Published: Apr 25, 2015, 07:15 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 25, 2015, 04:15 PM (IST)
Jack Ryder ended with a Test batting average over 50 in spite of having his best years scooped out by the First World War, but he is remembered more as the captain under whom Don Bradman made his Test debut. Arunabha Sengupta recounts some sterling anecdotes from the life of this excellent cricketer and colourful character.
It is a pity that some splendid cricketers in the history of the game have their own feats overshadowed by the circumstances and connections with epochal events.
Take Jack Ryder. A superb batsman who played 20 Tests and averaged 51.62 with the bat, with a double hundred against England with plenty of restraint, showcasing impeccable temperament under the cloak of the hitter. Besides, he had six years of his Test career scooped hollow by the First World War. Before the Great War he was a bowler of promise as well, once scoring 105 and taking seven wickets in an innings in the same match against Victoria. Sachin Tendulkar launches into Abdul Qadir: 6,0,4,6,6,6
Yet, he is mainly remembered the captain under whom a 20-year-old wide-eyed boy from the bush named Don Bradman made his Test debut. That home series against Percy Chapman’s Englishmen was not the happiest for the Australians, and the heavy defeat ended Ryder’s Test career. He was not picked for the 1930 tour of England. Most forget that in that 1928-29 series, Ryder had scored 492 runs at 54.66, more than any other Australian. West Indies pip Pakistan in the third Test at Kensington Oval to square a most fascinating series
Now, apart from his lasting identity as Don Bradman’s first captain, only a handful of trivia lovers remember him as the man who scored 295 in Victoria’s record total of 1,107 in 1926, or the man who led the unofficial Australian side in the 1935-6 tour of India. There is still more trivia. During the centenary Test at Melbourne, Ryder, aged 87, was the oldest ex-cricketer present in the ground. He was taken ill two days after the Test came to that fantastic end and passed away half a month later. West Indies and Pakistan play a tantalising stalemate at Port-of-Spain
Sad, indeed, that not too many know of this excellent cricketer and colourful character, because, as this anecdote will tell us, closer inspection of his life can be extremely rewarding.
Ryder’s soul was inextricably entwined with the game. He spent his entire youth, most of his middle-age and part of his advanced years playing cricket. He was 46 when he teamed up with Frank Tarrant, another man who lived for cricket, and captained the exciting bunch of Australians on their tour of India. As a result, regular employment was rather sporadic. Imran Khan comes back from retirement and ends West Indian home rule
When the Second World War broke out, Ryder was 50. Experienced in the boot trade, he applied for a position as an inspector of boots in the leather division of the Commonwealth Department of Supply.
Here he was helped by another noble soul who lived for cricket whenever his official duties allowed him to. Prime Minister Robert Menzies seldom missed a Test match, eagerly sought the company of cricketers, was friends with most of them, and had tried, as a Deputy Premier of Victoria, to negotiate between the English and Australian Boards during the Bodyline controversy. On learning of Ryder’s application, Menzies sent a note to the decision-maker, RG Casey, endorsing the application. Ryder got the job. In and out of work through most of the 1930s, was thus indebted to the Prime Minister for the job. HM Martineau’s private band of English cricketers: the first serious cricket team to fly
From 1946 to 1970, Ryder acted as one of the selectors of the Australian cricket team, a stretch of which coincided with Bradman’s tenure. It was in this capacity that he was watching a trial game before choosing the Australian team for the 1956 Ashes tour. Seated next to him was Prime Minister Menzies, re-elected, serving his second term in office.
The intervening years had done little to temper the head of the state’s zest for the game. When Australia had visited England in 1953 under Lindsay Hassett, the Prime Minister had hosted a dinner for the team at the River Room at The Savoy, having shipped steaks to the Blighty from Australia. Menzies had penned 23 verses devoted to the members of the touring team, and had proceeded to recite them with flourish.
Not always was he watching cricket, though. On July 26, 1956, a few months after the trial match, the day that famed Jim Laker’s Test started at Old Trafford, Menzies was in Egypt, leading a delegation to try and coax Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser to compromise with the West. However, on this day, Ryder neither cared for his global importance nor for his earlier hand in his life as a benefactor. Richie Benaud — the tour that established him as one of the greats
The Prime Minister leaned towards him and asked, “When are you going to pick ‘Slasher’?” The object of his interest was the Queensland all-rounder Ken Mackay. Ryder’s response was terse. “You pick your Cabinet. I’ll help pick the Test team.”
Not for nothing was Ryder nicknamed ‘The King’. As mentioned, a close look at his life is incredibly rewarding.
(Arunabha Sengupta is a cricket historian and Chief Cricket Writer at CricketCountry. He writes about the history and the romance of the game, punctuated often by opinions about modern day cricket, while his post-graduate degree in statistics peeps through in occasional analytical pieces. The author of three novels, he can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/senantix)
