DOUG WALTERS

Kevin Douglas Walters AM MBE is a former Australian cricketer. He was known as an attacking batsman, a useful part-time bowler, and also as a typical ocker. He was a part of the Australian squad which finished as runners-up at the 1975 Cricket World Cup. Doug Walters holds a somewhat mythical place in Australian cricket. Small, cheeky, popular and multi-skilled, he would drink all night without getting drunk then wipe sleep from his eyes to make a shot-laden century or take a crucial wicket or stunning catch - sometimes, in folklore at least, on the same day. Sometimes cricket is not even the tale's focus. He was more than a person whose card games were interrupted by falls of wicket.

Growing up on a Dungog dairy farm in country New South Wales, Walters stepped from the paddock into first-class cricket at 17, where he faced the great Wes Hall and reached 50. Walters made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Queensland in the 1962–63 season. His highest score was 253 and his best bowling was 7/63, both against South Australia in the 1964–65 season. In the domestic Sheffield Shield competition he played 91 matches, scoring 5,602 runs at 39.73 and taking 110 wickets at 32.81.

Walters made his debut in Test cricket on 10 December 1965 at the Gabba against England in the 1965/66 Ashes series and quickly developed a reputation as a batsman who could 'make things happen' with a moment of brilliance on an important occasion. He scored 155 in his first Test innings and another century in his second Test. He was not at his best in the subsequent tour of England, averaging only 25.68 in 18 matches there, but elsewhere he was a quick-scoring batsman.

Walters was denied an opportunity to tour South Africa in 1966/67 when he was conscripted to two years of National Service training, although effectively being exempted from Vietnam service in order to pursue his professional, cricketing career in Australia, and it wasn't until 1968 that he returned to the test arena. Since he was not called up for duty in Vietnam, Walters smoothly swapped training greens to whites. Re-sealing his place with 699 runs in four matches against West Indies in 1968-69, he became the first player to make a double-hundred and a hundred in a Test.

Walters, the country boy with the bush technique, was a knockabout who disliked training and going to bed early, and favoured drinking, smoking, solitaire and cribbage. Quick on to the back foot against the spinners, he was a fine straight-driver and hooker, and a valuable partnership breaker with his medium pace. Crowds relaxed and related to his instinctive and aggressive Test batting that three times brought up centuries in a session, the most famous arriving when he smacked the last ball of the day from Bob Willis for six at the WACA in 1974/75.

In 1969/70 he showed a weakness against the South African fast bowlers Peter Pollock and Mike Procter, ducking while leaving his bat upright like a submarine periscope.[6] This weakness was exploited by England's John Snow in the 1970-71 Ashes Series, who repeatedly sent down fast, short-pitched balls against Walters. Even so, Walters made 205 not out for New South Wales against the tourists, 112 in the First Test and three fifties thereafter, but few runs in between, making 373 runs (37.30) in the series. Walters starred in an unofficial Test series to a Rest of the World team led by Gary Sobers that toured in 1971/72 as a replacement for the politically unacceptable South Africans, scoring 355 runs in four matches at an average of 71.00, with two centuries.

He could play pressure innings as well, like the 112 against West Indies at Port-of-Spain in 1972/93, when Lance Gibbs had three short-legs by 35 minutes on day one and Walters scored 100 between lunch and tea. "By any standards it was a magnificent innings," Wisden reported. The grit never stuck to his stories, forcing him to open his autobiography with a spoiler. "It rather amuses me when journalists refer to me as happy-go-lucky and unflappable. I feel the pressures and tensions as much as the next bloke."

Walters was a fixture of the team until 1977, his fourth Ashes tour, and he joined World Series Cricket, playing most of his matches upcountry, before a surprise recall against India in 1980-81. Missing out on a century in England remains his career's biggest hole. Using a high back-lift and a light bat, he was susceptible to the swinging ball, and retired after being overlooked for the 1981 Ashes tour. However, his highest score came in the similar conditions of New Zealand. Celebrating his first century overnight, the tour manager was called in the early hours because the hotelier wanted the bar closed. Walters backed up the following evening after reaching 250 from 342 balls and putting on 217 with the No. 8 Gary Gilmour.

He famously hit a century in a session at the WACA against England in 1974, where he hit Bob Willis for six from the last ball of the day to bring up his ton. He missed the entire series when Australia beat West Indies 5–1 in Australia in 1975/76 due to an injury, but was soon back in the side. His 250 against New Zealand in 1977 is the highest by any batsman in the number six position. Walters was a part-time bowler, but his medium-paced "Golden Arm" broke many partnerships and yielded 49 Test wickets at 29.08. He wore the large sideburns popular in the 1960s and '70s and when not on the field was seldom seen without a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Another time he borrowed a spectator's bike to ride from third-man at each end after being punished by Ian Chappell for oversleeping. There are so many Walters stories that many of them must be true, and as a man of the people he was rewarded with a stand on the old SCG hill. "There will never be another like him," Dennis Lillee said. "I never saw him throw a bat, never heard him talk badly of anyone. He was so cool." He could bat, too.

Walters announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in October 1981. On 14 June 1975, Walters was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire for cricket. In June 2022, Walters was appointed Member of the Order of Australia in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours for "significant service to cricket at the elite levels".