Bob Simpson, the Australian cricketer who died on Saturday aged 89, is one of the rare cricketers who could claim to be a top batsman, a good captain, a great slip fielder, and an inspiring coach.
Simpson played 62 Tests for Australia from 1957 to 1978, scoring 4,869 runs at an average of 46.81, including 10 centuries and 27 half-centuries. He captained Australia in 39 Tests and was their head coach for 10 years from 1986, helping them win the 1987 World Cup in India, the famous 1989 Ashes in England and an epic away series win in West Indies in 1995. As a leg-spinner he took two five-wicket hauls and grabbed 71 wickets at 42.26.
The modern-day cricket remembers him as the coach first and that’s for an understandable reason. Australia has never been a cricket team that has evoked much sympathy as they have been one of the formidable teams in the history of the sport. But even they went through a bad patch in the 1980’s when they did trigger some sympathy. The big three Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh, and Greg Chappell had retired together and not long after the new captain Kim Hughes had broken down in public, unable to handle the pressure as the backbiting and politicking in Australian cricket took its toll on him. Australian cricket was in a vulnerable stage and it’s in this phase that Simpson became Australia’s coach to help the captain Allan Border, and guide a slew of youngsters in the team from Steve Waugh, Mark Taylor to David Boon.
Unsurprisingly, those four have stood out in their tributes to their coach Simpson. “No one gave more to Australian cricket than Bob Simpson – coach, player, commentator, writer, selector, mentor and journalist,” Steve Waugh posted on Instagram. “He made me a better player and he made Australian cricket great. RIP Simmo.”
Mark Taylor echoed those words, saying that “there’d be very few people who could say they have contributed more to Australian cricket than Bob Simpson”.
David Boon, who came to symbolise the ‘Aussie toughness’ in the late 80’s and early 90’s would credit Simpson for his career. He cued up a dismissal from a game when Simpson approached him in the dressing room. “I had my head down, I felt his presence, he was standing in front of me, he ticked me off for getting out. I thought I’d just made 200, it was him challenging me to be better. Move forward when you’re in that position; it was one of his challenges. We worked so hard. Without him, I don’t think I could’ve produced as a bat pad (catcher at short-leg),” Boon told Newscorp.
The man who Simpson assisted the most in that phase was the captain Allan Border.
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“Behind the scenes, he was the sergeant major and disciplinarian, and that allowed me to do what I did best,” Border told Newscorp. “Occasionally, I would blow up, but it never lasted for long. I suppose we were a bit of an odd couple, but it just sort of worked … Simmo was the perfect man for the time. He was not everyone’s best mate, but that was not his role. Everyone who played under him whether they liked him or not would accept they were better players for his influence. He was as good as any coach we have ever had. He had a fantastic cricket brain,” Border said.
Consultant to the Indian team
Simpson was also the consultant with the Indian team in 1999, and also coached Leicestershire and Lancashire in county cricket in England. “RIP Bob Simpson.. our memories of 1999 World Cup and my stint with you in Lancashire will always be in my heart and memories. A gentleman to the core,” wrote Ganguly on his ‘X’ account on Saturday.
As one of the great slip fielders of his time, he is credited with training drills that helped Mark Waugh become one of the great catchers and more importantly turn David Boon into one of the sharpest short-leg catchers of all time.
But for the man who is known to usher in professionalism back in Australian set-up as a coach, it was his decision to pardon a ‘misdemeanour’ that has gone down as one of the great Aussie cricket stories out there. On the flight from Australia to London, to play the 1989 Ashes series that Australia would win under Border’s captaincy, David Boon had downed the Aussie record 52 cans of beers. Simpson was unaware of it until the pilot announced it after landing, and he thought about sending Boon back but decided against it. That night, in the telling of Dean Jones, Boon had drunk again at a sponsor’s event and had passed out at the hotel lobby. As his room-mate, Jones was called down to the lobby, and was taking Boon on the porter’s trolley when Simpson came out of the lift to witness the scene. Yet again, he restrained himself from taking any drastic action, though he did fine Boon in the morning meeting.
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A couple of months into the tour, after the likes of Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh, Merv Hughes had starred and Australian cricket had found itself again, it was Boon who hit the winning runs to clinch that Ashes.
