Tour of South Africa 1949-50            Captain: Lindsay Hassett

22nd Australian Test tour

Fourth Test-playing tour of South Africa by Australia

(September 1949 -  April 1950)

To the cricketing public’s’ amazement Keith Miller was not included in the selected tour party. Writer Jack Fingleton accounted for this bombshell because of coolness between Miller and Bradman on the 1948 England tour and since then. Bradman himself was another notable absentee. Now Sir Donald, having been knighted in the 1949 New Year Honours, he stuck to his decision to retire from cricket.

Miller, whose wife was then expecting her second child, soon received a summons to reinforce the team when Bill Johnston misread an Afrikaans road sign in Natal and was badly injured in a car accident.

Australia’s second full tour of South Africa was as successful as the first in 1935-36. The team went undefeated, won four of the five Test matches, and was seen by more than half a million spectators.

Lindsay Hassett, who had been narrowly chosen as tour captain by seven votes to six, went through the tour with tonsilitis and did not enter a nursing home for an operation to remove his tonsils until after the last Test match.

All Australian tours

Previous tour

England 1948

Next tour

England 1953

Next tour of South Africa

1957-58

Members of the Test tour party (14  +  1)

Opening batsmen:  Ken Archer,  Arthur Morris, Jack Moroney

Middle-order batsmen:Neil Harvey, Lindsay Hassett, Sam Loxton,

Wicket-keeper:  Ron Saggers, Gil Langley. 

Spin bowlers: Ian Johnson, Colin McCool.

Fast bowlers:  Ray Lindwall, Bill Johnston, Geff Noblet, Alan Walker. 

State representation

 Sheffield Shield teams

New South Wales (5)

Queensland (2)

South Australia (2)

Victoria (5)

Western Australia (0)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match  

(24 December 1949) : 

   29 yrs  5 months.

Key to type:

RHB Right-handed bat

RM  Right arm medium-paced bowler

RFM  Right-arm fast medium

OB   Off break

WK  Wicket-keeper

Test Appearances made before the tour

Hassett 19,  Miller 16,  Lindwall 15,  Morris 14,  Johnson 13,  Johnston 9,  McCool 9,  Harvey 4,  Loxton 4,  Saggers 1,  Archer 0,  Langley 0,  Moroney 0,  Noblet 0,  Walker 0.

Tour officials

Mr Edmund 'Chappie' Dwyer was appointed manager on 30 December 1948.

Selectors

Sir Donald Bradman (South Australia),  E.A.’Chappie’ Dwyer (New South Wales),  Jack Ryder (Victoria).

Albert Vincent of NSW was appointed a selector on 15 September to serve as long as Dwyer was absent on tour.

Selection

Bert Oldfield and Alan Kippax’s testimonial match at Sydney, postponed because of the War, served as a trial for the tour.

Unavailable  Don Bradman (retired),  Sid Barnes, Bill Brown,  W P J (Bill) Donaldson (New South Wales batsman)

Tour Party Announced   2 March 1949.

Lindsay Hassett was named as skipper on 7 March.

Not selected :   Keith Miller,  Len Johnson,  Fred Johnston.

Withdrawal:  Don Tallon withdrew from the 1949-50 tour on 9 August due to illness caused by stomach ulcers. His place was taken by Saggers. It has been said that Tallon was banned from selection like Sid Barnes but that his ban was never announced.

Time between selection of tour party and departure from Australia 

     204 days

(2 March  - 22 September)

Travel

The team’s departure was delayed by a week. They eventually left from Fremantle on 22 September 1949 on the ss ‘Nestor’.

Arrived at Durban on the Nestor at 3 am on Friday 7 October. The first match was not played for a fortnight.

Time spent in South Africa        

    175 days 

(7 October - 1 April)

On-tour selection panel

Lindsay Hassett (captain),  Arthur Morris (vice-captain). Chappie Dwyer - the first time that the Australian Board had made the manager a tour selector.

Reinforcements

Bill Johnston was injured in a car crash near Rossburgh in Natal, suffering chest and head injuries. He recovered from the bruising over his heart in a Durban nursing home, and could not play for 8 matches.

The selectors back in Australia -  Bradman, Ryder and Dwyer’s NSW stand-in, Albert Vincent - sounded out Ernie Toshack before choosing Keith Miller on 5 September. He flew from Sydney to Fremantle and sailed on the liner 'Dominion Monarch' on 21 November, accompanied by the team masseur Charlie O'Brien. They did not fly because the South Africans were covering all expenses. They arrived at Cape Town on 4 December.

A strained back muscle ruled Alan Walker out of the first two Tests.  Gil Langley was put out of the tour by fracturing the index finger of his left hand.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

Time spent in South Africa before First Test:

      78 days

(7 October  -  24 December)

Test appearances on tour

5 -   Harvey,  Hassett,  Johnson,  Johnston,  Loxton,  McCool,  Miller,  Moroney,  Morris,  Saggers.

4 -   Lindwall

1  -  Noblet

0 -   Archer,  Langley,  Walker.

Highlights

•  After Lindsay Hassett (112) and Sam Loxton (101) had scored hundreds in the first innings of the Test series at Johannesburg, Bill Johnston bowled South Africa out taking 6 wickets for 44 runs.

•   After being dismissed for 75, and then set 336 runs to win, Australia were seen home by Neil Harvey

•   Harvey scored 151 not out in this innings, as well as 114 at Cape Town and 100 at Johannesburg

•   Jack Moroney scored centuries (118 and 101*) in each innings of the fourth Test at Johannesburg and, batting cautiously with Morris (who made 111) added 214 runs for the opening partnership.

•  

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Perth    Q   Sydney 

It was found that the sailing date home would be delayed by ten days and the South African authorities negotiated that the team would play an additional fixture.  But as two extra matches had already been added, one early in the tour, they declined to do so.  Instead they played a baseball match against the South Africans as a testimonial for scorer Bill Ferguson, which raised £1000.

Ferguson sailed from Cape Town to England on the Edinburgh Castle to join the West Indies tour.

The team relaxed visiting friends in South Africa until they sailed from Cape Town on the ‘Athenic’ on 1 April 1950. The ship reached Fremantle (to a quiet reception) on 14 April, flying on to their homes in the eastern states.

Time away from Australia  

    204 days  

(22 September - 14 April)

Finances

Members of the team received £450 sterling each from the South African cricket authorities.  A move to have the amount raised was not supported by the Australian Cricket Board of Control.

Written accounts of the tour

“Catch!”  by R S Whitington  and Keith Miller  (1951)  published by Latimer House (includes the MCC tour 1950-51)

Postscript