Oval 1968.
It was Ian Chappell with his occasional leg-breaks who made the ball hit the spot and turn. Basil D’Oliveira, on 31, went back and edged. A difficult chance, and Barry Jarman spilled it. Jim Swanton wrote: “the most fateful drop in cricket history.”
Dolly went on to score 158, BJ Vorster turned apoplectic and it changed the face of cricket.
It is ironical that a wicketkeeper of such splendid ability—one-time South Australia room-mate Garry Sobers rated him as one of the very best wicketkeepers in international cricket—will be forever linked to a drop.
However, Jarman did not mind. Basil D’Oliveira had waited more than a decade for his opportunities, playing behind the apartheid wall. Jarman knew what was at stake for the man, on the brink of being chosen to tour that very South Africa which had shunned him because of his colour.
Jarman knew what it was to wait. His biography by Barry Nicholls was later named For Those Who Wait.
He played only 19 Tests scattered over ten years. From 1956 to 1969, Jarman toured New Zealand twice, England thrice, India, South Africa and Pakistan twice and West Indies. with the Australian team. But he played just those 19 Tests.
It was Peter Burge’s vote that sealed his fate in that regard.
Before the first Test at Johannesburg in 1957-58, Ian Craig was undecided whom to select to don the big gloves. Burge plumped for fellow-Queesnlander Wally Grout.
It was not known then that Grout had a broken bone in his hand. He played, had a disappointing first innings, but snapped up six catches in the second to claim a world record. The die was more or less cast. Jarman would remain the splendidly gifted understudy to a magnificent keeper, becoming a regular only in 197-68.
Jarman made his debut at Kanpur in late 1959. He kept well, but dropped skipper Nari Contractor. Jasu Patel became unplayable on a wet, underprepared pitch. Australia lost their first ever Test on the subcontinent. And Grout was back for the next Test.
Jarman received his next opportunity when Grout’s jaw was broken by Queensland teammate Wes Hall. The understudy played in the first three Ashes Tests of 1962-63, his catch to dismiss Geoff Pullar off Garth McKenzie at MCG one of the best catches ever seen at the ground. A take at full stretch with his right hand off a genuine leg-glance, he held it low, rolled twice and came up with the catch. But Grout was back for the fourth Test.
Jarman’s outings remained one off. Even when he scored his career-best 78 at Brabourne Stadium, Bombay, it was during another Australian defeat in India.
Grout continued to play, ignoring several health warnings, largely to finance a serious gambling addiction and money problems. It was 1966 when he finally retired, at the age of 39 (and died two years later from heart attack)
By then Jarman was 30, a father of three, and his sports business in Adelaide, largely covered by partner David Rowe during his absences, was thriving. He still loved his cricket, but not as passionately as he once did.
Tom Graveney and Barry Jarman: Two caretaker captains toss at Headingley
Jarman’s wife Taynor was ill when Australia went to South Africa in 1966-67, and hence Brian Taber and Gordon Becker travelled as wicketkeepers. It was only when the Indians toured in 1967-68 that Jarman finally played a full series as the primary keeper of Australia.
And then there was the England tour of 1968, where he was vice-captain to Bill Lawry. He even took over as captain at Headingley when Lawry missed the Test because of an injury.
But when he was dropped for the final Test against West Indies in early 1969, he announced his retirement.
19 Tests, 400 runs at 14.81, 50 catches, 4 stumpings. Wally Grout played 51 Tests for his 163 catches and 24 stumpings.
Jarman became an ICC match referee and it was he who took the unprecedented decision to abandon a Test because of a dangerous pitch. That was at Kingston in 1998.
He officiated in 25 Tests and 28 ODIs.
He was also a league footballer and umpire in the South Australian National Football League. His company became one of the leading sports goods chains in the state. Jarman was also a Jockey and Trainer’s Representative for the South Australian Jockey Club, leasing race horses during the 1980s, helping design and fund a new grandstand at the Strathalbyn race track.
Till his last days, he liked to entertain guests on his houseboat Goada’s Gold and regale them with stories of his sporting days.
Barry Jarman passed away on 18 July 2020.