Tom Graveney: Elegant player and ambassador for cricket

Former England batsman passes away at the age of 88

I never had the pleasure to witness Tom Graveney batting ‘live’, although I have seen footage and heard testimony to the effect that he was elegant and superb. He was also an extremely genial interviewee, and it is sad that all the knowledge has passed away with him.

He won 79 Test caps, and spoke to me at length about his three tours to Australia. He was a 27-year-old on the first of those trips, in 1954/55. That was Frank Tyson’s finest hour, when he took 10 wickets at Sydney and nine at Melbourne, and England won 3-1.

“Tyson was the quickest I have ever seen in that Sydney Test,” said Graveney. “He had a 40mph gale behind him in that Test. When he came on I was standing 50 yards back at slip; I was closer to the fence than the stumps! He was incredible, he completely had them. They didn’t know what to do with him.”

Graveney was disappointed to only play in the second and fifth Tests (he made 111 in the latter at the SCG), and wondered if his relationship with captain Len Hutton had something to do with it. In an interview with The Cricketer, he said: “Len never trusted me when the chips were down. I only learned recently when I read in a book that he didn’t like people with red faces.” He told me: “Against Australia at Lord’s in 1953, Len and I had put on 168, and then he forgot my name introducing me to the Queen! There was a hell of a lot of pressure on Len, though, being England’s first professional captain. The broadsheet newspapers, in particular, weren’t very happy about it.”

Australia won the toss in that last Test, and Graveney said: “I didn’t know I was playing until Len tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Tom, put your pads on and come in with me’. Everyone tells me my century doesn’t count because it was a dead rubber, but I was thrilled. Keith Miller allowed me to reach three figures. I hit three of his first six balls for four. The seventh [of the eight-ball over] was a slow long-hop down the leg side, and I missed it. He then gave me another one. It was like that then. Every evening, after a competitive day in the field, there were half-a-dozen Australians in your dressing room, waiting to have a beer with you. All my life I had a reputation for being too friendly with the opposition. I’ve no regrets, though.

“It was a fantastic tour, playing alongside the likes of Colin Cowdrey and Peter May; besides, playing in Australia was always enjoyable. It was a hell of a good place – almost entirely British in its feel. It was the time of the ‘£10 passage’, when a lot of people emigrated after becoming disillusioned with Britain.”

The 1958/59 tour was less happy for England, and they lost 4-0. A throng of big, aggressive Australian quick bowlers were either ‘chucking’ the ball at them, or dragging the toes of their back feet over the return crease so they could deliver the ball from closer to the batsmen. Or both, thanks to the no-ball Law at that time.

“It was tough playing against throwers,” said Graveney. “Gordon Rorke had the longest drag you have ever seen. His front foot went six feet beyond the popping crease.”

The tour was also controversial for the presence of captain May’s fiancée, Virginia Gilligan. He was accused of not spending enough time with his men.

“We were never a team,” said Graveney. “We had a lot of injuries and we were never in the hunt. It was a poor tour. Peter was a great friend and a good captain, but there was no doubt the whole business was a distraction. But I enjoyed playing in Australia. I found the crowds amusing. I was never worried. It was all very jolly.”

Richie Benaud took 31 wickets at 18.83 in the series. “He had been quite an ordinary bowler in 1953, although he was still a very dangerous all-rounder, but he just got better and better,” said Graveney. “He had won the captaincy ahead of Neil Harvey before the series by the barest of margins, but he was very astute.”

Graveney’s third and final Ashes tour was in 1962/63.

In 1962, the distinction between amateurs and gentlemen in cricket was abolished, to the disappointment of many, but those who embraced the non-professional ethos were still in charge of this trip.

“Ah yes, ‘The Sussex tour’,” Graveney said affectionately. “There was a lot of Sussex/southern bias on that tour,” said Ray Illingworth, rather less affectionately.

England were led by an Oxbridge captain and vice-captain – Ted Dexter and Cowdrey – with a vicar, David Sheppard, as senior player. The Earl Marshal of England – otherwise known as the Duke of Norfolk – was manager. That appointment pleased Dexter, who was captain of Sussex for whom the Duke was president.

“The story goes that the Duke woke up one night, and said, ‘I’d like to manage the tour to Australia’,’ Illingworth told me. “So his wife said, ‘Well, Marmaduke, you must tell the MCC’.”

Alec Bedser was assistant manager. “Alec did all the work,” said Graveney, before adding rather more diplomatically than Illingworth would have done: “But the Duke was a fine ambassador.” As, indeed, was Graveney.

A full obituary will be featured in the December issue.