Neil Harvey

Did You Know?

• Harvey was the fifth of six boys born to Horace Harvey, a miner in Broken Hill before the family moved to Melbourne in 1926.
• All six Harvey brothers played for Fitzroy in district cricket, and five represented Victoria in baseball.
• The 1956 Ashes tour was a disappointment for Harvey; in five innings in the first three weeks he scored only 36 runs at 7.20.

Test debut

Harvey played two Sheffield Shield matches with his brothers Merv and Ray in 1947–48. He scored 87 against the touring Indian team in the opening match of the season and was selected for an Australian XI that played the Indians before the Tests, making 32 and 56 not out. Despite this, he was initially overlooked for the Tests. He reached 35 in each of his next five innings for Victoria, including two fifties.

Three months after his 19th birthday, Harvey made his Test debut in the Fourth Test against India at the Adelaide Oval, batting at No. 6 and scoring 13 in his only innings as Australia won by an innings. Retained for the Fifth Test at Melbourne, he was promoted to No. 5 and reached 78 on the first day, then completed his century on 7 February 1948, scoring 153. This made him the youngest Australian Test centurion, surpassing Archie Jackson's record.

He brought up the mark with an all-run five off Lala Amarnath. The innings replaced Don Bradman in the batting order and was seen as a sign that Harvey was tipped to become Australia's leading batsman. It secured another innings victory and a 4–0 series win. The innings ensured his place on the 1948 tour of England.

Bradman said of Harvey's selection, 'He has the brilliance and daring of youth, and the likelihood of rapid improvement.' In warm-up matches, Harvey struck 104 against Tasmania and 79 against Western Australia, finishing the season with 733 runs at 52.36. Despite his Test century, he was made 12th man in the tour opener against Worcestershire.

Consolidation

The 1948–49 Australian season had no international matches, and Harvey managed only 539 runs at 33.68 in first-class cricket, a letdown. Against New South Wales, he posted 72 and 75 as Victoria fell short by 88 runs, and his sole other half-century was an 87 for Lindsay Hassett's XI in a Test trial. Still, the selectors kept faith in him for the 1949–50 South African tour. With Bradman gone and Sid Barnes taking a long break, Harvey, the youngest in the squad, stepped up and set several Australian records.

His 660 Test runs at 132.00 were the most by any visiting batsman on a Test tour of South Africa, beating Len Hutton's old mark by 83. He also piled up 1,526 first-class runs at 76.30 and eight centuries on the tour, matching the feats of Compton, Hutton, and Morris. Early on, he hit 100 and 145 not out against North Eastern Transvaal and Orange Free State. In two warm-up matches against a South African XI, he made 34 and then 100, giving him 480 runs at 60.00 in the games before the First Test.

Peak years

Harvey started the 1952–53 season without a first-class century in more than 18 months and had suffered two defeats in three matches ahead of the Tests. He then scored 109 and 52 in the First Test against South Africa in Brisbane, top-scoring in the first innings and second top-score in the second. His scores of 11 and 60 in the Second Test, top-scoring in the second innings, were his worst as Australia lost their first Test to South Africa for 42 years.

Harvey then top-scored with 190 in the Third Test in Sydney, setting up a first-innings lead of 270 and an innings victory; he alone made more than the South African first-innings total and completed 1000 Test runs against South Africa in only eight Tests. He made consecutive centuries with 84 and 116 in Adelaide, his century taking 106 minutes, the fastest in Australia since World War II and the sixth fastest of all time in Australia. In the Fifth Test in Melbourne, a timeless Test, Harvey compiled his third consecutive century and highest Test score of 205 as Australia amassed 520 in the first innings.

South Africa successfully chased 295 to win. Harvey accumulated 834 Test runs at 92.66 in the series, surpassing Bradman's aggregate of 806 runs in 1931–32 as a series record against South Africa. In ten Tests against South Africa, he had eight centuries, totalling 1494 runs at an average of 106.71.

International twilight

Neil Harvey's Test career faded near the end, with 876 runs at an average of 33.69 across three series. The 1960-61 season began brightly: he posted 135 against Queensland, 80 and 63 for an Australian XI facing the touring West Indies, 229 against Queensland, and 109 for New South Wales against the Caribbean side. But his touch slipped during the home series against the West Indies, which featured the first tied Test. Harvey managed only a second-innings 85 in the Third Test, which Australia lost, and missed the Fourth Test with an injury.

In the Tests he scraped together 143 runs at 17.88, yet against the same tourists in non-Test matches he thrived, scoring 326 runs at 81.50. For the whole season he amassed 849 runs at 56.60. Harvey's final tour was to England in 1961. With captain Richie Benaud sidelined by a shoulder injury for much of the early matches, Harvey led Australia in about a third of the tour games, including most of the first month.

In eight matches before the Tests he made 474 runs at 47.40, with centuries against Lancashire and Glamorgan. Benaud declared himself fit for the First Test, so Harvey never captained Australia at Test level. In that drawn match at Edgbaston, Harvey scored 114, helping Australia build a 321-run first-innings lead, but England batted through the remaining time to save the game. Benaud's shoulder limited him to just nine overs.