Arthur Morris: 16 facts about one of the invincible Australians

Bradman described Morris as the "best left-hand option to open an innings"

Arthur Robert Morris MBE, born January 19, 1922, was an Australian cricketer who played 46 Tests for his country between 1946 and 1955. Regarded as one of the best left-handed batsmen to ever play for Australia, Morris is best known for his crucial role in Don Bradman’s invincibles side — the only Australian team to tour England without losing a match. He also served the Australian Army during the World War II, which interrupted his game for a while. But post-war, he became a vital cog in Australian team and was also named their selector. On his 94th birth anniversary, Chinmay Jawalekar looks at 16 facts from the life of the legend, who became the first player in the world to score two centuries on his First-Class debut.

1. Early days: Morris was born in Bondi, a Sydney seaside suburb, and was raised in Sydney. His father was a school teacher who played for Waverley Cricket Club in Sydney as a fast bowler. In fact, he was Morris’ early inspiration to play the sport.

2.  Multiple sports: Morris was as much passionate about cricket as rugby and other ball sports, particularly tennis. At the age of 12, he gained a place in Newcastle Boys High School’s cricket team as a slow bowler. Later, he was elected school captain of Canterbury Boy’s High where he played both cricket and rugby union.

3.  Chinaman: Playing in the second XI for St. George in a club under-16 competition AW Green Shield, Morris, with his Chinaman bowling, took 55 wickets at 5.23 apiece, which remains a record.

4.  A chance batsman: His captain at grade cricket Bill O’Reilly found his left-arm unorthodox spin less effective and thought he had better chance as a batsman. So when Morris scored a century against Sydney University, O’Reilly moved him into the opening position without prior notice, where he remained till the time he played the game.

5. Clerk: Post-schooling, Morris became a clerk in the Prosecutions Branch at Sydney Town Hall.

6. Sensational First-Class debut: Morris made his First-Class debut for New South Wales against Queensland in 1939-40 and made 148 in the first innings and 111 in the second. He thus became the first player in the world to achieve the double on First-Class debut.

7.  Army: There was a pause in Morris’ First-Class career in 1941 when he joined the 1st Australian Imperial Force and served the Australian Army in World War II until 1946.

8. Test debut: Morris made his Test debut after the conclusion of World War II. While playing for Australian XI against the touring MCC team lead by Wally Hammond, he impressed Bradman by scoring 115 and adding 196 runs with his future captain, who scored 106.

9. Outscored Bradman in the Ashes: In those days, it was impossible to even think that a batsman could outscore Bradman in a series. But Morris manages the unthinkable in the 1947-48 series, by scoring 696 runs at an average of 87. Bradman, who could manage only 508 from the five Tests at just above 72, was comfortably outscored by 188 runs.

10. Most famous knock and partnership: In the fourth Test of the same series at Headingley, Australia required a record 404 runs to win in the last innings. Morris played arguably his best knock by scoring 182 and added 301 runs with Bradman for the second wicket. His team eventually won by seven wickets and Bradman scored unbeaten 173.

11. Spectator to the famous ‘duck’: In the last Test of the same series, Morris watched Bradman’s famous last innings duck from the other end. He incidentally scored 196 in that innings, a knock which was overshadowed by Bradman’s zero. There’s an interesting anecdote that a fellow who didn’t know all that much about cricket, but knew about Bradman’s duck, went up to Morris after that incident. He said, “Bradman got a duck” to which Morris said “yes, I was there.” He said, “Were you? What were you doing over there? Were you on business?” Morris said, “No, I was up the other end.” He said, “Did you get any runs?” Morris said, “196”, and then he stopped a little moment to get the message across. “Run out,” Morris said. “Nobody got me out. I ran myself out.”

12. Captaincy: Despite excelling in his career as a batsman, Morris never got a chance to lead Australia full-fledgedly. He did lead Australia in two Tests, but as a caretaker skipper. However, he captained his state side New South Wales for long, before losing it to Keith Miller, when he was still the vice-captain of Australia. Eventually Miller superseded him in the vice-captaincy of the national team as well.

13. Bedser’s bunny: Morris was England pacer Alec Bedser’s bunny, as the latter dismissed him 18 times in 21 Tests. Only the Michael Atherton-Glenn McGrath combo beats them in terms of a batsman dismissed by a bowler for most number of times in the history of Test cricket. McGrath dismissed Atherton a record 19 times in 17 Tests.

However, Morris had a sweet revenge when he dismissed Bedser once before retiring from the game. It was a redemption of sorts for Morris, who was not known to be a bowler.

14. Early retirement and wife’s death: Morris married Valerie Hudson, a showgirl he met during the 1953 tour of England. After returning from the tour of West Indies in 1955, he learned that his wife of 18 months had been diagnosed with breast cancer. Valerie delayed telling Morris the news, fearing it would affect his cricket career. But as her health severely deteriorated, Morris retired from cricket aged 34. Soon after, Valerie died aged 33. In 1968, Morris met and married second wife Judith Menmuir. He had no child from either of his marriages. 

15. Post-retirement: Morris took up various jobs post cricket such as that of a cricket journalist with London’s Daily Express for a brief while during his wife’s treatment and service with British engineering company George Wimpey. He then moved back to Sydney to take up a public relations job with security group Wormald International where he worked until his retirement in the late 1980s. In 1965, he was appointed to the SCG Trust and served until 1987, with eight of those years as deputy chairman. Read more: Arthur Morris – Life and Times

16. Legacy and honour: Morris played 46 Tests and scored more than 3,500 runs at an average over 46. He received an MBE (Member of British Order) for his services to cricket. He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1992, Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2001, was named in the Australian Cricket Board’s Team of the Century in 2000 and was named as an opening batsman in Bradman’s selection of his greatest team in Test history. Bradman described him as the “best left-hand option to open an innings”, characterising his temperament as “ideal”. His contemporary and the oldest survivor from the Invincibles side, Neil Harvey described him as “one of the best players this country has produced” and that “you wouldn’t find a nicer bloke in the world”. Morris left the world last year on August 22.

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is a senior writer with CricLife and CricketCountry. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed here @CricfreakTweets)