7
In October 1988, seven years after Doug Walters had retired from top-class cricket, he was back at the crease batting for the Parkes representative XI in their annual grudge match against Dubbo. A tall, reed-thin fast bowler with the same haircut Walters had sported during his days as a National Serviceman in the 1960s tormented him with a constant nagging line and length, making it a tough grind to overhaul Dubbo’s 218. As Walters played and missed – again – a bunch of children added to his frustration as the ball thudded into the wicketkeeper’s gloves by yelling ‘C’mon, Reidy!’ – acknowledging that his torturer bore a resemblance to the Test bowler Bruce Reid.
Walters was going on 43, and while the old eyes weren’t as sharp as they’d been in the 1974/75 Ashes series (when he’d brought up his hundred by hooking for six the last ball of the day from Bob Willis), they could spot talent – even under the dodgy floodlights that left dark patches of shadow over Parkes’ Pioneer Oval. As the veteran of 74 Test matches faced up for the next delivery, he wondered why no-one had uttered a word about this lanky kid the previous night at the Coachman’s Hotel, where he’d spent hours autographing beer-stained coasters and shaking hands with old fans and new friends at the official pre-match function. Walters had heard everything he could possibly need to know about the pride of Parkes playing under him: Graeme Tanswell, Alan Day and Ken Keith. It had even been pointed out to him that Dubbo’s Stuart Border was related to the Test captain Allan Border. But for the life of him, Walters couldn’t remember a single damn word – of warning or otherwise – about McGrath.
Walters was back in the firing line as the face of the Toohey’s Country Cup Challenge, a competition started in 1977 by former Test skipper Bob Simpson. The aim of the contest was to send members of the NSW Sheffield Shield squad out bush to play alongside country cricketers in a series of inter-district representative games. Simpson hoped the initiative would help to reinvigorate the game in areas neglected by the game’s administrators, and also that it might unearth a few gems, like the McGrath boy from Narromine.
The Dubbo side was bolstered for that October night’s battle by the inclusion of Steve Smith, Greg Matthews and Mark Taylor, while Parkes boasted Walters, Mark Waugh and Graham Smith. McGrath’s shyness ensured that he was seen and not heard as he sat in the dressing-room alongside the big shots, but he absorbed everything he could when they spoke cricket.
‘It didn’t matter to me when we were out on the field playing that I was up against first-class cricketers, or that Dougie had played for Australia,’ he says. ‘I just loved bowling, and it was a great challenge. But I was a little bit in awe of them while we sat in the rooms before the game. I didn’t say much – I was just enjoying it, and I listened to everything they said. In terms of playing that day, I didn’t put extra pressure on myself. I never worried about how I was going to go in a game – I was more concerned with what I hoped to achieve in the game.’
When Matthews tossed McGrath the ball to begin his spell, he could see Dubbo’s first-change bowler was dead keen to prove himself against elite company. However, it was no secret that Walters’ best days were long gone, and Matthews urged McGrath to show ‘the great Dougie’ the respect to which he was entitled. McGrath was surprised – Matthews’ reverence for the old warrior seemed to contradict his reputation as a party boy with a penchant for rattling the cage of his conservative sport. At the peak of his career Matthews was considered the hippest cricketer about, with his super-cool lingo and daring earring. His image ensured he gained a cult following – but it didn’t endear him to the starched-collared members of the Australian Cricket Board, who branded him a maverick.
Although Matthews didn’t want to see Walters’ hard-earned reputation tarnished by a young punk with a point to prove, he need not have wasted his breath on McGrath. While McGrath certainly wanted Walters’ scalp – and Waugh’s and Smith’s, for that matter – his plan was to bowl a tight line and length. He was well aware of Dougie’s place in folklore: that he’d smashed 250 against the Kiwis; that three of his 15 Test centuries were scored within a session; that he’d amassed 5357 runs against his nation’s foes at an average of 48.26 and had taken 49 wickets as a bowler. It was a career to be proud of and McGrath had no intention of taking any cheap shots. He was also mindful that Doug was his mother’s favourite cricketer and she probably wouldn’t appreciate watching him ducking and weaving against short-pitched deliveries from her son.
‘Greg talked about it being an honour for me to bowl at someone of his standing, and that was all fine,’ says McGrath of Matthews’ direction. ‘I had no intention of bouncing Doug because I respected everything he’d achieved. I was more interested in seeing how I went bowling a good length at him – and, while I didn’t dismiss him, I was pretty happy with how I went. I’d played some representative cricket in the 12 months leading up to that game – for Narromine, Far West and Western Districts – but it was exciting to get picked to play for Dubbo. I saw it as a vote of confidence, a sign I was doing the right things. A talent scout from the Penrith grade club had apparently been sent out to watch me play in a game before the Toohey’s Cup match – I knew nothing about it – but I guess the long drive must’ve seemed like a great waste of time to him because I didn’t receive a phone call. He probably marked me down as just another bush player.’
As his eyes focused on the 18-year-old running in to bowl again, Walters might have wondered how that talent scout could have kept his title. The ball rocketed off the pitch much quicker than he had anticipated; the speed and sudden bounce forced him to cramp up and he popped up a catch, but it was too hot for the fielder at gully to handle.
Wiping the beads of sweat from his forehead, Walters shrugged his shoulders and grinned to himself. This McGrath kid was the reason many of his old Test team-mates refused to play in exhibition games. They didn’t fancy being the prey for young turks desperate to make a name at their expense by removing either their middle stump – or their head.
But ego was never a problem for Walters. He’d done more than enough at the top level to feel the need to prove himself to anyone. His aim as the face of the Toohey’s Country Cup Carnival – at the crease or at the bar afterwards – was to entertain the locals who’d paid their three bucks to watch the limited-overs action.
‘I had finished my career long ago,’ says Walters of playing in the scrub. ‘The young blokes thought it was nice to get me out, but that never worried me too much. I was a country boy myself, so I knew how important things like the Toohey’s Cup are to the bush, and I was happy to play and to participate. My view on that sort of thing remains the same as it was then: the more we do to help the talent out in the bush – and there’s plenty of it – the better it is for everyone.’
Indeed, Walters had himself benefited from such a spirit in 1962, when at the age of 16 he represented Maitland against the legendary Jack Chegwyn XI, a cavalier team that consisted of state players and top Sydney first-graders who made annual tours to the bush. Young Doug didn’t miss his chance to shine, smashing an unbeaten 51 and bagging four wickets. On the strength of that performance he was picked for the NSW Colts, where he scored 140. A few weeks later, having turned 17, he was at the SCG representing NSW against a Queensland attack that contained the great West Indies pace ace Wes Hall. He scored 1 in the first dig and a half-century in the second, and he never looked back. Now it was his turn to put something back, and he was happy to see a farmer’s son step up to the plate in Parkes that night.
McGrath was the player who excited those in the 2000-strong crowd who really knew the game.
‘Glenn McGrath bowled very well that night,’ recalls Matthews two decades later. ‘I remember it well. He wanted to get in there and stick it to ’em ... but he was also cool and controlled. What I noticed about Glenn early on – and it was to become his greatness – you only had to tell him something once. I liked him the first time I saw him – he’s a beautiful man. He owns that man in the mirror. A very special dude.’
Mark Taylor, who learned his cricket in Wagga Wagga – a country town near the Victorian border, home to many elite athletes including cricket’s Michael Slater and Geoff Lawson and the famous rugby league Mortimer family – says one of the joys of playing in competitions like the Country Cup was unearthing the occasional rough diamond like McGrath.
‘Some blokes stood out and Glenn was one of them,’ says Taylor. ‘He was a tall, lanky guy for a start – a beanpole of a kid, actually. He had good bounce and pace, and while you’d never have imagined he’d one day take 500 Test wickets, I wondered how he’d go in Sydney. I’m glad he came down.’
As one of the selectors who’d picked McGrath for the Dubbo XI, Brian Gainsford was ecstatic at the way the boy who had started out at the Backwater club handled the step up in class.
‘Glenn had played some representative matches and I thought it was time to throw him in headfirst, to see if he would sink or swim,’ says Gainsford. ‘It was an exhibition match – and he’d shown enough that year to justify selection and he made the most of his opportunity. We all knew he would.’
McGrath’s effort was no mean feat – he was bowling on a pitch that could be described as, at best, a cur of a thing.
‘The pitches we played the Toohey’s Cup matches on had an aluminium base with a strip of synthetic stretched over it,’ Walters says. ‘We’d put them down in places that didn’t have a turf wicket, like Pioneer Oval at Parkes. The way they played depended really on how they were put down: if it was done properly the pitch would be okay, but because most grounds have little ridges on them it was sometimes impossible to lay them dead flat. A consequence of that was we had little ripples up and down the pitch, so if the ball hit the down slope it didn’t bounce. However, if it hit the up zone it took off – and if I remember correctly, Glenn was hitting that up zone quite regularly when Parkes played Dubbo! But what I most vividly recall thinking to myself was that if this bloke could bowl so well on an aluminium wicket, imagine what he could do on a good pitch.’
McGrath’s main memory of the aluminium pitch is that he couldn’t wear spikes. He was also denied a hat-trick through sloppy fielding, and it surprises him to think that Mark Taylor, who is remembered as one of Australia’s great slips fieldsmen, dropped a sitter.
‘It went straight to him, too,’ rues McGrath. ‘I had four dropped that night.’
While Taylor remembers spilling the chance, he says McGrath has forgotten the Pioneer Oval lights – they were so dodgy the fieldsmen should have had coalminers’ helmets with lamps so they could see.
Beverley McGrath felt great pride and emotion as she and Donna sat in the grandstand and watched Glenn play in a game involving such big names. Watching Walters in action made Bev think of her cricket-loving father, who’d often told her how he’d played cricket against Walters’ dad and uncles before World War Two. In 1965 she’d sat beside him and watched the family’s black-and-white television as Walters, then a fresh-faced kid of 19, nailed a Test century on debut against England.
‘As I watched Glenn bowl at Doug, it struck me as being special that my dad knew his people,’ Bev says. ‘It was a great experience, because apart from being happy that Glenn was playing, having Doug Walters out on the field gave me a connection to Dad as well. Donna and I had a great night, and we were so proud of Glenn.’
Walters was eventually dismissed for a scratchy 20, though he fared a little better than Parkes’ other guest stars. Mark Waugh was dismissed for 8 and Graham Smith was sent packing for a duck. The Parkes Champion Post was disappointed to report that after falling 40 runs short, their team had lost the grudge match to Dubbo for the second consecutive summer. ‘Parkes were never in the hunt,’ was the Post’s unnamed correspondent’s matter-of-fact view.
After the game Walters peppered the Far West officials with questions about McGrath. He also requested a contact number because he knew his old team-mate Steve ‘Stumper’ Rixon, then the NSW coach, would want to make a call to Narromine after they’d spoken. Rixon, a former Test player, was always on the lookout for fast bowlers. He had maintained strong ties to Sutherland, his old club, and had a good reputation for knowing how to foster talent.
Many years later, when McGrath retired with the mantle of Test cricket’s most successful fast bowler, it was suggested to Doug Walters that he take a bow for unearthing this gem. While most people would be keen to wear such praise as a badge of honour, Walters shook his head slowly and deliberately as he recalled that line and length which had almost driven him to despair two decades earlier.
‘Make no mistake about it, Glenn McGrath would have been discovered,’ he insisted. ‘I take no credit for discovering him because he had more talent than the average guy. If anything, I may have helped him get to where he was headed that little bit quicker, but make no bones about it, he was definitely headed there.’
Dubbo: Mark Taylor*, Steve Smith*, Greg Matthews (captain)*, Steve Wheeler, Luke Morrish, Cameron Humphries, Tony Campbell, Andrew Grant [all from Dubbo], Mark Pope [Wellington], Stuart Border [Gilgandra], Glenn McGrath [Narromine], Mark Heffion (12th man) [Dubbo]
[* Denotes guest player]
Parkes: Doug Walters (captain)*, Graham Smith*, Mark Waugh*, Alan Day, Graeme Tanswell, Ken Keith [all from Parkes], Tony Beasley [Grenfell], Graeme Newcombe, Scott Gilmour [both from Cowra], James Dargan [Condobolin], Andrew Chapman [Forbes]
[* Denotes guest player]
Umpires: Kevin Pye and David Davis
Dubbo 218 (Smith 85, Pope 50, Taylor 20. Day 2 for 41, Tanswell 1 for 12) defeated Parkes 178 (Beasley 40, Walters 20, Dargan 20. Grant 4 for 48, McGrath 3 for 44)