by Mayukh Ghosh

There are greats and then there are favourites.
In the second list, among Australians, if I have to pick six, they are Arthur Mailey, Lindsay Hassett, Bill Johnston, Sid Barnes, Alan Davidson and Wally Grout.

After a visit to the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Mailey encountered an anonymous benefactor who showed him Bernard Bosanquet's wrong 'un.
Armed with the new weapon, he rushed home like ' somebody who had found a nugget of gold'. It indeed was.
He had passed it on to Clarrie Grimmett and then to Bill O'Reilly, then to Richie Benaud,....., we know where it ended.

When Australia's nationalistic team manager reprimanded Mailey for showing his tricks to English leg-spinner Ian Peebles, Mailey replied, "Please understand that slow bowling is an art. And art is international."

Thank goodness we had people like Mailey playing cricket. And then writing the best autobiography by a Test cricketer.

Arthur Mailey was born on Jan 3, 1886