Tour of South Africa 1957-58             Captain: Ian Craig

26th Australian Test tour

Fifth Test-playing tour of South Africa by Australia

(October-March 1958)

Australian cricket has characteristically taken a forward-looking attitude and the bad memories of the 1956 Ashes tour were cast aside by Ian Craig’s new-look side in South Africa. Craig had led Australia on a tour of New Zealand and was appointed in preference to Neil Harvey. He was the youngest Test captain at 22 years 194 days until Pataudi in 1962. He

Most of the new players did something to justify their selection while those retained from the old team rehabilitated themselves completely. The batsmen had the better of the threatening Hugh Tayfield coming to terms with playing off-spin bowling.  The hostile opening bowlers Heine and Adcock ….

The strength of the side lay in the blossoming of two bowlers, Davidson and Benaud (who has written how curing the torn skin on his spinning finger allowed him to bowl so effectively)

Other Australian Tours

Previous tour

Pakistan & India 1956-57

Next tour

Pakistan & India 1959-60

Next tour of South Africa 

1966-67   

Members of the Test tour party  (15  + 1)

Opening batsmen:  Jim Burke, Les Favell, Colin McDonald

Middle-order batsmen:  Neil Harvey, Peter Burge, Ian Craig, Ken Mackay, Bob Simpson

Wicket-keepers:  Wally Grout, Barry Jarman

Spin bowlers:  Richie Benaud, Lindsay Kline

Fast bowlers:  Alan Davidson, John Drennan, Ian Meckiff reinforced by  Ray Gaunt.

State representation

   Sheffield Shield teams

N   New South Wales (4)

Q  Queensland (3)

S   South Australia (3)

T   Tasmania (0)

V   Victoria (4)

W  Western Australia (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(23 December 1957) :

  26 years   5 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Harvey 48,  Benaud 27,  McDonald 21,  Burke 14,  Davidson 12,  Burge 8,  Craig 6,  Favell 6,  Mackay 6,  Drennan 0,  Grout 0,  Jarman 0,  Kline 0,  Meckiff 0,  Simpson 0,  Gaunt 0.

Tour Officials

Mr J U ‘Jack’ Jantke, South Australian delegate to the Australian Board of Control, was appointed as manager on 4 January 1957.  He collapsed with a heart attack at his Adelaide home a few days before the tour and his doctor forbade him to travel. 

The Australians requested the services of a temporary manager, Mr C J R Howard of Bulawayo, until Jack Norton, who had managed Craig's side in New Zealand in 1956-57, took his place.

Selectors

Sir Donald Bradman,  Dudley Seddon,  Jack Ryder.

Selection

Unavailable:  Len Maddocks.

Tour Party Announced :  3 May 1957.

Not selected : Ray Lindwall, Norman O'Neill.

On 6 May 1957 the Board appointed Ian Craig as captain and Neil Harvey as vice-captain.

Withdrawal: Ron Archer (of Queensland) withdrew after failing a fitness test on his leg. He had strained his thigh bowling on the mat in Pakistan in 1956 and did not play first-class cricket at all in the 1956-57 season. Ken Mackay was selected as his replacement.

Time between selection and departure from Australia         155 days

(3 May - 5 October)

Travel

Sydney  Q  Johannesburg

Ian Craig came by ship from England where he had a position with a pharmaceutical company.

The team, under Harvey's leadership, flew by Super-Constellation from Sydney on 5 October via Perth and the Cocos Islands to Johannesburg, arriving on 7 October. 

Jack Norton arrived in Johannesburg on 21 October.

Time spent in South Africa

   159 days

(7 October - 15 March)

On-tour selection

Ian Craig (captain),  Neil Harvey (vice-captain),  Peter Burge.

The surprise choice of Burge (Queensland) rather than Benaud (New South Wales) was because there should be no more than one member from any state.

Reinforcements

Neil Harvey (broken finger) and Colin McDonald (his jaw broken in the nets) missed the opening part of the tour in Rhodesia.

In November the Australian Cricket Board of Control denied a rumour that the tour management had asked for Ray Lindwall and Bruce Dooland to reinforce the bowling attack.

On 5 January the tour committee asked for Ray Gaunt (of Western Australia, later to transfer to Victoria) to assist when Ian Meckiff (muscle strain) and John Drennan (hamstring strain) were injured. Gaunt left Australia three days later, arriving on 9 January. He was immediately included in the team to play against Transvaal.

Fixtures/Results

ϯ not first-class

Time spent in South Africa before First Test: 

  77 days

(7 October - 23 December)

Test appearances on tour

5 -  Benaud,  Burke,  Craig,  Davidson,  Grout,  Kline,  McDonald,  Mackay,  Simpson.

4 -  Harvey,  Meckiff, 

1 -   Burge,  Gaunt

0 -   Drennan,  Favell,  Jarman.

Highlights

•   Alan Davidson took six for 36 in the first Test match at  Johannesburg. In the same innings wicket-keeper Wally Grout held six catches, to equal the world record.

•   Jim Burke (99) and Colin McDonald (189) added 190 for the first wicket at Cape Town

•   Lindsay Kline brought the second Test at Cape Town to a conclusion by taking a hat-trick.

•   Richie Benaud’s outstanding Test series with the bat, scoring 122 in the first Test and 100 in the 4th, both at Johannesburg, was equalled by his bowling.  Four times he took five wickets in the innings.

•   Alan Davidson took 25 wickets and Benaud 30 in the series.

Tour Summary

Return to Australia

Cape Town    T  Melbourne

       ‘Dominion Monarch’

On Good Friday 15 March 1958 the team sailed from Cape Town on the ‘Dominion Monarch’.

The tour ended with the ship berthing at Station Pier, Port Melbourne, on the morning of 2 April.

Time away from Australia

  179 days  

(5 October to 2 April)

Finances

The players received an allowance of only £650 for nearly six months away on tour.

Written accounts of the tour

"Sackcloth without Ashes"    (1958)  by Roy McLean  [Hodder & Stoughton]

“‘20th Century All-rounder’”  by Clive van Ryneveld   [Pretext Publishers]

Postscript

Ian Craig, Neil Harvey, and Richie Benaud  were the three main candidates for the position of Australian captain in the forthcoming Ashes series (1958-59). Craig stood down from international cricket in November because he was not fit - he had had hepatitis - and Neil Harvey seemed the most likely choice to succeed him but the Board passed the team’s vice-captain over and went for Benaud because of his outlook for brighter cricket.