Arthur Morris - legendary Aussie cricketer.

Don't panic - not an obit!  But there is an excellent interview with 91 year old Arthur Morris on cricinfo.  He's the oldest living Aussie test cricketer and among other achievements scored 196 in Bradman's last test.  

A couple of bits were particularly entertaining: 

Q: In those days you travelled to England by ship. What was it like for players getting to know one another on the ship?
A: Very important, I think. We didn't have to hug each other, which is good because we didn't have all these deodorants you have these days. If I had put my arm around Bill O'Reilly I wouldn't be here talking to you today. I'd have been dead many years ago.


Q: Did he [Lindsay Hassett] ever do anything to wind you up? What about the time you played the Prime Minister's XI game
A: Oh yes, I am furious about it. I had retired after my first wife died, and I hadn't played cricket for a while. The English boys came out [in 1958-59] and they played the Prime Minister's XI in Canberra.  Hassett was also chosen. I had bought a bat, a beautiful bat I had a great loving regard for. As I was going out, Hassett had to go in to bat. He said, "I haven't got a bat." I said, "Well, here's mine." I think he had had a couple of gin and tonics, so I thought there's no way he'd be able to do any damage to this bat. So off he went.
I'm standing next to the prime minister, Bob Menzies, who loved Hassett. And he said, "Isn't that typical?" I said, "What happened?" And he said, "Hassett's just got out and he's given his bat to a little boy in the crowd." I remember the words I said. "Pig's arse, that's my bat!" He gave my bat away to this bloody kid! And the prime minister's saying how typical of him, what a wonderful character, what a gesture to see this international give his bat to this little boy. And I had to even sign it when the kid came in. If the team hadn't been there, I'd have hit him on the head with the bat and run out with it.

Corporal - my emotions have been all round the boundary rope tonight about this.

First off, I feared and was upset from your article heading to think that Arthur Morris, leading member of the 1948 Australian Invincibles and one of the six greatest opening batsmen of all time according to Benaud, had died. Then, relief that he hadn't. Then, laughter at his quoted comments. Finally, disappointment that such a man failed to gain entry to our Hall of Fame and only just scraped enough votes for a future repecharge.

Many thanks for sharing this.

I too feared that the legendary Morris was no more. Good to see he's still in form. Bradman reckoned Arthur was about the best batsman in the world on that '48 tour. Didn't he make 290 in the day in one of the county games?
   Not sure just how many of the Invincibles are left. Neil Harvey, of course, is still around. Is it down to just those two? I fear it might be.

Sir Fred - the intro to the Cricinfo article refers to Arthur as the oldest living Aussie test cricket and one of only two surviving from the the 1948 Bradman Invincibles. So I think you are probably right.

Arthur Morris did indeed score 290 in less than a day against Gloucs.  He was eventually caught and bowled by Scott, having reportedly been missed a couple of times earlier in his innings. The Aussies reached 590 - 6 by close of play.  The second highest scorer was Harvey who scored a brisk 95.

This was another fine interview w/Arthur Morris that I enjoyed at the time:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/tomfordyce/2011/01/in_the_company_of_a_legend.html

The BBC website is over-endowed with godawful writers, but Fordyce is a good 'un.

Thanks Kwini - good stuff.