Keith Miller the best captain Australia never had

Sharm DE ALWIS

This article is meant to keep alive in the minds of the readers that stalwarts of such caliber should never be forgotten As a schoolboy, Keith Miller's first International encounter was a match against the visiting Royalists in 1936 comprising, in batting order Lucien de Zoysa, D.Vollenhoven, E.F.E. de Kretser, F.H. de Saram, Pat McCarthy, Ryle de Soysa [captain], W,B.V.Thiedeman, U.T.Perera, M.Sivanathan, D.R.R.Porritt and S.Pathmanathan.

As a schoolboy Miller was called "a Test player in miniature who reveals the poise and artistry of Kippax." He was to lose four seasons of cricket due to World War ll but he quickly made amends when time was ripe to dazzle the sward. Only Cecil Pepper or C.I.Gunasekera could wallop a ball as hard as he could in calibrated mayhem. Robertson-Glasgow termed it Dignity with the brakes off. Miller's elegant and emphatic innings at Lords in the 1945 Victory Test drew instant comparisons with Victor Trumper, Archie Jackson and Stan McCabe. He cared little for averages and records. He would give spectators their fill. And so be it. He was the other Errol Flynn who set the movies and women alight.

He was on song for long. As late as 1953, Wisden honoured him as one of the five cricketers of the Year along with Neil Harvey, Tony Lock, Willie Watson and Wardle.

Cardus would say, "There is about him and his cricket the style and flavour of the picaresque. He has swagger." He saw Miller as a throw-back to another universe of Trumper, Macartney, McCabe and a Hammond in his prime. "His is a world capable of wonder. His hair is not so much unruly as rhetorical in its falling disarray. He is much the product of surf and sea as of turf and willow." Denis Compton, Cecil Pepper, Bob Christofani and Lala Amarnath were from the same sporting ethos as Miller.

On the Tour of India, even though there were cricketers of dazzling feats such as Vinoo Mankad, Vijay Hazare, Nayudu, Rusi Modi, Vijay Singh, Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Merchant it was with Lala Amarnath that he was most comfortable as a bed-fellow.

When the game against that of Maharaja of Patiala was on it was mentioned that the Maharaja's father had sired nearly 200 off-spring for Hassett to remark dryly,

"If he reached 200 would he get a new ball?" In the West Indies he would have won the Man of the Series award had there been one on offer. Having followed his path, Alan Kippax declared, "Miller is a greater cricketer than even Jack Gregory." The 1948 Invincibles had an embarrassment of riches but where the batting department was concerned England's arsenal with Hammond, England's greatest after Jack Hobbs, Compton, Hutton, Washbrook and Edrich was no lesser in might and intent.

The only fly in the ointment was Miller at his devastating best lending arm to Lindwall in mortal combat. Hutton found Lindwall always a problem but Miller a greater threat.

Miller enjoyed bowling to super-stars and England had quite a few including stone-wallers like Godfrey Evans who took 95 minutes to crack the egg and Bailey, no less obdurate.

But he preferred batting to bowling possible because Arthur Mailey had observed that the last bowler to be knighted was Sir Francis Drake. Opponents found it impossible to avoid him: if not belting their balls or bowling them out, he was catching them like swallows, mainly in the slips in his 110 catches in 55 Tests.

He had a careless charisma. Robertson-Glasgow said, "Miller is a story book batsman; were he not fact he would be first rate fiction." C.B.Fry chipped in : Apart from his technical excellence, Keith Miller has something of the dash and generous abandon that were part of Victor Trumper's charms."

With all his gay abandon he wanted a battle on equal terms. When Bradman was grinding Essex in the dust at 364 for 2 wickets Miller let his first ball from Bailey hit the wicket, turned to the wicket-keeper and said, "Thank God that's over." But Bradman at the bowler's crease said to Bailey, "He'll learn." As a fighter pilot in WWll he nearly lost his life on as many as six occasions. That's why, when asked abour pressure in cricket, he said: "Pressure? Pressure in cricket? I'll tell you what pressure is. Pressure is having a Messerschmitt up your arse", meaning a German fighter plane on the tail.

Partying many times with Princess Margaret, Miller, somehow, acquired the Princess's own royal standard, a flag that had been given by the King along with her own court-of-arms on her eighteenth birthday.

Hasset commented: "Seems you have raised your standard in more ways than one." Asked on his last departure from England what the most attractive sights were, he said, "The Cliffs of Dover, Lords and Princess Margaret." England and Lords had claimed him as their own. When he died, at Lord's, Miller's spiritual homethe MCC flag on the grandstand was flown at half-mast.

Miller who dazzled on the cricket fields all over the world and who played Australian Rules Rugby for NSW and Victoria lives in mute splendour in frozen bronze outside the MCG for posterity to honour the man who was the best captain Australia never had. Benaud who came under his wings when Miller captained NSW and who is rated as the best captain Australia ever had said: "I learnt a lot from him. He was flamboyant whereas Morris was staid."