wales Colts—a youth team—against their Queensland counterparts. At the age of 18, this propelled him into his debut for New South WalesNew South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
in the 1948–49 Sheffield Shield season, even though there was no international touring team during the season and his state was thus at full strength with many Test players. In his first match, Burke scored 76 not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
and bowled two wicketless maidens against Western Australia
Western Warriors
The Western Australia cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team representing the state of Western Australia...
as his state took an innings victory. He then scored half-centuries in his only innings in the next two games, before his form petered out towards the end of the season, failing to pass 40 again and totalling only 46 runs in his last five innings. This included an opportunity in the Test trial match between the strongest players in Australia at the end of the season, as part of Hassett's XI
Lindsay Hassett
Arthur Lindsay Hassett MBE was a cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. The diminutive Hassett was an elegant middle-order batsman, described by Wisden as, "... a master of nearly every stroke ... his superb timing, nimble footwork and strong wrists enabled him to make batting look a...
. He scored only 11 and 19, and was not selected for the 1949–50 tour of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. Burke ended his debut season with 336 runs at 37.33 in seven matches, and his occasional bowling yielded three wickets at 39.00, having delivered only 29 overs. His first wickets at first-class level were Victoria's Test batsmen Ken Meuleman
Ken Meuleman
Kenneth Douglas Meuleman was an Australian cricketer who played in one Test in 1946....
and Sam Loxton
Sam Loxton
Samuel John Everett "Sam" Loxton OBE is a former Australian cricketer, footballer and politician. Among these three pursuits, his greatest achievements were attained on the cricket field; he played in 12 Tests for Australia from 1948 to 1951...
as he took 2/38 in the second innings of his fifth match.
The following season, with the Test players in South Africa, Burke had more opportunities in the New South Wales team, but he failed to pass 20 in two early-season matches, and was dropped, spending six weeks out of the team before returning in mid-December. Aged 20, he scored 62 and took 3/54 upon his recall against South Australia, and then carried his bat
Carry the bat
In cricket, the term carry the bat refers to an opening batsman who is not dismissed when the team innings is closed...
to score for 162 not out against Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
, whose bowling was headed by Jack Iverson
Jack Iverson
John Brian Iverson was an Australian cricketer who played in 5 Tests from 1950 to 1951. He was known for his unique "bent finger" grip, with which he briefly perplexed batsmen across Australia as well as the touring English cricket team...
, whose folded-finger spin took 6/27 in a Test the following year. In his five Shield matches for the season, Burke scored 292 runs at 41.71 and seven wickets at 33.42.
Burke was selected for an Australian Second XI that toured New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
under the leadership of Bill Brown
Bill Brown (cricketer)
William Alfred "Bill" Brown, OAM was an Australian cricketer who played 22 Tests between 1934 and 1948, captaining his country in one Test. A right-handed opening batsman, his partnership with Jack Fingleton in the 1930s is regarded as one of the finest in Australian Test history...
at the end of the season, with the first-choice team still in South Africa. He started his career for Australia productively, scoring 101 in a non-first-class match against Hutt Valley on debut. Burke then scored 60 and 68 not out in the next match against Auckland—a first-class fixture—before taking 3/24 in the second innings as the hosts held on for a draw with two wickets in hand. He scored 89 in the next match against Waikato—another non-first-class match—but did little else on the tour. He failed to take another wicket and passed 20 only once in his five remaining first-class innings. He made nine in his only innings in the one-off match against New Zealand, which was drawn.
International debut in 1950–51
The following season, the Test players returned and Burke put in a series a consistent performances to cement his New South Wales position and push for national selection. In the third match of the season, he scored 80 and 60 for his state against the touring MCC team of Freddie Brown, ending unbeaten in both innings. He made a duck in the following match against Victoria, but claimed his maiden five-wicket innings haul, taking 5/38 in the second innings. He removed Test batsmen Meuleman and Loxton before returning to dismiss Test bowlers Ian JohnsonIan Johnson (cricketer)
Ian William Geddes Johnson CBE was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an average of...
and Bill Johnston
Bill Johnston (cricketer)
William Arras Johnston was an Australian cricketer who played in forty Test matches from 1947 to 1955. A left arm pace bowler, as well as a left arm orthodox spinner, Johnston was best known as a spearhead of Don Bradman's undefeated 1948 touring team, well known as "The Invincibles"...
. Burke then scored half-centuries in consecutive Shield matches and was selected for an Australian XI to play against England in a Test trial. He scored 128 in his only innings and took the wicket of Denis Compton
Denis Compton
Denis Charles Scott Compton CBE was an English cricketer who played in 78 Test matches, and a footballer...
but this was not enough for Test selection. He had another opportunity against England two weeks later in a match for New South Wales, but had to retire hurt in the first innings and then made 40 in the second innings. Burke also removed England's top-scorer Reg Simpson
Reg Simpson
Reginald Thomas Simpson is an English former cricketer, who played in twentry seven Tests from 1948 to 1955.-Life and career:...
for 259.
He was selected for his Test debut against England at the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
, replacing the out-of-form Loxton for the Fourth Test. Burke made 12 before being bowled by Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall is an English former Lancashire cricketer, who played sixteen Tests for England as a specialist off spin bowler....
in the first innings as Australia took a 99-run lead. He then scored 101 not out in the second innings as Australia made 8/403 and set England 503 for victory. His innings was marked by cutting and glancing. Australia went on to win by 274 runs. He was promoted to opening the batting in the following Test and struggled, making 11 and 1 and being dismised by English seam spearhead Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
in each innings as the tourists ended Australia's run of 26 Test without defeat with an eight-wicket win. Burke bowled only three overs in the series, all of them in the second innings of his debut Test, without taking a wicket. He ended the season with 705 runs at 50.35 and took eight wickets at 37.12.
Burke did not have a high-scoring start to the 1951–52 season. After scoring 32 against Queensland, and 11 and 38 not out for New South Wales against the touring West Indies, Burke was made twelfth man for the first two Tests. A late injury to Australian captain Hassett and an Australian Board of Control
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
veto on fellow New South Wales Test opener Sid Barnes
Sid Barnes
Sidney George Barnes was an Australian cricketer and cricket writer, who played 13 Test matches between 1938 and 1948. Able to open the innings or bat down the order, Barnes was regarded as one of Australia's finest batsmen in the period immediately following the Second World War...
for disciplinary reasons, meant that Burke was recalled for the Third Test on a wet Adelaide pitch. He scored only 3 and 15 as the tourists took a six-wicket win. When Hassett returned, Burke was duly dropped and missed the remaining two Tests. He returned to New South Wales and scored fifties in consecutive matches late in the summer; he ended the season with 319 runs at 29.00 and took five wickets at 45.60.
Test omission
Burke then lost his Test position for two seasons. He had a poor campaign in 1952–53, he passed 40 only once in 13 innings in nine matches. This came in an innings victory over Victoria, in which he scored 78 before taking 4/11 in the second innings to help end the game, dismissing Loxton, Ian McDonald, Johnson and Johnston. He aggregated only 277 runs at 25.18 and 12 wickets at 20.75. Burke was overlooked for all five Tests against South Africa and not selected for the 1953 tour of EnglandAustralian cricket team in England in 1953
The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1953 season to play a five-match Test series against England for The Ashes.England won the final Test to take the series 1-0 after the first four Tests were all drawn. England therefore recovered the Ashes for the first time since losing them in...
.
He declined further in the following season, which was purely domestic with the Test representatives available for the whole season. He lost his New South Wales place multiple times, playing in only five matches as his state won the 1953–54 Sheffield Shield, starting a run of nine successive titles. Early in the season, Burke took 6/60 in the second innings of a match against South Australia, removing Gavin Stevens
Gavin Stevens
Gavin Byron Stevens is a former Australian cricketer who played in 4 Tests from 1959 to 1960....
and Phil Ridings
Phil Ridings
Phil Lovett Ridings was an Australian cricketer.Ridings made 107 first-class appearances for South Australia, scoring 9 hundreds. Primarily a batsman, he also took 61 first-class wickets with his fast-medium pace bowling...
before running through the tail, helping to set up an eight-wicket triumph. He scored an unbeaten 58 against Queensland, his only score above 35 for the season, which ended with 171 runs at 24.42 and 10 wickets at 29.30.
Lancashire League and recall
Burke made his come-back by combining business and cricket, moving to England for a season as Todmorden's professional in the Lancashire League in 1954. He failed to manage a century, but did score five half-centuries including two nineties in 23 matches. Burke made 97 not out and then took 8/14 in a win over East LancashireEast Lancashire Cricket Club
East Lancashire Cricket Club is a cricket club in the Lancashire League, which plays its home games at Alexandra Meadows in Blackburn. For the 2011 season its captain will be Mark Bolton and its professional will be Ockert Erasmus...
, his best batting and bowling figures for the whole season. He took five or more wickets in an innings in 11 matches.
Burke started the new Australian season in 1954–55 with 137 against Queensland. They then scored 6 and 34 not out in his state's match against Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
's touring Englishmen. This was not enough for him to gain selection in the First Test, which AUstralia won by an innings. The Australian selectors recalled him for two Tests in the 1954–55 series against England
English cricket team in Australia in 1954-55
Len Hutton captained the English cricket team in Australia in 1954–55, playing as England in the 1954-55 Ashes series against the Australians and as the MCC in their other matches on the tour. It was the first time that an England team had toured Australia under a professional captain since the 1880s...
. The first came in the Second Test in Sydney when Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
was injured. Burke scored 44 and 14 as England levelled the series in a low-scoring 38-run win.
He was dropped for the Third Test when Miller returned. He was recalled for the Fourth Test in Adelaide and made 18 and 5 as England sealed the series with a third win in a row. In the final match of the season, Burke scored 62 in the second innings after New South Wales and England had both scored 172 in the first innings. His team went on to take a 45-run win, the only defeat inflicted on the tourists for the summer apart from the First Test. Burke removed Hutton in the run-chase, taking his only wicket for the season. Overall, Burke did not have a successful season, scoring 404 runs at 36.72.
Burke was omitted for the fifth time when left out of the 1955 squad to tour the West Indies. At this stage, he began to take a defensive attitude, trying to eliminate all risk in order to increase his productivity, something that prompted crowd heckling and demonstrations by Sydneysiders when he walked into bat. There was also a Test opener's berth available, as one the incumbent openers Arthur Morris
Arthur Morris
Arthur Robert Morris MBE is a former Australian cricketer who played 46 Test matches between 1946 and 1955. An opener, Morris is regarded as one of Australia's greatest left-handed batsmen. He is best known for his key role in Don Bradman's Invincibles side, which made an undefeated tour of...
had retired after returning from the West Indies.
The dour batsman started the 1955–56 season, which was purely domestic, strongly, scoring 85 and 56 in the opening match of the season against Queensland. In his third game of the summer, he made a defensive 189 against Western Australia in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, prompting Don Bradman to advise him to utilize more strokeplay. Burke responded, scoring 150 in the next innings, against South Australia, helping to set up an innings win. These strong performances saw Burke called into Lindwall's XI
Ray Lindwall
Raymond Russell Lindwall MBE was a cricketer who represented Australia in 61 Tests from 1946 to 1960. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time. He also played top-flight rugby league football with St...
in the Test trial against Johnson's XI. He made 192 in the first innings and was unbeaten on 6 in the second when his team scraped to a two-wicket win. Towards the end of January, he hit 98 and was unbeaten on 57 as New South Wales slumped to 7/121 and avoided a defeat to Victoria when time ran out, helping his state take a third consecutive Shield title. Up to this point in the season, he had only taken 2/125, but he had scored 899 runs at 89.90.
Wisden Cricketer of the Year and 1956 tour of England
Burke's increased strokeplay during the season endeared himself more to the public, and his volume of scoring earned him a place in the Australian squad for the 1956 tour of England. During the tour, he became the regular opening partner to Colin McDonald. In a low-scoring series in a wet summer with spinning pitches which saw England's off spinOff spin
Off spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket which is bowled by an off spinner, a right-handed spin bowler who uses his or her fingers and/or wrist to spin the ball from a right-handed batsman's off side to the leg side...
ner Jim Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...
, dominate, Burke topped the Test match averages, as well as Australia's first-class aggregate with 1,339 runs in 37 innings.
In the second match of the tour, Burke scored 123 against Leicestershire, but the next month before the Tests was frequently truncated by rain. He only had four completed innings in three matches in that time, and did not pass 20. He went into the Tests with 212 runs at 35.33.
His tour was highlighted by his second innings of 58 not out in the First Test at Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge is a Test, One-day international and County cricket ground located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England and is also the headquarters of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. As well as International cricket and Nottinghamshire's home games, the ground has hosted the Finals Day of...
in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
, defying the English bowlers for four hours to force a draw on a rain-affected pitch; more than half the playing time was lost to the weather. Between Tests, he made consecutive fifties in county matches and was unbeaten on 37 in his third innings. In the Second Test at Lord's, he put on 151 with McDonald, making 65 to set up an Australian first innings total of 285. The tourists took a lead of 114 and Burke was only able to make 16 in the second innings, but Australia wen on to a 185-run victory. With 138 and 125 not out against Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
before the Third Test, Burke became the first Australian since Alan Kippax
Alan Kippax
Alan Falconer Kippax was a cricketer for New South Wales and Australia. Regarded as one of the great stylists of Australian cricket during the era between the two World Wars, Kippax overcame a late start to Test cricket to become a regular in the Australian team between the 1928–29 and...
in 1930 to score a century in each innings of a match in England.
After this innings, Burke and Australia's fortunes declined. In the Third Test at Headingley
Headingley Stadium
Headingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....
, Australia were crushed by an innings and 42 runs, bowled out for 143 and 140. The opener was one of the few to resist, scoring 41 in the first innings and 16 as England levelled the series.
This was followed by the Old Trafford Test dubbed "Laker's Test", Burke was the only Australian to not be dismissed twice by Jim Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...
, who took 19 of the 20 wickets; he was dismissed by Tony Lock
Tony Lock
Graham Anthony Richard Lock was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in forty nine Tests for England taking 174 wickets at 25.58 each.-Life and career:...
in the first innings. He scored 22 of Australia's 84 in the first innings and then 33 of 205 in the second innings as the hosts won by an innings and 170 runs to retain the Ashes.
Burke then made 194 on a spinning wicket against Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
, the highest innings of his career to that point, as Australia won by an innings. He then had a lean run for the next month, scoring only 54 runs in six innings in that period. This included eight and one in the Fifth Test at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
, dismissed by Laker twice on the latter's Surrey home ground. English captain Peter May
Peter May
-External links:* * at Cricket Archive*...
set Australia a target of 228 on a rain-affected wicket late on the final day, and they collapsed to 5/27 before a final weather interruption saved them from another defeat.
Burke ended the series with 271 runs at 30.11.
The dominant Laker took two-thirds of Burke's dismissals in the series, but Burke survived the second highest number of deliveries from Laker, behind Neil Harvey
Neil Harvey
Robert Neil Harvey MBE is a former Australian cricketer who represented the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement...
. Burke was noted for his strategy of playing back against Laker on spin friendly and wet wickets, fearing that he would be caught by short leg fielders if he played forward.
After a lean month, Burke ended his stay on English soil with 94 and 21 as the Australians ended the tour with a five-wicket win over TN Pearce's XI. He then made 81 and 58 in two non-first-class matches against Scotland. In recognition of his performance on the tour, he was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year
Wisden Cricketers of the Year
The Wisden Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season"...
in 1957.
He then toured India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
on the return trip to Australia, where the tourists played four Tests with no other tour matches. On this campaign, Burke's batting became increasingly dour. In Australia's inaugural Test against Pakistan in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
, Burke made 4 and 10, dismissed both times by Fazal Mahmood
Fazal Mahmood
Fazal Mahmood was a Pakistani cricketer, regarded as the finest pace bowler of his country's early years. He played in 34 Test matches and took 139 wickets at a bowling average of 24.70...
as the tourists fell to a nine-wicket defeat. His poor run continued in the First Test against India in Madras
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
, scoring 10 in an innings win. Burke then scored 161 in the Second Test at Bombay
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
in 368 minutes, which remains the slowest by an Australian Test player. The match ended in a draw and Burke struggled again in the deciding Test in Calcutta
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, falling both times to the spin of Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed
Ghulam Ahmed was an off spin bowler, who captained India in Test cricket. After his retirement, he served for many years as the secretary of BCCI....
for 10 and 2 on a pitch affected by flooding. He had been dismissed all four times against India by spinners.
On the rain-affected pitch in the second innings, Burke took his first wickets in Test cricket, helping Australia to defend their target of 231. He trapped opener Pankaj Roy
Pankaj Roy
Pankaj Roy was an Indian cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman, he is best known for establishing the world record opening partnership of 413 runs, together with Vinoo Mankad, against New Zealand at Chennai. The record stood until 2008. He was honoured with the Padma Shri...
leg before wicket
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
for 24, and then bowled Gulabrai Ramchand
Gulabrai Ramchand
Gulabrai Sipahimalani 'Ram' Ramchand was an Indian cricketer who captained India to a famous win against Australia in his only series as captain....
, had Prakash Bhandari
Prakash Bhandari
Prakash Bhandari represented India in Test cricket.Bhandari was an attacking right-handed batsman and an off-break bowler. He appeared for Delhi Schools and Delhi University in All India competitions between 1951–52 and 1956-57. He led Delhi University in the Rohinton Baria interuniversity...
caught, and then bowled Ahmed for a duck. He ended with 4/37 as India were dismissed 95 runs short of the victory target.
Later career
The stopover in the subcontinent meant that the Australians arrived home after the start of the 1956–57 season. No Tests were scheduled for the season. Burke started with a pair against Western Australia in his first match back, and then scored only two in the return match, although New South Wales won both games nonetheless. In the next match, he struck 220 of his state's 454 as they complete an innings win over South Australia. Over the Christmas period, Burke was a pivotal figure in the first tie in Sheffield Shield history. In the first innings, he carried his bat to make 132 of New South Wales' 281, giving them a 37-run lead over Victoria. In the second innings, the reigning champions had a target of 161, and Burke had to retire hurt with an injury. New South Wales collapsed to 7/70, forcing the ill captain Ian CraigIan Craig
Ian David Craig is a former Australian Test cricketer who represented Australia in 11 Tests between 1953 and 1958. A slightly built right-handed batsman, Craig holds the record for being the youngest Australian to make a first-class double century, gain Test selection and captain his country...
to raise himself out of bed to bat. The score proceeded to 145, whereupon Burke returned upon the fall of Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
. Craig fell three runs later with the score at 148. Burke reached 8 and the scores were on 9/160 when he edged Ian Meckiff
Ian Meckiff
Ian Meckiff is a former cricketer who represented Australia in 18 Tests between 1957 and 1963...
to wicket-keeper Len Maddocks
Len Maddocks
Leonard Victor Maddocks is a former Australian cricketer and cricket administrator who played in 7 Tests from 1954 to 1956...
, ending the match in a tie.
Burke ended the season with 444 runs at 55.50 and three wickets at 39.00 as New South Wales took a fourth consecutive title.
The following year, he toured South Africa in 1957–58. He topped the Australian run scoring aggregate, with 1,041 at an average of 65.06, the only Australian to pass 1000 runs.
The tour started with a stopover in Northern Rhodesia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, where Burke scored 102 against the national team in a non-first-class match. The Australians then travelled to Rhodesia
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
where they played two matches against the hosts. He struck 106 in the second innings, setting up a ten-wicket win. Upon entering South African soil, Burke made centuries in consecutive matches, scoring 112 and 133 against Natal and Eastern Province
Eastern Province cricket team
Eastern Province cricket team is the team representing the Eastern Province in domestic first-class cricket in South Africa.-Honours:* Currie Cup - 1988–89, 1991–92; shared - 1989–90* Standard Bank Cup - 1989–90, 1991–92...
respectively, before adding 72 in the next match against Western Province
Western Province cricket team
Western Province cricket team is the team representing Western Cape province in domestic first-class cricket in South Africa. The team began playing in January 1890 and its main venue has always been Newlands in Cape Town.-Honours:...
.
Burke struggled in the First Test, scoring 16 and 10 retired hurt as South Africa held the upper hand for most of the drawn match. However, he recovered in time for the Second Test at Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
in the following week. He reverted to his dour, watchful style, and his 189, his highest Test score, took 578 minutes. It laid the foundation for an innings victory after South Africa were forced to follow on. After making 86 against Transvaal
Transvaal cricket team
Gauteng cricket team is the first-class cricket team of the province of Gauteng in South Africa....
, Burke scored 83 in the second innings of the drawn Third Test in Durban
Durban
Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...
. He had made only two in the first innings and Australia were in trouble after the hosts took a 221-run lead, but his second effort helped Australia to 7/292 and avoid defeat. His 81 in the first innings of the Fourth in Johannesburg helped set up a ten-wicket victory, and an unassailable 2–0 series lead. Burke made only eight in the Fifth Test, but Australia were able to seal the series with an eight-wicket win.
During the Tests, Burke took two wickets at 38.50, but his bowling action came under suspicion.
He ended the tour with a successful all-round display against South African Universities. In the first innings, he took 6/40, his career-best bowling figures, bowling four of his victims. He then scored 81, helping Australia to a lead of 179. He took 2/54 in the second innings but was unable to finish off the hosts and secure a victory. The African campaign was Burke's most productive with the ball, taking 21 first-class wickets at 22.28.
International swansong
In the First Test against the England team at Brisbane, he scored 20 in the first innings of a low-scoring and slow match. After Australia had made 186 to take a 52-run lead, English all-rounder
All-rounder
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a few batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists...
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Edward Bailey CBE was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.An all-rounder, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting...
, notorious for his defensive batting, took 357 minutes to compile the slowest half-century in first-class history.
Australia required 147 on the final day to win, and Burke gave a display similar to Bailer, taking 250 minutes to score 28 not out and anchoring the hosts to an eight-wicket win, scoring less than 20% of the runs added while he was at the crease. Between Tests, Burke scored 53 and 77 in New South Wales' 162-run win over Victoria. Burke then suffered a month of low scores in a run of four matches against the ENglishmen. He made 3 and 18 not out in an eight-wicket win in the Second Test in Melbourne, and was then dismissed for 12 and 7 in the drawn Third Test by his old nemesis Laker. In the second innings of the Test, Burke took 2/26 including the wicket of English captain Peter May
Peter May
-External links:* * at Cricket Archive*...
for 92, and he was frequently accused by the touring journalists of throwing.
His run of low scoring continued in his state's match against England before the Fourth Test. He made 5 and 22 not out, dismissed by Bailey although he did remove his slow-scoring English counterpart with the ball. In the Fourth Test, Burke made 66 in the first innings to help set up a lead of 236 and he was unbeaten on 16 as the Australians sealed the sereis with a ten-wicket win. He then took 4/52 and 1/19 against Victoria before playing in the Fifth Test, his last match for Australia. He made only 16 and 13, dismissed twice by Frank Tyson
Frank Tyson
Frank Holmes Tyson is an England cricketer of the 1950s who became a journalist and cricket commentator after he emigrated to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets in...
, the fastest bowler of the era, as Australia won by nine wickets to take the series 4–0.
Criticised for slow scoring and for his bowling, and declaring himself unwilling to face fast bowling of increasing fierceness, in particular short pitched bowling, Burke retired suddenly after series, having scored 199 runs at 28.43. He played in the two Shield matches after the Tests, scoring 103 and 65 in the penultimate match, a 174-run win over South Australia. He then made five in his final match against Western Australia, which New South Wales won by an innings and completed sixth consecutive Sheffield Shield title.
He continued to play grade cricket for 13 further seasons and later became a well-known commentator for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
.
Style and personality
Burke was also an off breakOff break
Off break is a type of delivery in the sport of cricket. It is the attacking delivery of an off spin bowler. Off breaks are known as off spinners....
bowler and took 101 wickets in first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
at an average under thirty. His jerky bent-arm action was considered to be suspect and was no-balled for throwing in grade cricket. His action was likened to a policeman hitting a small offender with a truncheon
Truncheon
Truncheon may refer to:*Baton *Cutting , means of plant propagation used by gardeners*HMS Truncheon , a British submarine commissioned during Word War II and later sold to Israel...
. At the height of the "throwing" controversy in 1958–59 he was not risked in Test matches. He was often effective on uncovered wickets in grade cricket, often skittling opposition batting lineups.
Outside the pressure of Test cricket, Burke was an entertaining and attacking batsman, characterized by a clean line, quick movement back or forward and good balance, notably in playing the on-drive. Standing a little under six feet, Burke played with a low grip on his bat with little backlift. He played square-on while on the back foot, with chest facing the bowler, preferring to have his body behind swinging balls rather than the textbook side-on stance. Lantern jawed and poker faced, Burke showed little overt reaction to crowd sentiment over his batting approach, tugging his cap lower before every delivery. He was known for his sense of humour, often enlivening the team with his piano playing and jokes.
A popular and humorous figure and an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
, Burke hid personal and financial worries. In February 1979, while a member of the regular ABC commentary team for The Ashes
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
Tests, he