by Arunabha Sengupta

Jeff Thomson was involved in a 12-day court case which decided whether he could play for Kerry Packer or his contract was binding to Australia. While the verdict was being announced, he was sitting at the back of the court, reading a fishing magazine.
He had his own way of responding to the cross examination during the above case.

The dialogue went:
“Do you play soccer when not playing cricket?”
“Yes, sometimes I do.”
“In a team?”
“A bit hard not to.”
“Your style of bowling attracts tremendous spectator interest does it not?”
“Whatever turns them on, yes.”
“Frequently bowling at the batsmen?”
“I don’t bowl at the fieldsmen.”

It should be noted that when Packer’s agent came to his house with the contract, he had told him to sod off because he had stuff to do.

He was nonchalant and carefree.
But he did have his vulnerabilities.

On his first tour – to England in 1975 – he suffered so much from homesickness that captain Ian Chappell told him that if he wanted to go home he could just pack his bags and leave.

And there was an off-and-on romantic streak.

He got married to one of the prettiest models of the day, Cheryl Wilson.
Within a few months, he forgot the name of the church where they had been joined in wedlock, managing to remember only that it was opposite a police station.
The flowers for the wedding were supplied by a Brisbane florist by the name of Ray Lindwall. Yes, he was the same fast bowler of yore.

When struck down by severe injury that was almost career ending, Thomson spent painful days in the hospital. Whenever wife Cheryl visited him, he used to cry out, “Where’s the double bed?”

And he did bowl fast. We all know that.
In the last line of Thomson’s biography Thommo David Frith wrote, “Thommo bowling medium pace … is like Ned Kelly playing with a popgun.”

Jeff Thomson was born on 16 Aug 1950