ON THIS DAY: WESSELS' BAGGY GREEN DEBUT

“I’m not supposed to tell you Chopper, but you are in”

The Cricketer looks back on famous moments in Ashes history during England’s trip Down Under.

Today, a memorable Test debut...

Kepler Wessels had a habit of making big runs on debut.

The left-handed opener hit 59 and 74 on his Test bow for South Africa, a half-century in his first one-day appearance with the Proteas and 79 on short-form debut for Australia.

But the best of the lot came before all the rest.

The venue: Brisbane’s Gabba. The occasion: The second Ashes Test of the 1982-83 series.

After the draw in Perth, during which Graeme Wood failed twice against the new ball, Wessels was taken to one side by skipper Greg Chappell.

“I’m not supposed to tell you Chopper, but you are in,” he said.

His inclusion was not a universally popular one. Wessels was a naturalised Australian, having moved to Queensland in the late 1970s to join Kerry Packer’s World Series while his native South Africa were banned from competing during apartheid.

Sections of the media did not believe it was right for Wessels to wear Baggy Green and a number of supporters took the same stance.

In the midst of that relative controversy, the then-25-year-old from Bloemfontein via Queensland produced one of the most considered and cultured debut innings in Test history.

As Australian wickets fell at regular intervals, Wessels stood tall - literally as well as metaphorically - working his powerful square cut to the fence and hooking confidently.

Against an attack featuring Ian Botham and Bob Willis, he proved he belonged on the biggest stage in cricket.

“I remember that we didn't bowl particularly well at Kepler,” Willis later recalled.

“We kept bowling outside his off-stump and he kept cutting us away either side of point. It took us a long time to twig what was going on.”

Coming to the crease on the second morning after England had been dismissed for 219, thanks mainly to Allan Lamb’s 72, Wessels watched as both John Dyson and Allan Border were dismissed cheaply.

With every over that ticked by without England targeting his pads and leg stump - Wessels’ very own Kryptonite - so the batsman settled more and more.

Judging length quickly, he latched onto anything wide and full, sending loose deliveries from Botham, Willis and Norman Cowans crashing through the covers.

While his team-mates struggled (only Greg Chappell and Bob Yardley, with 53 apiece, passed 28), Wessels showed the international cricketing community just what they’d been missing.

It was not, however, a chanceless innings.

On 97, and with a debut ton in sight, Wessels came charging down the wicket at Eddie Hemmings, missed and would have feared the worst. But Bob Taylor behind the stumps misjudged the rising delivery and Wessels was spared.

A religious man and member of Brisbane’s Uniting Church, he threw his head back to look at the sky and crossed his chest in relief.

Soon after, he pulled Hemmings to the mid-wicket boundary for four to bring up three figures - the 13th Australian to achieve the feat on debut. His celebrations were low-key; another look to the heavens, a timid raise of the bat and back to the crease.

“I like to thank god when I make runs,” he said at the end of the game. “He gave me an ability and I thank him when I do well. I don’t ask, I just say thanks.”

Wessels continued his flamboyant knock into the next day - despite going partially deaf in bizarre circumstances half-an-hour before stumps on Saturday.

“The doctor diagnosed the trouble as an ear infection and he gave me an injection and some sleeping tablets,” he revealed.

Drugged up or not, when Wessels was finally the last man out for 162, he was just three runs shy of the Australian record highest score by a batsman on Test debut - the 165 made by Charles Bannermann against England at Melbourne in 1877 still tops the list today.

“This was the hardest century I’ve ever scored,” he said.

It was also among his very best.

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