Lindsay Hassett
Encyclopedia
Arthur Lindsay Hassett MBE
(28 August 1913 – 16 June 1993) 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 simple matter". His sporting career at school singled him out as a precocious talent, but he took a number of seasons to secure a regular place in first-class cricket
and initially struggled to make large scores. Selected for the 1938 tour of England
with only one first-class century to his name, Hassett established himself with three consecutive first-class tons
at the start of the campaign. Although he struggled in the Tests, he played a crucial role in Australia's win in the Fourth Test, with a composed display in the run-chase which sealed the retention of the Ashes
. Upon returning to Australia, he distinguished himself in domestic cricket with a series of high scores, becoming the only player to score two centuries in a match against Bill O'Reilly
—widely regarded as the best bowler in the world.
However, the eruption of World War II
interrupted Hassett's progress. With first-class cricket cancelled, he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force
, serving in the Middle East
and New Guinea
before being chosen to captain the Australian Services cricket team
that played the "Victory Tests
" in England during the months immediately following Victory in Europe Day
. Hassett was the only capped Test player in the team and his men unexpectedly drew the series 2–2 against an English team consisting of Test cricketers. Hassett's leadership was intrinsic to the success of the team, which toured and helped to re-establish the game in England, India and Australia in the aftermath of the war.
At the advanced age of 32, Hassett began his Test cricket career in earnest and became a more sedate, cautious player who often frustrated spectators with his slow scoring. From 1946-47 onwards, he served as Don Bradman's vice-captain for three series, including the Invincibles tour of England in 1948. He then succeeded the retired Bradman as Australian captain in 1949 and presided over a successful team that gradually aged and declined. After an unbeaten tour of South Africa that saw a 4–0 triumph in the Tests, Hassett led the Australians to 4–1 home win over England in the 1950-51 Ashes series. The solitary loss in the Fifth Test was the first Australian Test defeat since the resumption of cricket after World War II. Australia's dominance of world cricket waned and, in Hassett's final season at home in 1952–53, it drew 2–2 against a South African team that was expected to be weak opposition. In 24 Test matches as captain, Hassett oversaw 14 wins and suffered defeat only four times, but it was the last of the four losses that blighted his record. Defeated in the last match of the 1953 series against England, Hassett's team lost The Ashes
, ending Australia's 19-year ascendancy. At the age of 40, he promptly retired following a final testimonial match after returning to Australia. A cheerful character with a poker face that aided his captaincy, Hassett was known for his ability as an ambassador for Australia, his sense of humour and diplomatic skills. Richie Benaud
wrote of him: "There are others who have made more runs and taken more wickets, but very few have ever got more out of a lifetime."
, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria's second-largest city. His father Edward was a real estate agent
who served as the secretary of the Geelong Permanent Building Society
and was a keen club cricketer. The Hassett boys played three-a-side cricket matches in the backyard where Lindsay imitated his idol, the Test batsman Bill Ponsford
. Along with two of his brothers, Hassett attended the Geelong College
and made the First XI at the age of 14. During his five years in the team, he amassed 2,335 runs and was captain for three years. This total included an innings of 245 against Scotch College
. In addition, he led the school's football
team for three seasons and won the Victorian Public Schools
singles championship at tennis
. One of his older brothers, Richard played for Victoria in the early 1930s as a leg spin
ner.
While still at school, Hassett played for the South Melbourne
First XI in Melbourne's district cricket
competition during the 1930–31 season. A month after his debut for South, he was selected for his first representative match; batting for the Victorian Country XI against the touring West Indies team, Hassett scored 147 not out. After being overlooked for further state honours for a season, he made his first-class debut against South Australia
in February 1933, but his highest score in four innings for the season was 12 and he aggregated only 25 runs. He was overlooked for the entirety of the next two seasons. Recalled in 1935–36, Hassett consolidated his place in the team through consistency rather than tall scores, scoring 212 runs at 30.28, including two fifties, 73 and 51. The following season, he led Victoria's batting averages, scoring 503 runs at 71.85. Despite his success, Hassett was unable to register his maiden first-class century, although he did manage seven consecutive fifties in nine innings for the season, including a 93 against Queensland
and 83 against arch-rivals New South Wales
in a consistent run that helped Victoria to the Sheffield Shield title.
In 1937–38, Hassett made 693 first-class runs including a century and five fifties at an average of 53.30, including another 90 against Queensland. Despite having only one first-class century to his name, 127 not out against the touring New Zealanders at the MCG
in the first match of the season, he "scraped" into Australia's team for the 1938 tour of England.
Hassett allayed doubt about his selection when he began the tour with innings of 43, 146, 148 and 220 not out, against Worcestershire
, Oxford University
, Leicestershire
and Cambridge University
respectively as Australia won their first four matches by an innings. He added 57 and 98 in the next two matches against the Marylebone Cricket Club
and Hampshire
, and despite failing to pass 30 in the next four innings, he was selected to make his Test debut at Nottingham
in the first match of the series. Hassett had an ignominious debut, scoring one and two in a high-scoring draw in which almost 1,500 runs were scored for the loss of only 24 wickets on a "batting paradise". He maintained his county form between Tests, adding 118 against Lancashire
before scoring his only half-century in the Tests, adding 56 and 42 at Lord's
in the drawn Second Test.
The Third Test was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain, and Hassett prepared for what would be the decisive Fourth Test by scoring 94 and 127 in consecutive matches against Yorkshire
and Nottinghamshire
. The match at Headingley
in Leeds
was Australia's only Test victory, which was enough to ensure a drawn series and the retention of The Ashes
. In a low-scoring match in a batsman-friendly series, Australia, chasing a target of only 105 runs to win, had slumped to 3/50 when Hassett came to the crease as an approaching storm threatened to either end the game or make the pitch difficult to bat on
. Hassett calmly hit 33 runs from 36 balls, to guide the tourists to a five-wicket victory, much to the relief of his captain Don Bradman, who was so nervous about the outcome that he could not watch the play. The innings earned Hassett a reputation of being calm under pressure, and Bradman later wrote that Hassett was a "masterful player" in a crisis.
After the match-winning innings, Hassett failed to pass 31 in his next six innings before Australia lost the Fifth Test by an innings and 579 runs, the heaviest defeat in Test history. He made 42 and 10 in the record-breaking match, and added a pair of half-centuries against Sussex
thereafter. As he finished third in the batting averages for the tour, with 1,589 runs at 52.97, and the dry summer resulted in pitches mostly favourable to batting, Wisden found his Test performances, in which he made 199 runs at 24.88, anomalous:
, the world record holder for the most career Test wickets. Hassett also scored centuries in both matches against Queensland and another against Western Australia. In the first match against Queensland, he scored 104 in the first innings before adding 73 in the second innings to steer the Victorians to a narrow three-wicket victory.
This period of Hassett’s career was notable for his battles with Australia's leading Test bowler, Bill O'Reilly
, when the latter appeared for New South Wales
(NSW). O'Reilly conceded that Hassett played his bowling better than any other batsman. Hassett's method was predicated on counter-attacking: whenever O'Reilly bowled his famed wrong 'un
, he could read this delivery in its flight (whereas most other batsmen could not) and he advanced down the pitch to hit the ball over the fielders on the leg side
. The disparate demeanours and physiques of the two men accentuated their rivalry. Ray Robinson
wrote that O'Reilly, "... towered nine inches above him; it would have looked more apt for Hassett to sell him a newspaper than contend with his bowling." The phlegmatic Hassett sometimes goaded the irascible O'Reilly, which few batsmen were game to do. On one occasion, he repeatedly mis-hit O'Reilly's bowling, prompting an irritated O'Reilly to ask if he had a middle to his bat. Hassett replied, "I don't need one with you, Tige
." It was a long, defensive innings of 81 against NSW (including O'Reilly) in 1937 that first brought Hassett to the attention of the national selectors. During an interval in the match, O'Reilly told his teammates: "Nobody has ever kept me out like that little bastard."
In the 1938–39 season, O’Reilly removed Hassett twice in three innings in matches between the two states. Their rivalry culminated in two encounters on the SCG
at the conclusion of the 1939–40 season. The first, between Victoria and NSW, effectively decided the winner of the Sheffield Shield; Victoria had won the first match between the two teams for the season. By scoring 122 in both innings, Hassett became the only player to score two centuries in a match against a team containing O'Reilly. Nevertheless, NSW won the game and the shield, before playing against a Rest of Australia combination. Batting for the Rest of Australia, Hassett almost repeated his feat by making 136 and 75, but this was not enough to stop NSW, who demonstrated their strength with another victory. Hassett had scored five half-centuries in the five preceding matches of the season, including three in four innings against Grimmett’s South Australia, and ended the Australian summer with 897 runs at 74.75. He lost his wicket to O'Reilly in a first-class match only three times.
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On 23 September 1940, Hassett enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force
(AIF); despite his enlistment he remained active in cricket and played four first-class matches in the following 1940–41 season, scoring 384 runs at 54.86 including a century against South Australia, before his posting to the Middle East in early-1941. As a member of the 2/2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, attached to the Australian 7th Division, he was stationed at Haifa
in the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel
). During his time in the army, Hassett became popular among his colleagues because of his "blithe spirit". He was offered a commission as an officer, but declined. Hassett maintained his connection to cricket by captaining an AIF team against service teams from other Empire
countries serving in the region, playing matches in Egypt
and Palestine. Following the outbreak of war in the Pacific
, the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions were recalled to Australia. He married during his brief return to Melbourne in May 1942, before his unit was deployed to Port Moresby
in New Guinea
to fight against Imperial Japan.
In 1945, with the cessation of hostilities in Europe, Hassett was selected to lead the Australian Services cricket team
on a tour of England. Officially a military unit, the team's commanding officer
was Squadron Leader
Stan Sismey
of the Royal Australian Air Force
, although Hassett was the on-field captain. They went on to play 64 matches in nine months of cricket in four countries. The focal point of the campaign was a series of matches against England known as the "Victory Tests
", which began in May. Australian cricket administrators would not accredit the three-day matches as official Test matches, arguing that there were not enough Test-level players among the servicemen; Hassett was the only player who had Test experience, and only nine others had played first-class cricket. As a result, Australia were not expected to be able to seriously challenge the hosts, who had many of their pre-war Test players.
The Victory Tests were expected to usher in a new post-war era, which it hoped would be more aggressive and attractive. The last Anglo-Australian Test series before the war had featured a large number of draws due to defensive play. Australia unexpectedly drew the series 2–2, and Hassett wrote at the end of the series that "This is cricket as it should be ... These games have shown that international cricket can be played as between real friends—so let's have no more talk of "war" in cricket". The series was regarded as an outstanding success, with a total attendance of 367,000 watching the bright and attacking play. In the five Victory Tests, Hassett made 277 runs at 27.70, including two fifties. The Services and Australian Imperial Force teams played separate matches in England during the season, which lasted until September, although only one other Services match was given first-class status. Hassett scored three centuries in matches for the Services.
Due to the unexpectedly strong success of the Victory Tests, the government of Australia
ordered the team to delay their demobilisation. With the team raising so much money for war charities, the government directed them to travel home via India and Ceylon
for further fundraising matches for the Red Cross.
Hassett enjoyed greater success on the Services tour of India, although the Australians had little to celebrate as a team. It was a tougher proposition for Hassett’s men, as all but one of the nine matches were against first-class opposition, and many of the players regarded the local umpires as being deliberately biased in favour of the home teams. After arriving in October, conflict hit the team after a series of ineffective displays. The team, mostly made up of RAAF personnel, had been ill with food poisoning and dysentery, and travelled across the Indian subcontinent
via long and bumpy train journeys for the first month. The airmen wanted to travel by air, and tried to ask Hassett and manager Keith Johnson for air travel. When this was refused, they threatened to abandon the tour or replace infantryman Hassett with either Keith Carmody
or Keith Miller
—who were RAAF fighter pilots—if their wish was not granted. With incumbent Australian captain Bradman likely to miss the upcoming tour of New Zealand, the Services leader would be one of the frontrunners for the national captaincy. Miller refused to plot against Hassett and the dispute ended when Sismey arranged for a RAAF plane already in India to transport the team; after a month in India, their first flight came in late November.
In the opening match of the tour, a draw against North Zone
, Hassett made 73. In a high-scoring match in hot conditions against the Prince's XI in Delhi
, he struck 187 and 124 not out in Australia's 8/424 declared and 5/304. The team was scheduled to play East Zone
in Calcutta, but the city was gripped in deadly riots as independence activists agitated against British rule. Australia batted first and made only 107, before East Zone replied with 131. Led by Hassett's 125, Australia posted 304 to leave the hosts a target of 281. On the final day, pro-independence rioters broke through the security presence and invaded the pitch for the second time during the match, while East Zone were batting. East Zone batsman Denis Compton
told the rioters to talk to Hassett, saying that the Australian skipper controlled proceedings. Hassett smiled at the leader of the irate demonstrators and asked "You wouldn't happen to have a cigarette, would you, old boy?" The rioters calmed down and play resumed.
Australia struggled in the three representative matches against India. Hassett made 53 in the first match in Mumbai, and although the Australians took a 192-run first innings lead, the hosts managed to hold on for a draw. The second match in Calcutta was an evenly-contested draw, before India won the deciding match. Hassett top-scored with 143 in Australia’s 339, but the hosts took a first innings lead of 186 to set up a six-wicket win. Hassett ended with 235 runs at 47.00 in the three international matches, but did not taste victory in any of his seven matches on Indian soil. He scored 57 as Australia defeated Ceylon by an innings in Colombo
before returning to Australia mid December. As time had passed, the players had become increasingly tired by the long campaign, and morale began to drop as waited for their return to their families and civilian life.
Johnson's team arrived in Australia late in 1945, but the armed services and Australian Board of Control ordered them to play another series against the various Australian states. The fixtures were meant to revive cricket following the war and were also used as a lead-up to the international tour to New Zealand
in March 1946. As a result, Hassett could not appear for Victoria during the 1945–46 season. The Services performed poorly; after playing consecutive draws against Western Australia
and South Australia
, they were crushed by an innings by both Victoria
and New South Wales
, before drawing against Queensland
and Tasmania
, the smallest state. Hassett’s team was saved by the clock against Queensland when the time ran out with the hosts four runs short of their target, but their fortunes were reversed in the final match when Tasmania hung on with only one wicket in hand to salvage a draw.
Hassett ended the Australian summer with 312 runs at 39.00, including three fifties. During the entire Services campaign, he scored 1,434 runs at 49.44 in 18 first-class matches and top-scored for the Australians’ whole campaign with 187. His aggregate was only 13 behind that of all rounder Keith Miller
.
Based on his form for the Services, Hassett was selected in the Australian team for a brief five-match tour of New Zealand in February and March 1946. As the military men played poorly in Australia, the national selectors concluded that their achievements against England must have been against weak opposition, and only Hassett and Miller were selected for the Australian tour of New Zealand.
Despite speculation that he would lead the team, as Bradman had made himself unavailable due to concerns over fitness and his ability to play at his pre-war world-leading standards, the Australian Board of Control appointed Bill Brown
as captain and O'Reilly as Brown's deputy. In the Board's ballot for the leadership positions, Hassett received only one of the 13 votes, although it was enough to make him the third on-tour selector. One motive speculated for his being overlooked was that he had rested himself from the match against Victoria because he was tired of the long periods in the military away from his family and decided instead to spend the time in Melbourne with his wife and young daughter; this supposedly drew the ire of the Victorian Cricket Association.
On the tour, Hassett made first-class centuries against Auckland
(121) and Wellington
(143) and scored 19 in the one-off match against New Zealand—retrospectively accredited as a Test—played at Basin Reserve
in Wellington
on a poor rain-affected pitch that saw the contest finished within two days. The match ended in an easy victory for Australia when New Zealand was bowled out for 42 and 54, but the tour attracted big crowds and made a record profit. Hassett scored 351 runs at 70.20 for the whole tour. By the time he returned home from the tour, Hassett had played cricket continuously for almost twelve months.
. He then scored 114 and 36 not out against South Australia in his last match before the beginning of the Ashes series. After a long deliberation, and against medical advice, the 38-year-old Bradman decided to resume as Test captain. As Brown was injured and O'Reilly had retired, Hassett was appointed vice-captain. The First Test at Brisbane revealed a more circumspect Hassett. He made 128 (from 395 balls in 392 minutes), his maiden Test century, and shared a 276-run partnership with Bradman, the cornerstone of Australia's match-winning score of 645. Although the crowd continually barracked Hassett for his slow scoring, Ray Robinson felt that he played a crucial "anchoring" role in support of Bradman, who initially struggled with his timing, controversially survived an appeal for a catch by Jack Ikin
, then limped through the latter stages of his innings with a strained muscle. Hassett later joked that one of his brothers had his wedding on the day, and was waiting for the batting to finish before starting the ceremony, but could wait no more and proceeded, only to come back after the marriage had been completed to find that just one run had been scored in the intervening period and that his brother was still only on 97.
Australia went on to start the post-war Ashes era with a crushing win by an innings and 332 runs. Hassett made 34 as Australia won the Second Test by an innings, and the Third Test was his first Test on his home ground at the MCG. He made only 12 and 9 as England held on for a draw with three wickets in hand.
Hassett's other major innings of the series was 78 from 227 balls in the drawn Fourth Test at Adelaide. He added 189 runs with Arthur Morris
after Australia, in reply to England's first innings of 460, were 2/18. At one point, the umpire denied an appeal by Norman Yardley
for lbw
against Hassett, prompting a frustrated Neville Cardus
to write, "... he deserved to be [given out]; the sight of a cricketer of his gifts continuing to deny his eye and technique in a Test match was enough to make any umpire go mad and, like the judge in Chesterton's
story, administer justice instead of law." Hassett ended the Tests with 47 in the second innings as Australia stumbled to a five-wicket win on a deteriorating and spinning pitch in the Fifth Test in Sydney, in pursuit of 214. He finished the series with 332 runs at 47.43 and had difficulty against the leg spin
ner Doug Wright
, who dismissed him five times in seven innings. He had added 126 for Victoria against Wally Hammond
’s Englishmen just a week earlier.
Despite his slow scoring in the Tests, Hassett was dynamic in the Shield matches for Victoria. In two matches for Victoria between the Third and Fourth Tests, Hassett hit 200 against Queensland and 190 against NSW; in both innings he scored at a rate of almost 50 runs per hour. Victoria won both their matches against arch-rivals NSW convincingly, by an innings and 288 runs respectively, and won the Sheffield Shield, having secured victory in each of the four matches that Hassett played in. Hassett was highly productive throughout the whole season, ending with 1,213 runs at 71.35.
India
embarked on its first tour of Australia in the summer of 1947–48, and the hosts won the first series between the two countries 4–0. After failing to pass 50 in the first two Tests, Hassett hit 80 in a rain-affected Third Test win, and then his highest Test score, 198 not out in an innings win in the Fourth Test in Adelaide, finishing the series with 332 runs at 110.67. Hassett was rested from the Fifth and final Test as Australia sought to try out new players such as Sam Loxton
ahead of the tour of England. He remained in strong form for Victoria, scoring 118 and 204 against South Australia and Queensland respectively, but his state were unable to retain their title, losing three and winning two matches when Hassett was available. He ended the season with 893 runs at 68.69.
. Considered one of the strongest Australia teams to tour England, the team became known as The Invincibles
because it went undefeated through 34 matches, an unprecedented feat. As matches often started the day after the previous fixture, Australia employed a rotation policy and Hassett led the tourists in nine of the 34 matches while Bradman was rested. Under Hassett's watch, Australia won seven matches, five of these by an innings, while both draws were rain-affected fixtures in which more than half the playing time was lost.
Hassett had two close encounters as captain, both on damp pitches before the First Test when Australia's unbeaten record was challenged. Against Yorkshire
in the third match of the tour, Australia came the closest to losing for the entire tour. In a low-scoring match in which neither team posted more than 101, Australia was set 60 for victory, Hassett elected not to ask for the pitch to be rolled
. Former Australian Test batsman Jack Fingleton
said that Hassett "might have made an initial mistake in not having the pitch rolled because whenever there was rain about in England the heavy roller seemed to knock any nonsense [erratic bounce and sideways movement] out of the pitch". Australia lost quick wickets and Hassett came in with the score at 2/5. After being involved in a run out
, he fell to leave Australia at 5/20. Australia lost another wicket to be 6/31, effectively seven down with Sam Loxton
incapacitated by injury, but scraped hom without further loss after both batsmen at the crease were dropped. It would have been their first defeat against an English county since 1912. In the 11th match of the tour against Hamsphire
, Australia ceded a first innings lead for the first time on tour. On a drying pitch, Australia were dismissed for 117 in reply to the home side's 195. Australia had made a solid start, before Hassett fell for 26, sparking a collapse of 8/47 to be all out for 117. Hampshire were then bowled out for 103, leaving Australia a target of 182, which they reached to seal an eight-wicket win.
The two matches aside, Hassett had a productive lead-in to the Tests, scoring 110 against Surrey
and two fifties. One of these came in a match against the Marylebone Cricket Club
(MCC) at Lord's. The MCC fielded seven players who would represent England in the Tests, and was basically a full-strength Test team. It was a chance to gain a psychological advantage before the Tests. Australia batted first and Hassett made 51 in an innings win. Fingleton hailed Hassett's display as "the prettiest half century we saw in the whole summer. There was not effort in his play. The ball sped quietly and quickly in all directions."
In the First Test
at Trent Bridge
, Hassett came in on the second day with Australia at 4/185 in reply to England's 165. Australia had been scoring slowly due to England's use of leg theory
. Hassett almost holed out early when he edged a ball just wide of the wicket-keeper. Hassett and Bradman were heckled for their slow batting but they remained unhurried in the face of England's stifling tactics Australia had plenty of time after bowling out their opponents easily.Fingleton, p. 92. Hassett had a period of 20 minutes without scoring.
Early on the third day, Bradman fell for 138 with the score at 5/305. Yardley again pinned Hassett down with more leg theory. Laker bowled with one slip, while Young had none and employed a pure ring field. The scoring was slow during this passage of play—Young delivered 11 consecutive maiden overs
and his 26-over spell conceded only 14 runs. The injured Ray Lindwall
came out to join Hassett at 7/365 without a runner
. Hassett—who had scored only 30 runs in the first 75 minutes of the morning—swept Laker for four and then hit him for the first six of the match. Hassett added 53 in the two hours of the morning session to reach lunch at 94. Australia were unhurried and remained patient in the face of Yardley's defensive tactics because they had bowled England out on the first day and there was still sufficient time to force a result. After the break, Hassett reached his first Test century on English soil. from 305 minutes. He then accelerated, adding a further 37 runs in 49 minutes, before being bowled by Bedser, having struck 20 fours and a six. This ended an eighth-wicket partnership of 107 with Lindwall with the score at 8/473; Australia ended at 509 to take a 344-run first innings lead. In the second innings, Hassett hit the winning run to end with an unbeaten 21 in an eight-wicket win.
The First Test set the tone for the series, and ahead of the next Test, Hassett top scored with 127 and took five catches in an innings win over Northamptonshire
. Hassett scored 47 and a duck in the Second Test
at Lord's, having been dropped three times in the first innings as Australia went on to a 409-run win. Hassett then struck 139 against Surrey, his second century against the county in as many matches. Hassett and Australia were in difficulty in the Third Test
at Old Trafford. Hassett made 38 as Australia scored 221 in reply to 363. In England's second innings, Hassett twice dropped Cyril Washbrook
in the same position from the same shot. After the third day's play, Washbrook shouted Hassett a drink; England were in a strong position, 316 runs ahead with seven wickets in hand. Luckily for Australia and Hassett, the pair of missed chances from the England opener late in the day cost little. Washbrook remained unbeaten on 85 as England declared without further addition after the entire fourth day and the final morning had been lost to rain. Hassett was not required as Australia batted for 61 overs to ensure a draw.
Hassett had a new role as the teams headed to Headingley for the Fourth Test. He would improvise and open with Morris, as regular opener Sid Barnes
was injured. Hassett dropped Len Hutton
—who went on to score 81—on 25. Hassett struggled to make an impact in the unfamiliar role, scoring 13 and 17. However, the other Australian batsmen stepped up and scored 3/404 in 330 minutes on the final day to set a new world record for the highest successful Test runchase, ensuring an unassailable 3–0 series lead. Hassett scored two fifties in the lead-up to the Fifth Test
, where he returned to his customary role with the return of Barnes. Hassett took a diving catch in the first innings and scored 37 in an innings win. Australia thus won the series convincingly 4–0 and Hassett finished the series with 310 runs at 44.29.
After the Tests, seven matches remained on Bradman's quest to go through a tour of England without defeat. played in four of the matches and was in fine form, hitting three consecutive centuries. Against the Gentlemen of England at Lord's, Hassett made 200 not out against a team that featured eight Test players. He then made 103 against Somerset
and 151 against the South of England
. Australia won the first two and were denied by rain in the third.
Hassett ended the first-class matches with 1,563 runs at 74.22 and seven centuries. He had the third highest aggregate behind Bradman and Morris and the second highest average. In recognition of his performances in England, he was named one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year
in 1949. Wisden
opined that "in addition to his playing ability Hassett's cheerfulness and leadership, which extended to off-the-field relaxation as well as in the more exacting part of the programme, combined to make him an ideal vice-captain able to lift a considerable load off Bradman's busy shoulders".
The day after the match, the chosen touring team was passed to the Board of Control for a decision on the captaincy. The 7–6 result in favour of Hassett provoked Ray Robinson to write that the deciding vote, cast for Hassett by the Board chairman Dr Allen Robertson (from Victoria), "... save[d] the Board from an act of disgusting ingratitude" and that, "... once again Hassett's notable achievements with the Services team had been devalued." The main reason given for the administrators' less than unanimous endorsement of Hassett was his religion. As an Irish Catholic, Hassett was subjected to the sectarian bias of some Australian cricket officials, an attitude that was common among the Anglo-Saxon Protestant ruling class of the time, and so narrowly became the first Catholic captain since Percy McDonnell
in 1888.
The team itself was significantly different to the Invincibles squad. Bradman had retired; Sid Barnes
, Don Tallon
, Ernie Toshack
and Bill Brown were unavailable, while the omission of Keith Miller
caused a furore. Miller later joined the tour after an injury sustained in a car crash sidelined Bill Johnston for an extended period at the start of the tour. However, Johnston recovered, and both he and Miller took their places in all five Tests, eliminating any disadvantage caused by the controversial initial omission of the latter.
Matching Bradman's feat, Hassett led his team through South Africa undefeated and claimed the Test series 4–0, winning 14 out of 21 matches. Although he was hampered by recurrent problems with his tonsils, the success of the tour was attributed to Hassett's, "... unobtrusive yet dominant personality." He scored 889 first-class runs at 68.38 on the tour, including four centuries. In the lead-up to the Tests, Hassett scored 100 and 96, and he led Australia to four consecutive wins, three by an innings and the other by ten wickets.
The opening Test began at Johannesburg on Christmas Eve 1949. Batting first, Australia started poorly when both opening batsmen failed to score, before Hassett "transformed the course of the game with a hundred of considerable quality." He compiled 112 (in 261 minutes) of the 198 runs added while he was at the crease; Australia amassed 413 then bowled South Africa out twice to win by an innings. He then scored 57 and enforced the follow on in an eight-wicket win in the Second Test.
Hassett’s winning run looked at an end when Australia was exposed to a sticky wicket
in the Third Test. The hosts had reached 2/240 at the end of the first day before rain hit and made the pitch extremely difficult for batting. The next day, Hassett had to waste time to keep South Africa batting on the poor surface so that Australia’s batsmen would not be exposed to the worst conditions. He then told his bowlers to perform badly so that the hosts would not realise how difficult the pitch was and declare so that Australia would have to face the sticky wicket. Despite Hassett’s subterfuge, the pitch was so poor that South Africa fell to be 311 all out, but Australia had gained extra time. The tourists made only 75, but then dismissed the hosts for 99, Hassett using defensive tactics to slow the scoring and keep South Africa batting as the pitch slowly improved. Australia chased down the target of 336 with five wickets in hand to secure a highly unlikely win. The local newspaper, The Natal Mercury said that "Renowned for their fighting qualities as a cricketers, the occasion brought the best out of the Australians ... That indomitable spirit to win through, no matter what the circumstances may be, was in most marked evidence."
Hassett’s perfect record as Test captain ended in the Fourth Test, when he made 53 in a high-scoring draw. He then "reached peak form" in the final Test at Port Elizabeth
. He top-scored with 167 as the match unfolded in a similar manner to the First Test, with a similar result. Australia made 7/549 declared and then won by an innings and 259 runs after enforcing the follow on.
As a leader, Hassett was regarded as an outstanding success. In that era, the tours were accompanied by much ceremony, and captains were expected to make many appearances with dignatories at dinner parties and make speeches. He had his players participate in cultural activities such as dancing and singing with indigenous tribesmen, and reached out to the local children, interspersing his presentations with self-deprecating jibes. As the team’s boat departed for home, Hassett tossed his remaining money away among the local children. The Australian High Commission hailed him as the most effective Australian diplomat to have visited South Africa. Of his on-field performances, the historian Chris Harte wrote that "Hassett’s captaincy impressed from the start. His warmth of personality and sense of fun contrasted with Bradman’s efficient but cold methods. It was a happy tour with the players remembering particularly the hospitality offered to them."
The England team that visited Australia for the 1950–51 Ashes series had a poor start to their tour, but at Brisbane on the opening day of the First Test, "... surprised even themselves by dismissing Australia for 228 on a good pitch." However, rain intervened to negate England's advantage, and when the contest resumed two days later, England batted on a sticky wicket. The English captain Freddie Brown conceded a first-innings lead of 160 runs by declaring with his team's score on 7/68 to force Australia to bat in unfavourable conditions. The Australian batsmen fared worse in the difficult conditions and Hassett gambled by declaring at 7/32, setting England 193 to win. Hassett himself had only managed eight and three for the match. During the 70 minutes remaining before stumps, Australia took six English wickets (which meant that 20 wickets fell for 102 runs in the day's play), and went on to win the match by 70 runs the following day. Hassett returned to his normal form away from the sticky wicket, scoring 127 and 28 not out against Queensland between Tests. It was his third century in as many matches for Victoria.
In the Second Test at Melbourne, "Australia owed much to the imperturbable Hassett", as he top-scored with 52 in the first innings. Australia won another low-scoring match by 28 runs; Freddie Brown was the only other player to post a half century in the match and no team passed 200. Hassett then stroked 70 in the Third Test, which Australia won by an innings to take an unassailable 3–0 series lead, before Australia won their fifth Test in a row in the next match in Adelaide.
Before the final Test, Hassett's run-scoring peaked when he stroked 232 against Brown's men in a drawn match for Victoria. In the Fifth Test at the MCG, he top-scored with 92 before his dismissal to a one-handed diving catch sparked a collapse and Australia managed only 217 batting first. The tourists took a first innings lead and Hassett made 48 in Australia’s second innings of 197. England made the 95 needed for victory, and the eight-wicket loss was Australia's first Test defeat since the resumption of international cricket after World War II, ending a streak of 25 Tests without defeat. Hassett and Brown described the series as the friendliest they had been involved in, but despite the success on the field, the series was poorly attended and revenue was down by around 25% from the corresponding tour four years earlier, mainly due to the absence of Bradman to spark public interest.
Hassett was the second-highest run-scorer of the series, hitting 366 runs at 40.67. Only England's Len Hutton
(533 runs at 88.83) was better. Hassett ended the first-class season with 1,423 runs at 64.68, including four centuries and five fifties, topping the run-scoring aggregates. He played in seven shield matches without defeat, winning five to help Victoria to another title.
Wisden, taking into consideration Australia's post-war record and the West Indies' success during their 1950 tour of England, declared the 1951–52 series between the two sides to be, "the unofficial cricket championship of the world". Hassett went into the First Test at Brisbane without playing a first-class match for the season due to the scheduling. However, this was negated by the fact that the tourists only had one match of comparable standard before the Tests, prompting Hassett to make some unusually blunt comments, saying that "The West Indies have suffered from sheer stupidity in the organisation of their tour". Like many of the Australians, he struggled to pick the action of West Indian leg spinner Sonny Ramadhin
. He was out for only six in the first innings, as Australia eked out a 10-run lead. He then managed 35 as Australia scraped home in the second innings by three wickets to 7/236. He had been dismissed by Ramadhin both times, bowled and lbw, unable to pick which way the ball was spinning. Between Tests, Hassett had an opportunity to rectify this problem when Victoria hosted the Caribbean tourists, but Ramadhin prevailed again, dismissing him for 12 in his only innings. Having worked out how to pick Ramadhin's variations, he compiled 132 and 46 not out in a seven-wicket win in the Second Test at Sydney. Hassett's century was part of a 235-run partnership with Keith Miller
, an Australian Test record for any wicket against the West Indies. Ramadhin ended with 1/196 and was demoralised. Between Tests, Hassett's Victorians faced New South Wales in consecutive matches. Hassett scored 92 in the first encounter, a high-scoring draw, and his team had the upper hand in the latter, forcing their opponents to hold on with only three wickets remaining.
Hassett missed the next Test with a strained muscle; this led to a bureaucratic restriction that hindered his deputy Morris. Having been injured on the eve of the Test, Hassett’s withdrawal forced the selectors to call in batsman Phil Ridings
at late notice, but some of the board members could not be contacted to ratify the decision. This meant that Hassett had to be replaced by a spare bowler who was already in the squad. In Hassett’s absence, Australia’s thin batting line-up collapsed on a damp pitch hostile to batsmen and lost. Returning for the Fourth Test at the MCG, Australia’s batsmen again struggled; Hassett made 15 and his team conceded a lead of 56 on the first innings. His team was set a second innings target of 260 runs to win. Hassett made 102 but found little support from the other batsmen. When he was dismissed with the score at 8/218, the West Indies appeared set to level the series. However, an unbeaten last wicket partnership of 38 runs between tailenders Doug Ring
and Bill Johnston
gave Australia an unlikely victory and the series 3–1. It was reported that Hassett, who had just taken a shower after being dismissed, was so mesmerised by the efforts of Ring and Johnston that the watched the final moments of the match naked from the change rooms.
Ahead of the final Test of the series, Hassett's Victorians suffered a four-wicket defeat in their second match of the season against the West Indies, Hassett scoring 56 and 43. Australia completed an emphatic 4–1 result by winning the final encounter, even though they were bowled out for 116 on the first day of the match, before fighting back to dismiss the tourists for 78. Hassett's second innings score of 64 took his total to 402 runs (at an average of 57.43), making him the leading run-scorer for the series. Hassett ended the season with a dominant 229 against South Australia, setting up an innings win, dwarfing the 222 and 166 made by his opponents combined. Despite this, New South Wales claimed the Sheffield Shield for the season, and Hassett ended the summer with 855 runs at 61.07.
Australia won the opening game of the rubber in an unexpectedly close match in Brisbane by 96 runs, Hassett making 55 and 17. South Africa struck back and gained their first Test victory over Australia for 41 years, taking the Second Test at Melbourne by 82 runs. Australia recovered momentum by convincingly winning the Third Test by an innings, but Hassett's form had been mediocre in all three encounters, totalling 76 runs in five innings. In the Fourth Test at Adelaide, he played his only significant innings for the series, scoring 163 and sharing a 275-run stand with Colin McDonald. With Australia heading for a victory that would give them the series, Ray Lindwall
and Miller suffered injuries and were unable to bowl in the second innings. This compelled Hassett to delay his second innings declaration: South Africa then forced a draw by batting out 73 (eight-ball) overs against the depleted bowling attack with four wickets in hand. In anticipation of the forthcoming tour of England, Australian selectors made a fateful decision to rest Lindwall and Miller for the last Test when Hassett won the toss and elected to bat. He scored 40 runs in a total of 520 that gave Australia apparent command of the match. However, South Africa again fought back; after scoring 435, the tourists bowled Australia out for 209, Hassett making 30. They then won the match by chasing a target of 297 runs in their second innings. Hassett bowled the final over and the tourists’ Roy McLean
took three fours from the first five balls to reach their target and square the series. Hassett ended the Tests with 309 runs at 38.63 and the entire season with 779 runs at 38.95, a substantially lower return compared to previous Australian summers.
For the first time in 20 years, Australia had failed to win a Test series at home, the last being the infamous Bodyline
series of 1932–33. Wisden called the 2–2 result, "... the biggest cricket shock for many years." The absence of Lindwall and Miller in the later part of the series exposed the limitations of the other Australian bowlers and did not augur well for the future. Hassett made it known that the tour of England in 1953
would be his farewell to the game. The selectors included only two specialist opening batsmen in the team, which caused problems when McDonald was injured and Morris struggled for form. This forced Hassett to play as an opener in the Tests; while Morris’s old partner Barnes was in England to report on the tour as a reporter, his history of criticising cricket administrators meant that officialdom would call him into the squad to cover for McDonald. There were also tensions among the team off the field. The more experienced members of the team from Hassett’s generation were World War II veterans, and were happy to be alive and tended to enjoy drinking and partying, while the younger members tended to be teetotallers. This led to a divide as the seniors regularly halted the team bus for drinking stops at the roadside pubs, leaving their younger teammates waiting. Some of the non-drinkers said that because of the frequent visits at pubs, the team bus only travelled approximately 15 km each hour.
Hassett struggled in two warm-up matches against Tasmania before the Australians left for England, and despite winning both fixtures, it was not to be a happy tour on the field. In the first match on English soil, against East Molesey, Bill Johnston
, Australia’s leading wicket-taker in 1948, broke down with a serious knee injury. Hassett struggled in the opening first-class matches in England, passing 40 only once in six innings. In the last match before the Tests, against Sussex
, he hit an unbeaten 108. Australia's progress before the Tests was constantly curtailed by bad weather. Of the six first-class matches that Hassett played, three did not reach the second innings, although Australia did manage two victories.
In the First Test at Trent Bridge, Hassett hit 115 in a rain-affected match that ended in a draw. Over the next month, he struggled in the county matches, scoring only 30 runs in total. The Australians were to be frustrated in the next three Tests. In the Second Test at Lord’s, Hassett made 104, top-scoring in Australia’s 346 despite being hindered by a bandaged right arm and cramps. England took a 26-run first innings lead, but Australia replied with 368. Hassett’s bowlers reduced England to 3/12 but they hung on to deny Australia victory. The Third Test was another wet affair. Hassett made 26 as Australia scored 318 and took a 42-run first innings lead, but they then collapsed to be 8/35. Australia was saved from defeat by the rain, which meant that less than 14 hours of play was possible.
In the Fourth Test, the Australians worked themselves into a position to win the match and thus retain the Ashes. Hassett made 37 as his team compiled 266 and took a 99-run first innings lead. The tourists looked set for victory and retention of The Ashes at the start of the final day, but time-wasting and defiant defence from the English batsmen left Australia a target of 177 in the last two hours. This would have required a scoring rate much higher than in the first four days of the match. Hassett made only four, but Australia had made 111 in 75 minutes and were on schedule for a win. At that point, English medium-pacer Trevor Bailey
began bowling with the wicket-keeper more than two metres down the leg side in order to deny the Australians an opportunity to hit the ball, but the umpires did not penalise them as wides. The match ended in a draw with Australia at 4/147 when time ran out. English wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans
said that "they were right" in claiming that Bailey's bowling was "the worst kind of negative cricket" and that he had "cheated [them] of victory". The match was also marred by a series of umpiring decisions made by Frank Chester
against the Australians, leading Hassett to request that he not be appointed for the Fifth Test, something the English cricket authorities granted.
This meant that the fate of the Ashes would be determined by the final match at The Oval. Hassett warmed up with consecutive half-centuries against Surrey
and Warwickshire
. In the second innings of the latter match, he made 21 not out, holding the team together as Australia stumbled to 5/53 in pursuit of 166 for victory when time ran out.
In Australia’s tour matches at The Oval, the pacemen had been effective, and Hassett and Morris thought that things would be similar in the Tests. As a result, leg spinner Ring was omitted. Hassett made 53 as Australia made 275 batting first. England then took a 31-run lead and Hassett was out for only 10 in the second innings as Australia fell for only 162, as the local spinners Jim Laker
and Tony Lock
cut down the Australians on a turning surface. The hosts then reached the target safely with eight wickets in hand to claim a 1–0 victory, thus winning the Ashes for the first time since the infamous Bodyline
tour of 1932–33. Hassett was in fine form after the Tests, scoring 148 against Somerset
, 65 against Kent
, 106 against South, and 74 and 25 against TN Pearce's XI
in the remaining first-class matches in England. Australia managed to win the matches against Kent and South by an innings, but it was too late to save the Ashes. Nevertheless, Harte said that “Hassett’s leadership throughout had been sparkling”.
Hassett made one final first-class appearance upon returning to Australia, in a testimonial match against Morris's XI. He made 126 in the first innings, his final century, but could manage only three in the second as his team went down by 121 runs. Nevertheless, the match sent him into retirement ₤5,503 wealthier, and with more first-class centuries than any Australian except Bradman.
batsman, known for his wide range of strokes, timing, quick footwork and strong wrists. However, as his career progressed and his seniority in the Australian team increased, he became a more cautious player who often frustrated spectators with his sedate scoring, particularly after World War II. Despite this, Hassett remained an aggressive and adventurous strokemaker in matches for Victoria. He had a poker face, and this benefited him as a captain, as even his teammates sometimes found it hard to discern his mood or thinking. During his 24 Test matches in charge, he won 14 games and suffered defeat only four times, but it was the last of the four losses that blighted his record. Hassett was a very occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, averaging one over
per first-class match. He took 18 wickets in 216 matches, and never took more than two in a single innings. He never took a wicket at Test level and bowled less than 19 overs.
Hassett’s most distinctive trait was his fun-loving personality. He was famed for his practical jokes, sense of humour—particularly his self-deprecating quips—and wit, such as in his calming talk to the rioters in Calcutta in 1945. He remained jovial during his speeches even after Australia suffered defeats. After bowing out of Test cricket in 1953 with a loss, he said that England "earned the victory from the very first ball—to the second last over anyway", referring to an over that he bowled when defeat became inevitable.
During the 1938 tour of England, Hassett smuggled a goat into the bedroom he shared with Stan McCabe
and O'Reilly while the team was staying at Grindleford
, after they had fallen asleep. They awoke to unexpected smells and bleating. During the 1948 tour of England, he was reported to have unnerved his teammates and tempted fate by bringing a toy duck into the dressing room, and held up play during a county match by hiding the ball in a pile of sawdust. During the same summer, Hassett and a few teammates were being chauffeured back to London after a function. It was after midnight, but Hassett asked the driver to stop at a random mansion along the road. He then rang the bell and told the startled householder that he "Just thought we'd pop in". The owner happened to recognise Hassett and received the cricketers. In the Third Test of the same tour, after dropping two hooked catches from Washbrook, Hassett responded by borrowing a policeman’s helmet, before motioning to Ray Lindwall
to bowl another bouncer. During the 1953 tour of England, a waiter spilled a dessert on Hassett's jacket. Initially declining the waiter's multiple offers to have his jacket taken away for cleaning, Hassett acquiesced and while taking off his jacket, noticed a spot on his trousers. He then silently pointed to the spot, removed his trousers and handed them to the waiter, before conitinuing to eat his meal in his underpants.
Aside from the humorous side of his personality, Hassett was also known for his diplomatic skills as a leader and his affability, particularly his ability to endear himself to hosts and public while representing Australia overseas. Richie Benaud
wrote of Hassett: "There are others who have made more runs and taken more wickets, but very few have ever got more out of a lifetime." Teammate Keith Miller
said that Hassett had "more genuine friends in all walks of life than any other cricketer".
. After retiring from cricket, Hassett joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission as a radio commentator in 1956, remaining in that position until 1981. During his time in the commentary booth, he was known for his self-deprecating humour and frequently made fun of his conservative approach to batting during the latter half of his career. Hassett was known for his disapproval of some of the aspects of the modern evolution of cricket, particularly the more aggressive player conduct that contrasted with the more sedate and gentlemanly style of his era. He also served on the executive committee of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, along with fellow former South Melbourne, Victorian and Test cricketer Laurie Nash
. Hassett ran for election as South Melbourne’s delegate to the VCA in December 1953, but was defeated. During the 1954–55 Ashes series in Australia, he wrote for The Daily Telegraph
. In 1942, Hassett married Tessie Davis, a Geelong accountant, and they had two daughters. His nephew John Shaw went on to play for Victoria in the 1950s and 1960s. A batsman, Shaw was a regular member of the state team and was selected for an Australian Second XI that toured New Zealand in 1959–60. The MCG has a function room named after Hassett, as does the VCA, which launched a monthly luncheon club in December 1990 named in his honour. In the first year of its operation, more than 500 people joined and a profit in excess of AUD12,000 was made; this money were reinvested in the VCA's promotion of junior cricket. In his final years, Hassett moved to Batehaven
on the south coast of New South Wales
to pursue his love of fishing. He died there in 1993.
MBE
MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...
(28 August 1913 – 16 June 1993) was a cricketer
Cricketer
A cricketer is a person who plays the sport of cricket. Official and long-established cricket publications prefer the traditional word "cricketer" over the rarely used term "cricket player"....
who played for 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...
and Australia. The diminutive Hassett was an elegant middle-order
Batting order (cricket)
In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batsmen play through their team's innings, there always being two batsmen taking part at any one time...
batsman, described by Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
as, "... a master of nearly every stroke ... his superb timing, nimble footwork and strong wrists enabled him to make batting look a simple matter". His sporting career at school singled him out as a precocious talent, but he took a number of seasons to secure a regular place 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...
and initially struggled to make large scores. Selected for the 1938 tour of England
Australian cricket team in England in 1938
The 1938 Ashes series between Australia and England was drawn. England and Australia won a Test each, with two of the other Tests drawn and the third game of the series, scheduled for Manchester, abandoned without a ball being bowled, only the second instance of this in more than 60 years of Test...
with only one first-class century to his name, Hassett established himself with three consecutive first-class tons
Century (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a batsman reaches his century when he scores 100 or more runs in a single innings. The term is also included in "century partnership" which occurs when two batsmen add 100 runs to the team total when they are batting together. A century is regarded as a landmark score for...
at the start of the campaign. Although he struggled in the Tests, he played a crucial role in Australia's win in the Fourth Test, with a composed display in the run-chase which sealed the retention of 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...
. Upon returning to Australia, he distinguished himself in domestic cricket with a series of high scores, becoming the only player to score two centuries in a match against Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (cricketer)
William Joseph "Bill" O'Reilly , often known as Tiger O'Reilly, was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.O'Reilly was one of the best spin bowlers to...
—widely regarded as the best bowler in the world.
However, the eruption of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
interrupted Hassett's progress. With first-class cricket cancelled, he enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
, serving in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
before being chosen to captain the Australian Services cricket team
Australian Services cricket team
The Australian Services XI was a cricket team comprising solely military service personnel during World War II. They became active in May 1945 after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The team played matches against English cricket sides of both military and civilian origins to celebrate the end of the war...
that played the "Victory Tests
Victory Tests
The Victory Tests were a series of cricket matches played in England from 19 May to 22 August 1945, between a combined Australian Services XI and an English national side...
" in England during the months immediately following Victory in Europe Day
Victory in Europe Day
Victory in Europe Day commemorates 8 May 1945 , the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. The formal surrender of the occupying German forces in the Channel Islands was not...
. Hassett was the only capped Test player in the team and his men unexpectedly drew the series 2–2 against an English team consisting of Test cricketers. Hassett's leadership was intrinsic to the success of the team, which toured and helped to re-establish the game in England, India and Australia in the aftermath of the war.
At the advanced age of 32, Hassett began his Test cricket career in earnest and became a more sedate, cautious player who often frustrated spectators with his slow scoring. From 1946-47 onwards, he served as Don Bradman's vice-captain for three series, including the Invincibles tour of England in 1948. He then succeeded the retired Bradman as Australian captain in 1949 and presided over a successful team that gradually aged and declined. After an unbeaten tour of South Africa that saw a 4–0 triumph in the Tests, Hassett led the Australians to 4–1 home win over England in the 1950-51 Ashes series. The solitary loss in the Fifth Test was the first Australian Test defeat since the resumption of cricket after World War II. Australia's dominance of world cricket waned and, in Hassett's final season at home in 1952–53, it drew 2–2 against a South African team that was expected to be weak opposition. In 24 Test matches as captain, Hassett oversaw 14 wins and suffered defeat only four times, but it was the last of the four losses that blighted his record. Defeated in the last match of the 1953 series against England, Hassett's team lost 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...
, ending Australia's 19-year ascendancy. At the age of 40, he promptly retired following a final testimonial match after returning to Australia. A cheerful character with a poker face that aided his captaincy, Hassett was known for his ability as an ambassador for Australia, his sense of humour and diplomatic skills. 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....
wrote of him: "There are others who have made more runs and taken more wickets, but very few have ever got more out of a lifetime."
Early years
The youngest of nine children (six boys and three girls), Hassett was born in NewtownNewtown, Victoria
Newtown is an inner western suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is a primarily residential area occupying one of the highest points of urban Geelong, has always been a desirable place of residence and it is the location of many of Geelong's oldest and most valuable properties.The locality of...
, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria's second-largest city. His father Edward was a real estate agent
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
who served as the secretary of the Geelong Permanent Building Society
Building society
A building society is a financial institution owned by its members as a mutual organization. Building societies offer banking and related financial services, especially mortgage lending. These institutions are found in the United Kingdom and several other countries.The term "building society"...
and was a keen club cricketer. The Hassett boys played three-a-side cricket matches in the backyard where Lindsay imitated his idol, the Test batsman Bill Ponsford
Bill Ponsford
William Harold "Bill" Ponsford MBE was an Australian cricketer. Usually playing as an opening batsman, he formed a successful and long-lived partnership opening the batting for Victoria and Australia with Bill Woodfull, his friend and state and national captain...
. Along with two of his brothers, Hassett attended the Geelong College
The Geelong College
The Geelong College is an independent, co-educational, day and boarding school, located in Newtown, an inner-western suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia....
and made the First XI at the age of 14. During his five years in the team, he amassed 2,335 runs and was captain for three years. This total included an innings of 245 against Scotch College
Scotch College, Melbourne
Scotch College, Melbourne is an independent, Presbyterian, day and boarding school for boys, located in Hawthorn, an inner-eastern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
. In addition, he led the school's football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
team for three seasons and won the Victorian Public Schools
Associated Public Schools of Victoria
The Associated Public Schools of Victoria are a group of eleven elite independent schools in Victoria, Australia, similar to the Athletic Association of the Great Public Schools of New South Wales in New South Wales....
singles championship at tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
. One of his older brothers, Richard played for Victoria in the early 1930s as a leg spin
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
ner.
While still at school, Hassett played for the South Melbourne
Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club
The Casey-South Melbourne Cricket Club is a cricket club located in the outer south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne East, which plays in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition. Founded in 1862 as South Melbourne, it has produced nine Australian Test captains, more than any other cricket...
First XI in Melbourne's district cricket
Victorian Premier Cricket
Victorian Premier Cricket is the elite club cricket competition in the state of Victoria, administered by Cricket Victoria. Each club fields four teams of adult players and usually play on weekends and public holidays. Matches are played on turf wickets under limited-time rules, with most results...
competition during the 1930–31 season. A month after his debut for South, he was selected for his first representative match; batting for the Victorian Country XI against the touring West Indies team, Hassett scored 147 not out. After being overlooked for further state honours for a season, he made his first-class debut against South Australia
Southern Redbacks
The South Australia cricket team, nicknamed the Southern Redbacks and known as the West End Redbacks due to their sponsorship agreement with local brewers West End, are an Australian first class cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia, and represent the state of South Australia...
in February 1933, but his highest score in four innings for the season was 12 and he aggregated only 25 runs. He was overlooked for the entirety of the next two seasons. Recalled in 1935–36, Hassett consolidated his place in the team through consistency rather than tall scores, scoring 212 runs at 30.28, including two fifties, 73 and 51. The following season, he led Victoria's batting averages, scoring 503 runs at 71.85. Despite his success, Hassett was unable to register his maiden first-class century, although he did manage seven consecutive fifties in nine innings for the season, including a 93 against Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
and 83 against arch-rivals New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
in a consistent run that helped Victoria to the Sheffield Shield title.
In 1937–38, Hassett made 693 first-class runs including a century and five fifties at an average of 53.30, including another 90 against Queensland. Despite having only one first-class century to his name, 127 not out against the touring New Zealanders at the MCG
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
in the first match of the season, he "scraped" into Australia's team for the 1938 tour of England.
Test debut
Worcestershire County Cricket Club
Worcestershire 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 Worcestershire...
, Oxford University
Oxford University Cricket Club
Oxford University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team, representing the University of Oxford. It plays its home games at the University Parks in Oxford, England...
, Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
and Cambridge University
Cambridge University Cricket Club
Cambridge University Cricket Club is a first-class cricket team. It now plays all but one of its first-class cricket matches as part of the Cambridge University Centre of Cricketing Excellence , which includes Anglia Ruskin University...
respectively as Australia won their first four matches by an innings. He added 57 and 98 in the next two matches against 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...
and Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, and despite failing to pass 30 in the next four innings, he was selected to make his Test debut at Nottingham
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 the first match of the series. Hassett had an ignominious debut, scoring one and two in a high-scoring draw in which almost 1,500 runs were scored for the loss of only 24 wickets on a "batting paradise". He maintained his county form between Tests, adding 118 against Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
before scoring his only half-century in the Tests, adding 56 and 42 at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
in the drawn Second Test.
The Third Test was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to rain, and Hassett prepared for what would be the decisive Fourth Test by scoring 94 and 127 in consecutive matches against Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
and Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire 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 Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
. The match 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 ....
in Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
was Australia's only Test victory, which was enough to ensure a drawn series and the retention of 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...
. In a low-scoring match in a batsman-friendly series, Australia, chasing a target of only 105 runs to win, had slumped to 3/50 when Hassett came to the crease as an approaching storm threatened to either end the game or make the pitch difficult to bat on
Sticky wicket
Sticky wicket is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance; it originates from difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket.-Origins:...
. Hassett calmly hit 33 runs from 36 balls, to guide the tourists to a five-wicket victory, much to the relief of his captain Don Bradman, who was so nervous about the outcome that he could not watch the play. The innings earned Hassett a reputation of being calm under pressure, and Bradman later wrote that Hassett was a "masterful player" in a crisis.
After the match-winning innings, Hassett failed to pass 31 in his next six innings before Australia lost the Fifth Test by an innings and 579 runs, the heaviest defeat in Test history. He made 42 and 10 in the record-breaking match, and added a pair of half-centuries against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
thereafter. As he finished third in the batting averages for the tour, with 1,589 runs at 52.97, and the dry summer resulted in pitches mostly favourable to batting, Wisden found his Test performances, in which he made 199 runs at 24.88, anomalous:
Rivalry with O'Reilly
Benefiting from his experience in England, Hassett scored five centuries in his nine matches for 1938–39 and finished second in the first-class aggregates for the season. This included a run of seven matches in the middle of the season in which he scored five centuries and four fifties and ended the season with 967 runs at 74.38. He made 211 not out and 102 in two matches against South Australia, whose attack was led by Clarrie GrimmettClarrie Grimmett
Clarence Victor "Clarrie" Grimmett was a cricketer; although born in New Zealand, he played most of his cricket in Australia. He is thought by many to be one of the finest early spin bowlers, and usually credited as the developer of the flipper.Grimmett was born in Caversham a suburb of Dunedin,...
, the world record holder for the most career Test wickets. Hassett also scored centuries in both matches against Queensland and another against Western Australia. In the first match against Queensland, he scored 104 in the first innings before adding 73 in the second innings to steer the Victorians to a narrow three-wicket victory.
This period of Hassett’s career was notable for his battles with Australia's leading Test bowler, Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (cricketer)
William Joseph "Bill" O'Reilly , often known as Tiger O'Reilly, was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.O'Reilly was one of the best spin bowlers to...
, when the latter appeared for New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
(NSW). O'Reilly conceded that Hassett played his bowling better than any other batsman. Hassett's method was predicated on counter-attacking: whenever O'Reilly bowled his famed wrong 'un
Googly
In cricket, a googly is a type of delivery bowled by a right-arm leg spin bowler. It is occasionally referred to as a Bosie , an eponym in honour of its inventor Bernard Bosanquet.- Explanation :...
, he could read this delivery in its flight (whereas most other batsmen could not) and he advanced down the pitch to hit the ball over the fielders on the leg side
Leg side
The leg side, or on side, is defined to be a particular half of the field used to play the sport of cricket.From the point of view of a right-handed batsman facing the bowler, it is the left hand side of the cricket field...
. The disparate demeanours and physiques of the two men accentuated their rivalry. Ray Robinson
Ray Robinson (cricket writer)
Raymond John Robinson was an Australian journalist and author, best known for his writings on the sport of cricket. Born in Melbourne, Robinson attended Brighton State school and joined the Melbourne's The Herald as a copyboy. Given a cadetship with the paper, he reported on Australian football...
wrote that O'Reilly, "... towered nine inches above him; it would have looked more apt for Hassett to sell him a newspaper than contend with his bowling." The phlegmatic Hassett sometimes goaded the irascible O'Reilly, which few batsmen were game to do. On one occasion, he repeatedly mis-hit O'Reilly's bowling, prompting an irritated O'Reilly to ask if he had a middle to his bat. Hassett replied, "I don't need one with you, Tige
Bill O'Reilly (cricketer)
William Joseph "Bill" O'Reilly , often known as Tiger O'Reilly, was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.O'Reilly was one of the best spin bowlers to...
." It was a long, defensive innings of 81 against NSW (including O'Reilly) in 1937 that first brought Hassett to the attention of the national selectors. During an interval in the match, O'Reilly told his teammates: "Nobody has ever kept me out like that little bastard."
In the 1938–39 season, O’Reilly removed Hassett twice in three innings in matches between the two states. Their rivalry culminated in two encounters on the SCG
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
at the conclusion of the 1939–40 season. The first, between Victoria and NSW, effectively decided the winner of the Sheffield Shield; Victoria had won the first match between the two teams for the season. By scoring 122 in both innings, Hassett became the only player to score two centuries in a match against a team containing O'Reilly. Nevertheless, NSW won the game and the shield, before playing against a Rest of Australia combination. Batting for the Rest of Australia, Hassett almost repeated his feat by making 136 and 75, but this was not enough to stop NSW, who demonstrated their strength with another victory. Hassett had scored five half-centuries in the five preceding matches of the season, including three in four innings against Grimmett’s South Australia, and ended the Australian summer with 897 runs at 74.75. He lost his wicket to O'Reilly in a first-class match only three times.
War years and the Services team
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
(AIF); despite his enlistment he remained active in cricket and played four first-class matches in the following 1940–41 season, scoring 384 runs at 54.86 including a century against South Australia, before his posting to the Middle East in early-1941. As a member of the 2/2nd Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, attached to the Australian 7th Division, he was stationed at Haifa
Haifa
Haifa is the largest city in northern Israel, and the third-largest city in the country, with a population of over 268,000. Another 300,000 people live in towns directly adjacent to the city including the cities of the Krayot, as well as, Tirat Carmel, Daliyat al-Karmel and Nesher...
in the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
). During his time in the army, Hassett became popular among his colleagues because of his "blithe spirit". He was offered a commission as an officer, but declined. Hassett maintained his connection to cricket by captaining an AIF team against service teams from other Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
countries serving in the region, playing matches in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
and Palestine. Following the outbreak of war in the Pacific
Pacific War
The Pacific War, also sometimes called the Asia-Pacific War refers broadly to the parts of World War II that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, then called the Far East...
, the Australian 6th and 7th Divisions were recalled to Australia. He married during his brief return to Melbourne in May 1942, before his unit was deployed to Port Moresby
Port Moresby
Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, which made it a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43...
in New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
to fight against Imperial Japan.
In 1945, with the cessation of hostilities in Europe, Hassett was selected to lead the Australian Services cricket team
Australian Services cricket team
The Australian Services XI was a cricket team comprising solely military service personnel during World War II. They became active in May 1945 after the defeat of Nazi Germany. The team played matches against English cricket sides of both military and civilian origins to celebrate the end of the war...
on a tour of England. Officially a military unit, the team's commanding officer
Commanding officer
The commanding officer is the officer in command of a military unit. Typically, the commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitude to run the unit as he sees fit, within the bounds of military law...
was Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader
Squadron Leader is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in countries which have a non-English air force-specific rank structure. In these...
Stan Sismey
Stan Sismey
Squadron Leader Stanley George Sismey was an Australian cricketer whose career highlight was commanding officer of the Australian Services XI during the Victory Tests of 1945. Sismey, although commanding officer of the side, was not the on-field captain. That honour was bestowed upon Test...
of the Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
, although Hassett was the on-field captain. They went on to play 64 matches in nine months of cricket in four countries. The focal point of the campaign was a series of matches against England known as the "Victory Tests
Victory Tests
The Victory Tests were a series of cricket matches played in England from 19 May to 22 August 1945, between a combined Australian Services XI and an English national side...
", which began in May. Australian cricket administrators would not accredit the three-day matches as official Test matches, arguing that there were not enough Test-level players among the servicemen; Hassett was the only player who had Test experience, and only nine others had played first-class cricket. As a result, Australia were not expected to be able to seriously challenge the hosts, who had many of their pre-war Test players.
The Victory Tests were expected to usher in a new post-war era, which it hoped would be more aggressive and attractive. The last Anglo-Australian Test series before the war had featured a large number of draws due to defensive play. Australia unexpectedly drew the series 2–2, and Hassett wrote at the end of the series that "This is cricket as it should be ... These games have shown that international cricket can be played as between real friends—so let's have no more talk of "war" in cricket". The series was regarded as an outstanding success, with a total attendance of 367,000 watching the bright and attacking play. In the five Victory Tests, Hassett made 277 runs at 27.70, including two fifties. The Services and Australian Imperial Force teams played separate matches in England during the season, which lasted until September, although only one other Services match was given first-class status. Hassett scored three centuries in matches for the Services.
Due to the unexpectedly strong success of the Victory Tests, the government of Australia
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
ordered the team to delay their demobilisation. With the team raising so much money for war charities, the government directed them to travel home via India and Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
for further fundraising matches for the Red Cross.
Hassett enjoyed greater success on the Services tour of India, although the Australians had little to celebrate as a team. It was a tougher proposition for Hassett’s men, as all but one of the nine matches were against first-class opposition, and many of the players regarded the local umpires as being deliberately biased in favour of the home teams. After arriving in October, conflict hit the team after a series of ineffective displays. The team, mostly made up of RAAF personnel, had been ill with food poisoning and dysentery, and travelled across the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
via long and bumpy train journeys for the first month. The airmen wanted to travel by air, and tried to ask Hassett and manager Keith Johnson for air travel. When this was refused, they threatened to abandon the tour or replace infantryman Hassett with either Keith Carmody
Keith Carmody
Douglas Keith Carmody was an Australian first class cricketer who played during the 1940s and 1950s.He was Western Australia's captain when they won their first ever Sheffield Shield and is credited as being the inventor of the 'umbrella field'.Born in Mosman, Carmody started his career with New...
or 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...
—who were RAAF fighter pilots—if their wish was not granted. With incumbent Australian captain Bradman likely to miss the upcoming tour of New Zealand, the Services leader would be one of the frontrunners for the national captaincy. Miller refused to plot against Hassett and the dispute ended when Sismey arranged for a RAAF plane already in India to transport the team; after a month in India, their first flight came in late November.
In the opening match of the tour, a draw against North Zone
North Zone cricket team
The North Zone cricket team is a first-class cricket team that represents northern India in the Duleep Trophy. It is a composite team of players from six first-class Indian teams from northern India competing in the Ranji Trophy: Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and...
, Hassett made 73. In a high-scoring match in hot conditions against the Prince's XI in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, he struck 187 and 124 not out in Australia's 8/424 declared and 5/304. The team was scheduled to play East Zone
East Zone cricket team
The East Zone cricket team is a first-class cricket team that represents eastern India in the Duleep Trophy. It is a composite team of five first-class Indian teams from eastern India competing in the Ranji Trophy: Assam, Bengal, Jharkand, Orissa and Tripura...
in Calcutta, but the city was gripped in deadly riots as independence activists agitated against British rule. Australia batted first and made only 107, before East Zone replied with 131. Led by Hassett's 125, Australia posted 304 to leave the hosts a target of 281. On the final day, pro-independence rioters broke through the security presence and invaded the pitch for the second time during the match, while East Zone were batting. East Zone batsman Denis Compton
Denis Compton
Denis Charles Scott Compton CBE was an English cricketer who played in 78 Test matches, and a footballer...
told the rioters to talk to Hassett, saying that the Australian skipper controlled proceedings. Hassett smiled at the leader of the irate demonstrators and asked "You wouldn't happen to have a cigarette, would you, old boy?" The rioters calmed down and play resumed.
Australia struggled in the three representative matches against India. Hassett made 53 in the first match in Mumbai, and although the Australians took a 192-run first innings lead, the hosts managed to hold on for a draw. The second match in Calcutta was an evenly-contested draw, before India won the deciding match. Hassett top-scored with 143 in Australia’s 339, but the hosts took a first innings lead of 186 to set up a six-wicket win. Hassett ended with 235 runs at 47.00 in the three international matches, but did not taste victory in any of his seven matches on Indian soil. He scored 57 as Australia defeated Ceylon by an innings in Colombo
Colombo
Colombo is the largest city of Sri Lanka. It is located on the west coast of the island and adjacent to Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte, the capital of Sri Lanka. Colombo is often referred to as the capital of the country, since Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte is a satellite city of Colombo...
before returning to Australia mid December. As time had passed, the players had become increasingly tired by the long campaign, and morale began to drop as waited for their return to their families and civilian life.
Post-war career
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...
in March 1946. As a result, Hassett could not appear for Victoria during the 1945–46 season. The Services performed poorly; after playing consecutive draws against Western Australia
Western Warriors
The Western Australia cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team representing the state of Western Australia...
and South Australia
Southern Redbacks
The South Australia cricket team, nicknamed the Southern Redbacks and known as the West End Redbacks due to their sponsorship agreement with local brewers West End, are an Australian first class cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia, and represent the state of South Australia...
, they were crushed by an innings by both 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...
and New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
, before drawing against Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
and Tasmania
Tasmanian Tigers
The Tasmanian cricket team, nicknamed the Tigers, represents the Australian state of Tasmania in cricket tournaments. They compete annually in the Australian domestic senior men's cricket season, which currently consists of the first-class Sheffield Shield, the limited overs Ford Ranger Cup, and...
, the smallest state. Hassett’s team was saved by the clock against Queensland when the time ran out with the hosts four runs short of their target, but their fortunes were reversed in the final match when Tasmania hung on with only one wicket in hand to salvage a draw.
Hassett ended the Australian summer with 312 runs at 39.00, including three fifties. During the entire Services campaign, he scored 1,434 runs at 49.44 in 18 first-class matches and top-scored for the Australians’ whole campaign with 187. His aggregate was only 13 behind that of all rounder 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...
.
Based on his form for the Services, Hassett was selected in the Australian team for a brief five-match tour of New Zealand in February and March 1946. As the military men played poorly in Australia, the national selectors concluded that their achievements against England must have been against weak opposition, and only Hassett and Miller were selected for the Australian tour of New Zealand.
Despite speculation that he would lead the team, as Bradman had made himself unavailable due to concerns over fitness and his ability to play at his pre-war world-leading standards, the Australian Board of Control appointed 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...
as captain and O'Reilly as Brown's deputy. In the Board's ballot for the leadership positions, Hassett received only one of the 13 votes, although it was enough to make him the third on-tour selector. One motive speculated for his being overlooked was that he had rested himself from the match against Victoria because he was tired of the long periods in the military away from his family and decided instead to spend the time in Melbourne with his wife and young daughter; this supposedly drew the ire of the Victorian Cricket Association.
On the tour, Hassett made first-class centuries against Auckland
Auckland Aces
The Auckland domestic cricket team represent the Auckland region and are one of six New Zealand domestic first class cricket teams. Governed by the Auckland Cricket Association they are the most successful side having won 26 Plunket Shield titles, eight Domestic One Day Championships and the HRV...
(121) and Wellington
Wellington Firebirds
The Wellington Firebirds are one of six New Zealand first-class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket.It is based in Wellington. It competes in the State Championship first class competition, the State Shield domestic one day competition and the State Twenty20 Cricket Tournament.The...
(143) and scored 19 in the one-off match against New Zealand—retrospectively accredited as a Test—played at Basin Reserve
Basin Reserve
The Basin Reserve , is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand, used for Test, first-class and one-day cricket. Some argue that its proximity to the city, its Historic Place status and its age make it the most famous cricket ground in New Zealand...
in Wellington
Wellington
Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...
on a poor rain-affected pitch that saw the contest finished within two days. The match ended in an easy victory for Australia when New Zealand was bowled out for 42 and 54, but the tour attracted big crowds and made a record profit. Hassett scored 351 runs at 70.20 for the whole tour. By the time he returned home from the tour, Hassett had played cricket continuously for almost twelve months.
Sheet anchor role
The following season, Hassett returned to serve his state and became Victorian captain for the first time. In the warm-up matches ahead of the Tests, he hit 57, 57 and 28 against the touring MCC teamMCC tour of Australia in 1946–47
The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of Australia in 1946-47 under the captaincy of Wally Hammond was its eighth since it took official control of overseas tours in 1907-1908 and the first since the Second World War. The touring team played as England in the 1946–47 Ashes series against Australia, but...
. He then scored 114 and 36 not out against South Australia in his last match before the beginning of the Ashes series. After a long deliberation, and against medical advice, the 38-year-old Bradman decided to resume as Test captain. As Brown was injured and O'Reilly had retired, Hassett was appointed vice-captain. The First Test at Brisbane revealed a more circumspect Hassett. He made 128 (from 395 balls in 392 minutes), his maiden Test century, and shared a 276-run partnership with Bradman, the cornerstone of Australia's match-winning score of 645. Although the crowd continually barracked Hassett for his slow scoring, Ray Robinson felt that he played a crucial "anchoring" role in support of Bradman, who initially struggled with his timing, controversially survived an appeal for a catch by Jack Ikin
Jack Ikin
John Thomas Ikin, known as Jack Ikin was an English cricketer, who played in eighteen Tests from 1946 to 1955...
, then limped through the latter stages of his innings with a strained muscle. Hassett later joked that one of his brothers had his wedding on the day, and was waiting for the batting to finish before starting the ceremony, but could wait no more and proceeded, only to come back after the marriage had been completed to find that just one run had been scored in the intervening period and that his brother was still only on 97.
Australia went on to start the post-war Ashes era with a crushing win by an innings and 332 runs. Hassett made 34 as Australia won the Second Test by an innings, and the Third Test was his first Test on his home ground at the MCG. He made only 12 and 9 as England held on for a draw with three wickets in hand.
Hassett's other major innings of the series was 78 from 227 balls in the drawn Fourth Test at Adelaide. He added 189 runs with 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...
after Australia, in reply to England's first innings of 460, were 2/18. At one point, the umpire denied an appeal by Norman Yardley
Norman Yardley
Norman Walter Dransfield Yardley was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England, as a right-handed batsman and occasional bowler. An amateur, he captained Yorkshire from 1948 to 1955 and England on fourteen occasions between 1947 and 1950,...
for lbw
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...
against Hassett, prompting a frustrated Neville Cardus
Neville Cardus
Sir John Frederick Neville Cardus CBE was an English writer and critic, best known for his writing on music and cricket. For many years, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian. He was untrained in music, and his style of criticism was subjective, romantic and personal, in contrast with his critical...
to write, "... he deserved to be [given out]; the sight of a cricketer of his gifts continuing to deny his eye and technique in a Test match was enough to make any umpire go mad and, like the judge in Chesterton's
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
story, administer justice instead of law." Hassett ended the Tests with 47 in the second innings as Australia stumbled to a five-wicket win on a deteriorating and spinning pitch in the Fifth Test in Sydney, in pursuit of 214. He finished the series with 332 runs at 47.43 and had difficulty against the leg spin
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
ner Doug Wright
Doug Wright
Doug Wright is an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2004 for his play, I Am My Own Wife.-Early years:Wright was born in Dallas, Texas...
, who dismissed him five times in seven innings. He had added 126 for Victoria against Wally Hammond
Wally Hammond
Walter Reginald "Wally" Hammond was an English Test cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England...
’s Englishmen just a week earlier.
Despite his slow scoring in the Tests, Hassett was dynamic in the Shield matches for Victoria. In two matches for Victoria between the Third and Fourth Tests, Hassett hit 200 against Queensland and 190 against NSW; in both innings he scored at a rate of almost 50 runs per hour. Victoria won both their matches against arch-rivals NSW convincingly, by an innings and 288 runs respectively, and won the Sheffield Shield, having secured victory in each of the four matches that Hassett played in. Hassett was highly productive throughout the whole season, ending with 1,213 runs at 71.35.
India
Indian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
embarked on its first tour of Australia in the summer of 1947–48, and the hosts won the first series between the two countries 4–0. After failing to pass 50 in the first two Tests, Hassett hit 80 in a rain-affected Third Test win, and then his highest Test score, 198 not out in an innings win in the Fourth Test in Adelaide, finishing the series with 332 runs at 110.67. Hassett was rested from the Fifth and final Test as Australia sought to try out new players such as 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...
ahead of the tour of England. He remained in strong form for Victoria, scoring 118 and 204 against South Australia and Queensland respectively, but his state were unable to retain their title, losing three and winning two matches when Hassett was available. He ended the season with 893 runs at 68.69.
Invincibles tour
Ten years after his first tour of England, Hassett was included in the 1948 team as Bradman's deputy. Hassett was one of three on-tour selectors along with Bradman and Arthur MorrisArthur 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...
. Considered one of the strongest Australia teams to tour England, the team became known as The Invincibles
The Invincibles (cricket)
The Australian cricket team in England in 1948 was captained by Don Bradman, who was making his fourth and final tour of England. The team is famous for being the first Test match side to play an entire tour of England without losing a match. This feat earned them the nickname of The Invincibles,...
because it went undefeated through 34 matches, an unprecedented feat. As matches often started the day after the previous fixture, Australia employed a rotation policy and Hassett led the tourists in nine of the 34 matches while Bradman was rested. Under Hassett's watch, Australia won seven matches, five of these by an innings, while both draws were rain-affected fixtures in which more than half the playing time was lost.
Hassett had two close encounters as captain, both on damp pitches before the First Test when Australia's unbeaten record was challenged. Against Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
in the third match of the tour, Australia came the closest to losing for the entire tour. In a low-scoring match in which neither team posted more than 101, Australia was set 60 for victory, Hassett elected not to ask for the pitch to be rolled
Road roller
A road roller is a compactor type engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in the construction of roads and foundations, similar rollers are used also at landfills or in agriculture.In some parts of the world, road rollers are still known colloquially as steam...
. Former Australian Test batsman Jack Fingleton
Jack Fingleton
John "Jack" Henry Webb Fingleton OBE was an Australian cricketer who was trained as a journalist and became a political and cricket commentator after the end of his playing career...
said that Hassett "might have made an initial mistake in not having the pitch rolled because whenever there was rain about in England the heavy roller seemed to knock any nonsense [erratic bounce and sideways movement] out of the pitch". Australia lost quick wickets and Hassett came in with the score at 2/5. After being involved in a run out
Run out
Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing...
, he fell to leave Australia at 5/20. Australia lost another wicket to be 6/31, effectively seven down with 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...
incapacitated by injury, but scraped hom without further loss after both batsmen at the crease were dropped. It would have been their first defeat against an English county since 1912. In the 11th match of the tour against Hamsphire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, Australia ceded a first innings lead for the first time on tour. On a drying pitch, Australia were dismissed for 117 in reply to the home side's 195. Australia had made a solid start, before Hassett fell for 26, sparking a collapse of 8/47 to be all out for 117. Hampshire were then bowled out for 103, leaving Australia a target of 182, which they reached to seal an eight-wicket win.
The two matches aside, Hassett had a productive lead-in to the Tests, scoring 110 against Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
and two fifties. One of these came in a match against 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...
(MCC) at Lord's. The MCC fielded seven players who would represent England in the Tests, and was basically a full-strength Test team. It was a chance to gain a psychological advantage before the Tests. Australia batted first and Hassett made 51 in an innings win. Fingleton hailed Hassett's display as "the prettiest half century we saw in the whole summer. There was not effort in his play. The ball sped quietly and quickly in all directions."
In the First Test
First Test, 1948 Ashes series
The First Test of the 1948 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between Australia and England. The match was played at Trent Bridge in Nottingham from 10 to 15 June with a rest day on 13 June...
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...
, Hassett came in on the second day with Australia at 4/185 in reply to England's 165. Australia had been scoring slowly due to England's use of leg theory
Leg theory
Leg theory is a bowling tactic in the sport of cricket. The term leg theory is somewhat archaic and seldom used any more, but the basic tactic still plays a part in modern cricket....
. Hassett almost holed out early when he edged a ball just wide of the wicket-keeper. Hassett and Bradman were heckled for their slow batting but they remained unhurried in the face of England's stifling tactics Australia had plenty of time after bowling out their opponents easily.Fingleton, p. 92. Hassett had a period of 20 minutes without scoring.
Early on the third day, Bradman fell for 138 with the score at 5/305. Yardley again pinned Hassett down with more leg theory. Laker bowled with one slip, while Young had none and employed a pure ring field. The scoring was slow during this passage of play—Young delivered 11 consecutive maiden overs
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
and his 26-over spell conceded only 14 runs. The injured Ray Lindwall
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...
came out to join Hassett at 7/365 without a runner
Runner (cricket)
In cricket, a runner is a team member who runs between the wickets for an injured batsman.When a runner is used, the batsman stands in position and plays shots as normal, but does not attempt to run between the wickets: the runner runs for him...
. Hassett—who had scored only 30 runs in the first 75 minutes of the morning—swept Laker for four and then hit him for the first six of the match. Hassett added 53 in the two hours of the morning session to reach lunch at 94. Australia were unhurried and remained patient in the face of Yardley's defensive tactics because they had bowled England out on the first day and there was still sufficient time to force a result. After the break, Hassett reached his first Test century on English soil. from 305 minutes. He then accelerated, adding a further 37 runs in 49 minutes, before being bowled by Bedser, having struck 20 fours and a six. This ended an eighth-wicket partnership of 107 with Lindwall with the score at 8/473; Australia ended at 509 to take a 344-run first innings lead. In the second innings, Hassett hit the winning run to end with an unbeaten 21 in an eight-wicket win.
The First Test set the tone for the series, and ahead of the next Test, Hassett top scored with 127 and took five catches in an innings win over Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire 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 Northamptonshire. Its limited overs team is called the Northants Steelbacks. The traditional club colour is Maroon. During the...
. Hassett scored 47 and a duck in the Second Test
Second Test, 1948 Ashes series
The Second Test of the 1948 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between Australia and England. The match was played at Lord's cricket ground in London from 24 to 29 June, with a rest day on 27 June...
at Lord's, having been dropped three times in the first innings as Australia went on to a 409-run win. Hassett then struck 139 against Surrey, his second century against the county in as many matches. Hassett and Australia were in difficulty in the Third Test
Third Test, 1948 Ashes series
The Third Test of the 1948 Ashes series was one of five Tests in a cricket series between teams representing Australia and England. The match was played at Old Trafford in Manchester from 8–13 July, with a rest day on 11 July...
at Old Trafford. Hassett made 38 as Australia scored 221 in reply to 363. In England's second innings, Hassett twice dropped Cyril Washbrook
Cyril Washbrook
Cyril Washbrook was an English cricketer, who played for Lancashire and England. He had a long career, split by World War II, and ending when he was aged 44. Washbrook, who is most famous for opening the batting for England with Len Hutton, which he did fifty one times, played a total of 592...
in the same position from the same shot. After the third day's play, Washbrook shouted Hassett a drink; England were in a strong position, 316 runs ahead with seven wickets in hand. Luckily for Australia and Hassett, the pair of missed chances from the England opener late in the day cost little. Washbrook remained unbeaten on 85 as England declared without further addition after the entire fourth day and the final morning had been lost to rain. Hassett was not required as Australia batted for 61 overs to ensure a draw.
Hassett had a new role as the teams headed to Headingley for the Fourth Test. He would improvise and open with Morris, as regular 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...
was injured. Hassett dropped 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...
—who went on to score 81—on 25. Hassett struggled to make an impact in the unfamiliar role, scoring 13 and 17. However, the other Australian batsmen stepped up and scored 3/404 in 330 minutes on the final day to set a new world record for the highest successful Test runchase, ensuring an unassailable 3–0 series lead. Hassett scored two fifties in the lead-up to the Fifth Test
Fifth Test, 1948 Ashes series
The Fifth Test of the 1948 Ashes series, held at The Oval in London, was the final Test in a cricket series between Australia and England. The match took place on 14–18 August, with a rest day on 15 August. Australia won the match by an innings and 149 runs to complete a 4–0 series win...
, where he returned to his customary role with the return of Barnes. Hassett took a diving catch in the first innings and scored 37 in an innings win. Australia thus won the series convincingly 4–0 and Hassett finished the series with 310 runs at 44.29.
After the Tests, seven matches remained on Bradman's quest to go through a tour of England without defeat. played in four of the matches and was in fine form, hitting three consecutive centuries. Against the Gentlemen of England at Lord's, Hassett made 200 not out against a team that featured eight Test players. He then made 103 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...
and 151 against the South of England
South of England cricket team
The South of England appeared in first-class cricket between 1836 and 1961, most often in the showcase North v. South matches against the North of England although there were also games against touring teams, MCC and others....
. Australia won the first two and were denied by rain in the third.
Hassett ended the first-class matches with 1,563 runs at 74.22 and seven centuries. He had the third highest aggregate behind Bradman and Morris and the second highest average. In recognition of his performances in England, he was named 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 1949. Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...
opined that "in addition to his playing ability Hassett's cheerfulness and leadership, which extended to off-the-field relaxation as well as in the more exacting part of the programme, combined to make him an ideal vice-captain able to lift a considerable load off Bradman's busy shoulders".
Captain of Australia
By virtue of his performances with the Services team and his seniority in Australian cricket, Hassett appeared certain to succeed Bradman as captain; his only rival for the position was NSW captain Arthur Morris, the third selector during the tour of England. The season, which was purely domestic with no touring Test team, started with Bradman's testimonial match, in which Hassett led a team against the retiring Australian leader. Hassett scored 35 and 102 and the match ended with the scores tied. Bradman's outfit managed to fall short of the victory by the smallest possible margin, ending one run short of their target with one wicket remaining at the end of the final over. Hassett continued his liking for the Queensland attack, scoring 104 and 205 in Victoria’s two matches against their northern opponents for the year. Victoria did not do so well as a team, winning two and losing one of the six matches in which Hassett played, as New South Wales took the title. The summer finished with Hassett captaining a team against an eleven led by Morris. The match was designated as a trial for the selection of the Australian team to tour South Africa the following summer. Hassett scored 73 and 159 and top-scored in both innings; Morris 66 and 12. However, Hassett’s effort was not enough to stop an eight-wicket defeat after Morris’s men took a 377-run first innings lead. Morris and Hassett were the first and third highest run-scorers for the 1948–49 season. Hassett ended the season with 855 runs at 61.07.The day after the match, the chosen touring team was passed to the Board of Control for a decision on the captaincy. The 7–6 result in favour of Hassett provoked Ray Robinson to write that the deciding vote, cast for Hassett by the Board chairman Dr Allen Robertson (from Victoria), "... save[d] the Board from an act of disgusting ingratitude" and that, "... once again Hassett's notable achievements with the Services team had been devalued." The main reason given for the administrators' less than unanimous endorsement of Hassett was his religion. As an Irish Catholic, Hassett was subjected to the sectarian bias of some Australian cricket officials, an attitude that was common among the Anglo-Saxon Protestant ruling class of the time, and so narrowly became the first Catholic captain since Percy McDonnell
Percy McDonnell
Percy Stanislaus McDonnell was an Australian cricketer who captained the Australian Test team in six matches, including the tour of England in 1888....
in 1888.
The team itself was significantly different to the Invincibles squad. Bradman had retired; 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...
, Don Tallon
Don Tallon
Donald "Don" Tallon was an Australian cricketer who played 21 Test matches as a wicket-keeper between 1946 and 1953...
, Ernie Toshack
Ernie Toshack
Ernest Raymond Herbert Toshack was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1946 to 1948. A left arm medium paced bowler who was known for his accuracy and stamina in his application of leg theory, Toshack was best known for being as member of Don Bradman's Invincibles that toured...
and Bill Brown were unavailable, while the omission of 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...
caused a furore. Miller later joined the tour after an injury sustained in a car crash sidelined Bill Johnston for an extended period at the start of the tour. However, Johnston recovered, and both he and Miller took their places in all five Tests, eliminating any disadvantage caused by the controversial initial omission of the latter.
Matching Bradman's feat, Hassett led his team through South Africa undefeated and claimed the Test series 4–0, winning 14 out of 21 matches. Although he was hampered by recurrent problems with his tonsils, the success of the tour was attributed to Hassett's, "... unobtrusive yet dominant personality." He scored 889 first-class runs at 68.38 on the tour, including four centuries. In the lead-up to the Tests, Hassett scored 100 and 96, and he led Australia to four consecutive wins, three by an innings and the other by ten wickets.
The opening Test began at Johannesburg on Christmas Eve 1949. Batting first, Australia started poorly when both opening batsmen failed to score, before Hassett "transformed the course of the game with a hundred of considerable quality." He compiled 112 (in 261 minutes) of the 198 runs added while he was at the crease; Australia amassed 413 then bowled South Africa out twice to win by an innings. He then scored 57 and enforced the follow on in an eight-wicket win in the Second Test.
Hassett’s winning run looked at an end when Australia was exposed to a sticky wicket
Sticky wicket
Sticky wicket is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance; it originates from difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket.-Origins:...
in the Third Test. The hosts had reached 2/240 at the end of the first day before rain hit and made the pitch extremely difficult for batting. The next day, Hassett had to waste time to keep South Africa batting on the poor surface so that Australia’s batsmen would not be exposed to the worst conditions. He then told his bowlers to perform badly so that the hosts would not realise how difficult the pitch was and declare so that Australia would have to face the sticky wicket. Despite Hassett’s subterfuge, the pitch was so poor that South Africa fell to be 311 all out, but Australia had gained extra time. The tourists made only 75, but then dismissed the hosts for 99, Hassett using defensive tactics to slow the scoring and keep South Africa batting as the pitch slowly improved. Australia chased down the target of 336 with five wickets in hand to secure a highly unlikely win. The local newspaper, The Natal Mercury said that "Renowned for their fighting qualities as a cricketers, the occasion brought the best out of the Australians ... That indomitable spirit to win through, no matter what the circumstances may be, was in most marked evidence."
Hassett’s perfect record as Test captain ended in the Fourth Test, when he made 53 in a high-scoring draw. He then "reached peak form" in the final Test at Port Elizabeth
Sahara Oval St George's
St George’s Park Cricket Ground is a cricket ground in St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa. It is the home of the Port Elizabeth Cricket Club, one of the oldest cricket clubs in South Africa, and the Eastern Province Club...
. He top-scored with 167 as the match unfolded in a similar manner to the First Test, with a similar result. Australia made 7/549 declared and then won by an innings and 259 runs after enforcing the follow on.
As a leader, Hassett was regarded as an outstanding success. In that era, the tours were accompanied by much ceremony, and captains were expected to make many appearances with dignatories at dinner parties and make speeches. He had his players participate in cultural activities such as dancing and singing with indigenous tribesmen, and reached out to the local children, interspersing his presentations with self-deprecating jibes. As the team’s boat departed for home, Hassett tossed his remaining money away among the local children. The Australian High Commission hailed him as the most effective Australian diplomat to have visited South Africa. Of his on-field performances, the historian Chris Harte wrote that "Hassett’s captaincy impressed from the start. His warmth of personality and sense of fun contrasted with Bradman’s efficient but cold methods. It was a happy tour with the players remembering particularly the hospitality offered to them."
Success at home
Hassett started the 1950–51 season strongly; after making 19 against England for Victoria, he struck 113 and 179 against South Australia and New South Wales in his two other matches before the Tests.The England team that visited Australia for the 1950–51 Ashes series had a poor start to their tour, but at Brisbane on the opening day of the First Test, "... surprised even themselves by dismissing Australia for 228 on a good pitch." However, rain intervened to negate England's advantage, and when the contest resumed two days later, England batted on a sticky wicket. The English captain Freddie Brown conceded a first-innings lead of 160 runs by declaring with his team's score on 7/68 to force Australia to bat in unfavourable conditions. The Australian batsmen fared worse in the difficult conditions and Hassett gambled by declaring at 7/32, setting England 193 to win. Hassett himself had only managed eight and three for the match. During the 70 minutes remaining before stumps, Australia took six English wickets (which meant that 20 wickets fell for 102 runs in the day's play), and went on to win the match by 70 runs the following day. Hassett returned to his normal form away from the sticky wicket, scoring 127 and 28 not out against Queensland between Tests. It was his third century in as many matches for Victoria.
In the Second Test at Melbourne, "Australia owed much to the imperturbable Hassett", as he top-scored with 52 in the first innings. Australia won another low-scoring match by 28 runs; Freddie Brown was the only other player to post a half century in the match and no team passed 200. Hassett then stroked 70 in the Third Test, which Australia won by an innings to take an unassailable 3–0 series lead, before Australia won their fifth Test in a row in the next match in Adelaide.
Before the final Test, Hassett's run-scoring peaked when he stroked 232 against Brown's men in a drawn match for Victoria. In the Fifth Test at the MCG, he top-scored with 92 before his dismissal to a one-handed diving catch sparked a collapse and Australia managed only 217 batting first. The tourists took a first innings lead and Hassett made 48 in Australia’s second innings of 197. England made the 95 needed for victory, and the eight-wicket loss was Australia's first Test defeat since the resumption of international cricket after World War II, ending a streak of 25 Tests without defeat. Hassett and Brown described the series as the friendliest they had been involved in, but despite the success on the field, the series was poorly attended and revenue was down by around 25% from the corresponding tour four years earlier, mainly due to the absence of Bradman to spark public interest.
Hassett was the second-highest run-scorer of the series, hitting 366 runs at 40.67. Only England's 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...
(533 runs at 88.83) was better. Hassett ended the first-class season with 1,423 runs at 64.68, including four centuries and five fifties, topping the run-scoring aggregates. He played in seven shield matches without defeat, winning five to help Victoria to another title.
Wisden, taking into consideration Australia's post-war record and the West Indies' success during their 1950 tour of England, declared the 1951–52 series between the two sides to be, "the unofficial cricket championship of the world". Hassett went into the First Test at Brisbane without playing a first-class match for the season due to the scheduling. However, this was negated by the fact that the tourists only had one match of comparable standard before the Tests, prompting Hassett to make some unusually blunt comments, saying that "The West Indies have suffered from sheer stupidity in the organisation of their tour". Like many of the Australians, he struggled to pick the action of West Indian leg spinner Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin was a West Indian cricketer, and a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.- Biography and career :...
. He was out for only six in the first innings, as Australia eked out a 10-run lead. He then managed 35 as Australia scraped home in the second innings by three wickets to 7/236. He had been dismissed by Ramadhin both times, bowled and lbw, unable to pick which way the ball was spinning. Between Tests, Hassett had an opportunity to rectify this problem when Victoria hosted the Caribbean tourists, but Ramadhin prevailed again, dismissing him for 12 in his only innings. Having worked out how to pick Ramadhin's variations, he compiled 132 and 46 not out in a seven-wicket win in the Second Test at Sydney. Hassett's century was part of a 235-run partnership with 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...
, an Australian Test record for any wicket against the West Indies. Ramadhin ended with 1/196 and was demoralised. Between Tests, Hassett's Victorians faced New South Wales in consecutive matches. Hassett scored 92 in the first encounter, a high-scoring draw, and his team had the upper hand in the latter, forcing their opponents to hold on with only three wickets remaining.
Hassett missed the next Test with a strained muscle; this led to a bureaucratic restriction that hindered his deputy Morris. Having been injured on the eve of the Test, Hassett’s withdrawal forced the selectors to call in batsman 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...
at late notice, but some of the board members could not be contacted to ratify the decision. This meant that Hassett had to be replaced by a spare bowler who was already in the squad. In Hassett’s absence, Australia’s thin batting line-up collapsed on a damp pitch hostile to batsmen and lost. Returning for the Fourth Test at the MCG, Australia’s batsmen again struggled; Hassett made 15 and his team conceded a lead of 56 on the first innings. His team was set a second innings target of 260 runs to win. Hassett made 102 but found little support from the other batsmen. When he was dismissed with the score at 8/218, the West Indies appeared set to level the series. However, an unbeaten last wicket partnership of 38 runs between tailenders Doug Ring
Doug Ring
Douglas Thomas Ring was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia in 13 Tests from 1948 to 1953...
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"...
gave Australia an unlikely victory and the series 3–1. It was reported that Hassett, who had just taken a shower after being dismissed, was so mesmerised by the efforts of Ring and Johnston that the watched the final moments of the match naked from the change rooms.
Ahead of the final Test of the series, Hassett's Victorians suffered a four-wicket defeat in their second match of the season against the West Indies, Hassett scoring 56 and 43. Australia completed an emphatic 4–1 result by winning the final encounter, even though they were bowled out for 116 on the first day of the match, before fighting back to dismiss the tourists for 78. Hassett's second innings score of 64 took his total to 402 runs (at an average of 57.43), making him the leading run-scorer for the series. Hassett ended the season with a dominant 229 against South Australia, setting up an innings win, dwarfing the 222 and 166 made by his opponents combined. Despite this, New South Wales claimed the Sheffield Shield for the season, and Hassett ended the summer with 855 runs at 61.07.
Australia's decline and the Ashes lost
In 1952–53, South Africa's cricket authorities were hesitant to send their inexperienced team to Australia, fearing that the Test series would be uncompetitive. The Australian Board of Control's concern that—after losing money on the previous season's tour by the West Indies—the series would be another financial disaster resulted in South Africa offering an indemnity of ₤10,000 against any losses. Hassett began the season with two consecutive Sheffield Shield losses before the Tests, although he did manage 91 against South Australia before facing South Africa. He scored 123 in the return match later in the season and Victoria recorded two wins under his watch, against Queensland.Australia won the opening game of the rubber in an unexpectedly close match in Brisbane by 96 runs, Hassett making 55 and 17. South Africa struck back and gained their first Test victory over Australia for 41 years, taking the Second Test at Melbourne by 82 runs. Australia recovered momentum by convincingly winning the Third Test by an innings, but Hassett's form had been mediocre in all three encounters, totalling 76 runs in five innings. In the Fourth Test at Adelaide, he played his only significant innings for the series, scoring 163 and sharing a 275-run stand with Colin McDonald. With Australia heading for a victory that would give them the series, Ray Lindwall
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...
and Miller suffered injuries and were unable to bowl in the second innings. This compelled Hassett to delay his second innings declaration: South Africa then forced a draw by batting out 73 (eight-ball) overs against the depleted bowling attack with four wickets in hand. In anticipation of the forthcoming tour of England, Australian selectors made a fateful decision to rest Lindwall and Miller for the last Test when Hassett won the toss and elected to bat. He scored 40 runs in a total of 520 that gave Australia apparent command of the match. However, South Africa again fought back; after scoring 435, the tourists bowled Australia out for 209, Hassett making 30. They then won the match by chasing a target of 297 runs in their second innings. Hassett bowled the final over and the tourists’ Roy McLean
Roy McLean
Roy Alastair McLean was a South African cricketer who played in forty Tests from 1951 to 1964. A stroke-playing middle-order batsman, he scored over 2,000 Test runs, but made 11 ducks in 73 Test innings....
took three fours from the first five balls to reach their target and square the series. Hassett ended the Tests with 309 runs at 38.63 and the entire season with 779 runs at 38.95, a substantially lower return compared to previous Australian summers.
For the first time in 20 years, Australia had failed to win a Test series at home, the last being the infamous Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
series of 1932–33. Wisden called the 2–2 result, "... the biggest cricket shock for many years." The absence of Lindwall and Miller in the later part of the series exposed the limitations of the other Australian bowlers and did not augur well for the future. Hassett made it known that the tour of England in 1953
Australian 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...
would be his farewell to the game. The selectors included only two specialist opening batsmen in the team, which caused problems when McDonald was injured and Morris struggled for form. This forced Hassett to play as an opener in the Tests; while Morris’s old partner Barnes was in England to report on the tour as a reporter, his history of criticising cricket administrators meant that officialdom would call him into the squad to cover for McDonald. There were also tensions among the team off the field. The more experienced members of the team from Hassett’s generation were World War II veterans, and were happy to be alive and tended to enjoy drinking and partying, while the younger members tended to be teetotallers. This led to a divide as the seniors regularly halted the team bus for drinking stops at the roadside pubs, leaving their younger teammates waiting. Some of the non-drinkers said that because of the frequent visits at pubs, the team bus only travelled approximately 15 km each hour.
Hassett struggled in two warm-up matches against Tasmania before the Australians left for England, and despite winning both fixtures, it was not to be a happy tour on the field. In the first match on English soil, against East Molesey, 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"...
, Australia’s leading wicket-taker in 1948, broke down with a serious knee injury. Hassett struggled in the opening first-class matches in England, passing 40 only once in six innings. In the last match before the Tests, against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
, he hit an unbeaten 108. Australia's progress before the Tests was constantly curtailed by bad weather. Of the six first-class matches that Hassett played, three did not reach the second innings, although Australia did manage two victories.
In the First Test at Trent Bridge, Hassett hit 115 in a rain-affected match that ended in a draw. Over the next month, he struggled in the county matches, scoring only 30 runs in total. The Australians were to be frustrated in the next three Tests. In the Second Test at Lord’s, Hassett made 104, top-scoring in Australia’s 346 despite being hindered by a bandaged right arm and cramps. England took a 26-run first innings lead, but Australia replied with 368. Hassett’s bowlers reduced England to 3/12 but they hung on to deny Australia victory. The Third Test was another wet affair. Hassett made 26 as Australia scored 318 and took a 42-run first innings lead, but they then collapsed to be 8/35. Australia was saved from defeat by the rain, which meant that less than 14 hours of play was possible.
In the Fourth Test, the Australians worked themselves into a position to win the match and thus retain the Ashes. Hassett made 37 as his team compiled 266 and took a 99-run first innings lead. The tourists looked set for victory and retention of The Ashes at the start of the final day, but time-wasting and defiant defence from the English batsmen left Australia a target of 177 in the last two hours. This would have required a scoring rate much higher than in the first four days of the match. Hassett made only four, but Australia had made 111 in 75 minutes and were on schedule for a win. At that point, English medium-pacer 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...
began bowling with the wicket-keeper more than two metres down the leg side in order to deny the Australians an opportunity to hit the ball, but the umpires did not penalise them as wides. The match ended in a draw with Australia at 4/147 when time ran out. English wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans
Godfrey Evans
Thomas Godfrey Evans CBE was an English cricketer who played for Kent and England.Described by Wisden as 'arguably the best wicket-keeper the game has ever seen', Evans collected 219 dismissals in 91 Test match appearances between 1946 and 1959 and a total of 1066 in all first-class matches...
said that "they were right" in claiming that Bailey's bowling was "the worst kind of negative cricket" and that he had "cheated [them] of victory". The match was also marred by a series of umpiring decisions made by Frank Chester
Frank Chester
Frank Leslie Chester was a politician in Manitoba, Canada. He served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba as a Liberal-Progressive from 1949 to 1953....
against the Australians, leading Hassett to request that he not be appointed for the Fifth Test, something the English cricket authorities granted.
This meant that the fate of the Ashes would be determined by the final match at The Oval. Hassett warmed up with consecutive half-centuries against Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
and 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...
. In the second innings of the latter match, he made 21 not out, holding the team together as Australia stumbled to 5/53 in pursuit of 166 for victory when time ran out.
In Australia’s tour matches at The Oval, the pacemen had been effective, and Hassett and Morris thought that things would be similar in the Tests. As a result, leg spinner Ring was omitted. Hassett made 53 as Australia made 275 batting first. England then took a 31-run lead and Hassett was out for only 10 in the second innings as Australia fell for only 162, as the local spinners 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...
and 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:...
cut down the Australians on a turning surface. The hosts then reached the target safely with eight wickets in hand to claim a 1–0 victory, thus winning the Ashes for the first time since the infamous Bodyline
Bodyline
Bodyline, also known as fast leg theory bowling, was a cricketing tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932–33 Ashes tour of Australia, specifically to combat the extraordinary batting skill of Australia's Don Bradman...
tour of 1932–33. Hassett was in fine form after the Tests, scoring 148 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...
, 65 against 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...
, 106 against South, and 74 and 25 against TN Pearce's XI
Tom Pearce
Thomas Neill Pearce OBE was an English cricketer and Rugby Union official. He was primarily a batsman for Essex and was captain for nearly 20 years. He also acted as secretary, chairman and president of Essex, and was also a Test selector for England.-Cricket career:Pearce made his first-class...
in the remaining first-class matches in England. Australia managed to win the matches against Kent and South by an innings, but it was too late to save the Ashes. Nevertheless, Harte said that “Hassett’s leadership throughout had been sparkling”.
Hassett made one final first-class appearance upon returning to Australia, in a testimonial match against Morris's XI. He made 126 in the first innings, his final century, but could manage only three in the second as his team went down by 121 runs. Nevertheless, the match sent him into retirement ₤5,503 wealthier, and with more first-class centuries than any Australian except Bradman.
Style and personality
The diminutive Hassett was an elegant middle-orderBatting order (cricket)
In cricket, the batting order is the sequence in which batsmen play through their team's innings, there always being two batsmen taking part at any one time...
batsman, known for his wide range of strokes, timing, quick footwork and strong wrists. However, as his career progressed and his seniority in the Australian team increased, he became a more cautious player who often frustrated spectators with his sedate scoring, particularly after World War II. Despite this, Hassett remained an aggressive and adventurous strokemaker in matches for Victoria. He had a poker face, and this benefited him as a captain, as even his teammates sometimes found it hard to discern his mood or thinking. During his 24 Test matches in charge, he won 14 games and suffered defeat only four times, but it was the last of the four losses that blighted his record. Hassett was a very occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, averaging one over
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
per first-class match. He took 18 wickets in 216 matches, and never took more than two in a single innings. He never took a wicket at Test level and bowled less than 19 overs.
Hassett’s most distinctive trait was his fun-loving personality. He was famed for his practical jokes, sense of humour—particularly his self-deprecating quips—and wit, such as in his calming talk to the rioters in Calcutta in 1945. He remained jovial during his speeches even after Australia suffered defeats. After bowing out of Test cricket in 1953 with a loss, he said that England "earned the victory from the very first ball—to the second last over anyway", referring to an over that he bowled when defeat became inevitable.
During the 1938 tour of England, Hassett smuggled a goat into the bedroom he shared with Stan McCabe
Stan McCabe
Stanley Joseph McCabe was an Australian cricketer who played 39 Test matches for Australia from 1930 to 1938. A short, stocky right-hander,...
and O'Reilly while the team was staying at Grindleford
Grindleford
Grindleford is a village and parish in the county of Derbyshire, in the East Midlands of England. It lies at an altitude of in the valley of the River Derwent in the Peak District National Park. On the west side of the valley is the high Sir William Hill, and to the south-east lies the gritstone...
, after they had fallen asleep. They awoke to unexpected smells and bleating. During the 1948 tour of England, he was reported to have unnerved his teammates and tempted fate by bringing a toy duck into the dressing room, and held up play during a county match by hiding the ball in a pile of sawdust. During the same summer, Hassett and a few teammates were being chauffeured back to London after a function. It was after midnight, but Hassett asked the driver to stop at a random mansion along the road. He then rang the bell and told the startled householder that he "Just thought we'd pop in". The owner happened to recognise Hassett and received the cricketers. In the Third Test of the same tour, after dropping two hooked catches from Washbrook, Hassett responded by borrowing a policeman’s helmet, before motioning to Ray Lindwall
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...
to bowl another bouncer. During the 1953 tour of England, a waiter spilled a dessert on Hassett's jacket. Initially declining the waiter's multiple offers to have his jacket taken away for cleaning, Hassett acquiesced and while taking off his jacket, noticed a spot on his trousers. He then silently pointed to the spot, removed his trousers and handed them to the waiter, before conitinuing to eat his meal in his underpants.
Aside from the humorous side of his personality, Hassett was also known for his diplomatic skills as a leader and his affability, particularly his ability to endear himself to hosts and public while representing Australia overseas. 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....
wrote of Hassett: "There are others who have made more runs and taken more wickets, but very few have ever got more out of a lifetime." Teammate 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...
said that Hassett had "more genuine friends in all walks of life than any other cricketer".
Outside cricket
After returning from World War II, Hassett operated a sports store in Melbourne; one of his staff members was Victorian Test teammate Neil HarveyNeil 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...
. After retiring from cricket, Hassett joined the Australian Broadcasting Commission as a radio commentator in 1956, remaining in that position until 1981. During his time in the commentary booth, he was known for his self-deprecating humour and frequently made fun of his conservative approach to batting during the latter half of his career. Hassett was known for his disapproval of some of the aspects of the modern evolution of cricket, particularly the more aggressive player conduct that contrasted with the more sedate and gentlemanly style of his era. He also served on the executive committee of the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria, along with fellow former South Melbourne, Victorian and Test cricketer Laurie Nash
Laurie Nash
Laurence John "Laurie" Nash was a Test cricketer and Australian rules footballer. An inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame, Nash was a member of South Melbourne's 1933 premiership team, captained South Melbourne in 1937 and was the team's leading goal kicker in 1937 and 1945...
. Hassett ran for election as South Melbourne’s delegate to the VCA in December 1953, but was defeated. During the 1954–55 Ashes series in Australia, he wrote for The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
. In 1942, Hassett married Tessie Davis, a Geelong accountant, and they had two daughters. His nephew John Shaw went on to play for Victoria in the 1950s and 1960s. A batsman, Shaw was a regular member of the state team and was selected for an Australian Second XI that toured New Zealand in 1959–60. The MCG has a function room named after Hassett, as does the VCA, which launched a monthly luncheon club in December 1990 named in his honour. In the first year of its operation, more than 500 people joined and a profit in excess of AUD12,000 was made; this money were reinvested in the VCA's promotion of junior cricket. In his final years, Hassett moved to Batehaven
Batehaven, New South Wales
Batehaven is a locality approximately from Batemans Bay in south-central New South Wales.-Demographics:At the 2006 census, there were 1,795 residents of Batehaven. 46.7% counted were male and 53.3% were female.-References:...
on the south coast of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
to pursue his love of fishing. He died there in 1993.
Test match performance
| Batting | Bowling | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opposition | Matches | Runs | Average | High Score | 100 / 50 | Runs | Wickets | Average | Best (Inns) |
| England | 24 | 1572 | 38.34 | 137 | 4/6 | 60 | 0 | – | – |
| India | 4 | 332 | 110.66 | 198* | 1/1 | – | – | – | – |
| New Zealand | 1 | 19 | 19.00 | 19 | 0/0 | – | – | – | – |
| South Africa | 10 | 748 | 53.42 | 167 | 3/3 | 18 | 0 | – | – |
| West Indies | 4 | 402 | 57.42 | 132 | 2/1 | – | – | – | – |
| Overall | 43 | 3073 | 46.56 | 198* | 10/11 | 78 | 0 | – | – |