by Kalyanbrata Bhattacharyya
Greg Chappell, one of the greatest Australian cricketers ever, once said that Redpath was one of the two cricketers who would kill to get into the Australian Test team—the other man being Rodney Marsh.
This tall, lanky batsman with a gawky walk and the neck resembling that of a swan from Victoria first made his appearance in Test cricket against South Africa on the Christmas day of the second Test match in the 1963-64 series, opening with. Bill Lawry and adding 219 runs for the first wicket. He .missed his century on debut by a mere 3 runs. Incidentally, he was the last amateur cricketer to play. for Australia and declined his match fee in order to maintain his position as an amateur footballer as well.
Redpath was educated at Geelong College, like some other Australian cricketers, including Lindsay Hassett, Jack Iverson and his erstwhile teammate Paul Sheehan. He was popularly known as ‘Redders’ among his team-mates and made his debut for Victo.ria in the 1961-62 Sheffield Shield series. In his tenth first-class innings he scored 261 runs against Queensland, his highest first-class score that included an attack including Wes Hall at his fastest. This was the .second highest score by a Victorian following Bill Ponsford’s 275 not out in 1928-29. .
This innings caught the eye of the se.lectors and soon he was playing for his country. However, in spite of his brilliant 97 on debut and thereafter, 25 in the second innings, he missed the next match quite inexplicably following the return of Norman O’Neill and Brian Booth, and Bobby Simpson took over the role of the opener with his long-time mate, Bill Lawry.
Shortly before the departure to England in 1964, he scored 202 for the Australian XI against Western Australia at Perth and participated in all the five Test matches against their old adversaries. His performance was indifferent, 58 not out at Leeds being the highest score. The slump continued in the subsequent visits to India and Pakistan and he was therefore, passed over for the 1965 tour to West Indies. He was summoned against England at Brisbane in the 1965-66 series but was summarily dropped after scoring 17 in the first Test match.
However, his form in the Sheffield Shield had been brilliant and he scored three centuries. This earned him a place for the tour to South Africa and he regained his form there where his batting average was only second to that of his captain, Bobby Simpson. During this series Trevor Goddard, the South African captain, described his batting being technically the most perfect in the world. He participated against India in the summer of 1967-68 in three out of the four Test matches played. During the tour to England in 1968, he scored 92 at Headingly, Leeds in the fourth Test match and so the coveted three-figure went on eluding him
Redpath scored his first Test century against West Indies in the 1968-69 series at Sydney and he registered 132 in his 28th Test match. In the previous Test match at Adelaide he was out in a dramatic fashion when Charlie Griffith ran him out at the non-striker end without prior warning, as he had been backing up leaving the crease. Incidentally, he was out once again in a similar fashion in a Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia six seasons later at Melbourne but John Inverarity, the Western Australian captain, magnanimously withdrew the appeal.
In the following year he visited India with the Australian team and played a stellar role at Madras when Australia had been reeling at 6 for 24 on the third day in the second innings to the guile of Erapalli Prasanna, the master off-spin bowler. He scored 63 and his partnerships with Graham McKenzie and Laurie Mayne, the fast bowler, saved Australia from imminent disaster and they eventually won the Test match. This remains one of the examples of his much talked-about obduracy. He had moderate success when the entire Australian team was demolished in the subsequent tour to South Africa in 1970 and were defeated in all the four Test matches. During the tour he hit 32 runs in an over at Bloemfontein against Orange Free State while scoring 152, still an Australian record.
Australia played against England only six months later in their home soil and Perth in Western Australia was a new venue for the second Test match. Greg Chappell made his debut and scored a magnificent 108 but it was Redpath who steadied the ship in the middle order, lent support to the young debutant and scored 171, his highest Test score, and the partnership yielded 220 runs for the sixth wicket. Greg Chappell wrote effusively about him regarding this innings and wrote, ‘I learned a lot about batting in Test cricket just from batting with Ian Redpath on that day,’ while John Snow wrote, ‘I liked bowling to him least of all… He was a real nuisance batsman.’ In the other matches his performance was sporadically significant and Australia lost the series to England, led by Ray Illingworth.
This was a memorable occasion for the English side since after Douglas Jardine won the Ashes in the controversial bodyline series in Australia in 1932-33, never did England recover it in Australia. For some inscrutable reasons, he was dropped from the team which flew to England in 1972 under the leadership of Ian Chappell. It was a team that contained many new faces and Redpath’s experience could have been of invaluable help to the new skipper. However, Redpath was very much there in England with his wife, buying old furniture for his new project, an antique shop in Geelong, anticipating a premature retirement. Australia drew the magnificently fought series and soon Redpath found himself back in the team against Pakistan in 1972-73 and scored 135 at Melbourne.
This innings virtually impelled the selectors to include him for the forthcoming tour of West Indies and three half centuries of the highest quality and an opening stand of 161 with Keith Stackpole at Kingston, Jamaica, Sabina Park, were simply the portent of things to come. However, he was dropped again against New Zealand at home in 1973-74, though in the subsequent tour to New Zealand the next year, he was back again. This time he opened the innings and carried his bat through the innings at Auckland in an innings of 159 in a total of 356 and finished the series at an average of 82.60.
Australia played against England in 1974-75 in Australia and Redpath was appointed the vice-captain to Ian Chappell. The series shall ever be remembered for the hostile bowling by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. The English batsmen had no clue to their pace and guile and additionally, were plagued by injuries, culminating eventually in the arrival of Colin Cowdrey at the age of 41 to bolster their batting. In the match at Sydney, Redpath scored 105 runs and a year later, West Indies toured Australia. Both the sides boasted of great batsmen and fast bowlers but again, the West Indian batsmen were at bay against the Australian attack.
It seems that Redpath reserved his best form for this series. He opened the innings and his string of scores were, 102 at Melbourne, 103 and 65 at Adelaide and 101 and 70 at Melbourne. He hit the first six in his career in the match at Adelaide against Lance Gibbs and having done so, promptly hit another one in the same innings. In his innings of 101 at Melbourne, his home ground, he was caught by Vanburn Holder to the bowling of Lance Gibbs and it was the latter’s 308th Test wicket and thus he overhauled the previous record held by Freddie Trueman of England. Redpath was the first person to shake hands with him. Soon, he announced his retirement from Test and First class cricket in order to attend seriously to his business and declined the offer to visit England the following year for the first ever Prudential Cup.
Thus, Redpath has the unique distinction of scoring ninety plus in his debut Test match and a century in his final Test match, the other such batsman being Colin Milburn of England who scored 94 in his debut Test match at Trent Bridge in 1966 and 139 against Pakistan at Karachi in 1969, weeks before he lost his eye in a car accident near his home at Nottingham. Marc Fiddian, an Australian correspondent, wrote that he was in line for the Australian captaincy after Ian Chappell relinquished his job following the tour to England. He shared century partnership with four other openers namely, Bill Lawry, Keith Stackpole, Rick McCosker and Allan Turner.
Redpath was an affable human being and was easy to get along with. However, he raised his voice regarding the payment of fee for the players in 1974-75, when he was the vice-captain of the team. The story goes that when Alan Barnes, the Australian Cricket Board administrator, told a dressing room gathering that there were 50,000 others waiting and prepared to play for Australia without fee, Redpath grabbed Barnes around the throat, pushed against the wall and shouted, ‘You bloody idiot. Of course there are 50,000 out there who would play for nothing. But how bloody good would the Australian team be?’
Years earlier, Bill Lawry, the Australian captain at the time of their visit to India and South Africa in 1969-70, wrote a piquant letter to the Australian Cricket Board about the difficult times they had to face there and Redpath insisted that it should be signed by all the players. However, Lawry wanted to pursue independently and that possibly peeved the selectors and Lawry’s career was tragically finished.
Redpath was an outstanding fielder, specially close to the wicket at slip or short leg and took 82 catches.
He had a curious and distinctive style of negotiating the bouncer. It is said the he used to fist at the ball rearing at his head with his right glove!
He had the distinction of playing in the first ever ODI at Melbourne on 5th Jan, 1971. In 1977, one year after his retirement he signed for the World Series Cricket, organized by Kerry Packet but injured his Achilles tendon and had to sit out thereafter. But Packer decided to pay him his entire fee for the tournament and Redpath repaid the loyalty by returning the next year. He was awarded an MBE in 1975. The Geelong Cricket Club has established the Redpath Society after his name.
With time he matured to the extent that he turned into a pivotal figure of Australian batting, either opening or down the middle order. Out of the seven centuries he scored in Test matches, five were registered in his last fifteen matches and three in his last series. Other than him, such rare flexibility was perhaps vouchsafed only by his first captain, Bobby Simpson, who marveled at both the positions. But that is another story.
Redpath played 66 Test matches and scored 4737 runs at an average of 43.45 runs and hit 7 centuries. He will always be remembered as a batsman who served best in crisis when his team needed him most.