Robert Neil Harvey is an Australian former cricketer who was a member of the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement. An attacking left-handed batsman, sharp fielder and occasional off-spin bowler, Harvey was the senior batsman in the Australian team for much of the 1950s and was regarded by Wisden as the finest fielder of his era. Upon his retirement, Harvey was the second-most prolific Test run-scorer and century-maker for Australia.

Harvey was the fifth of six boys born to Horace Harvey. The family lived in Broken Hill, where Horace was a miner, before moving to Sydney, and finally to Melbourne in 1926, where they settled in the inner northern industrial suburb of Fitzroy. There the six boys were taught cricket under the guidance of their father. In conditions conducive to producing batsmen rather than bowlers, they played cricket using a tennis ball on cobblestones or a marble rebounding from the backyard pavement. Cricket and cricket talk was an integral part of the daily family life. Horace held the family batting record with 198 for Broken Hill, and continued to play in Melbourne club cricket. Harvey's eldest brother Merv went on to play one Test for Australia, while Mick and Ray both played for Victoria.

Harvey played his first game aged nine as a wicket-keeper in the North Fitzroy Central School team, the average age of which was 14. In a school final, he once made 112 of the total of 140. Aged twelve, he joined the local Fitzroy club and rose to the first-grade team when he was fourteen. First-class cricket had been cancelled during World War II and resumed in 1945/46. At the start of the season, Harvey was selected for a trial match. An aggressive 113 for Fitzroy against Melbourne Cricket Club saw Harvey selected for the Victorian team at the age of 18.

Harvey’s next match for Victoria was against Wally Hammond's English tourists. After the fall of three early wickets, Harvey joined captain Lindsay Hassett. He dominated a partnership of 120, making 69 in his second match against the guileful leg spin of Doug Wright. His opponents had no doubt that he would become a Test player. In 1947/48, Harvey played in two Shield matches with his brothers Merv and Ray. Merv had already gained Test selection, but soon Neil was attracting more attention. In the opening match of the season, Harvey struck 87 against the touring Indian cricket team.

Three months after his 19th birthday, Harvey made his entry into international cricket, in the last two Tests against India. He batted at No. 6 and made 13 in his only innings on debut in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval as Australia swept to an innings victory. The selectors retained him for the Fifth Test on his home ground at Melbourne. After reaching stumps on 78, he reached his century the following day, 7 February 1948. His score of 153 after being promoted to No. 5 made him the youngest Australian Test centurion, surpassing Archie Jackson's previous record. The innings secured a 4-0 series victory and ensured him a place on the 1948 tour of England.

In the warm-up matches before the team headed to England, Harvey struck 104 against Tasmania and 79 against Western Australia. He had scored 733 runs at 52.36 for the season. After a poor start on tour, Harvey adapted his style and improved his performance. He scored 36 and 76 not out against Lancashire at Manchester and an unbeaten 100 at Hove against Sussex in only 115 minutes in the last match before the First Test. However, this was not enough for selection and reserve opener Bill Brown batted out of position in the middle-order, as he had done against Worcestershire and the MCC.

After England had amassed 496 in the first innings, Australia had slumped to 3/68 with Don Bradman one of the dismissed batsmen. Harvey, the youngest member of the squad, joined cavalier all-rounder Keith Miller. The pair launched a counterattack, with Miller taking the lead and shielding Harvey from Jim Laker, as the young batsman was struggling against the off breaks that were turning away from him. By the time Miller was out for 58,the partnership had yielded 121 runs in 90 minutes, likened to a hurricane by many observers. After lunch, Harvey accelerated after the second new ball was taken, and 80 minutes into the middle session, reached his century to a loud reception as Australia passed 250. Harvey's knock had taken 177 minutes and included 14 fours. The innings and the high rate of scoring helped to swing the match into a balanced position when Australia were finally dismissed for 458. On the final afternoon, Harvey was at the crease and got off the mark by hitting the winning boundary in the second innings as Australia successfully completed a Test world record run chase of 3/404 in less than one.

He had only one more innings in the series, scoring 17 in the Fifth and final Test at The Oval where Australia won by an innings. Harvey added centuries in consecutive matches after the Tests against Somerset and the South of England. In the entire first-class tour, he scored four centuries to aggregate 1129 runs at 53.76. Harvey was an acrobatic fielder, regarded as the best in the Australian team. Fingleton said that Harvey was "by far the most brilliant fieldsman of both sides, who was to save many runs in the field."

No international matches were scheduled for the 1948/49 Australian season, and Harvey had a disappointing first-class season, scoring only 539 runs at 33.68. He scored 72 and 75 in Victoria's totals of 165 and 197 as they lost to arch-rivals New South Wales by 88 runs, but his only other score beyond 50 was an 87 for Lindsay Hassett's XI in a Test trial at the end of the season. Nevertheless, the selectors persisted with him for the 1949–50 tour of South Africa. Harvey was forced to shoulder more responsibility in the batting order now that Bradman had retired and Sid Barnes took an extended break. The youngest player in the team, Harvey rose to the challenge by establishing several Australian records.

His Test figures of 660 at 132.00 was the most runs on a Test tour of South Africa by a visiting batsman, surpassing Len Hutton's previous mark by 83 runs, as were his 1,526 first-class runs at 76.30 and eight centuries on tour. His eight first-class centuries on one South African tour equalled the efforts of Denis Compton, Len Hutton and Arthur Morris. Harvey started the tour well and was highly productive in seven first-class matches leading into the Tests. He scored 100 and 145 not out against North Eastern Transvaal and Orange Free State. There were two matches against a South African XI that were effectively dress rehearsals for the Tests.

After scoring 34 in the First Test at Johannesburg, Harvey amassed 178 in the first innings of the Second Test at Cape Town, which set up a first innings lead of 248 runs. He then scored 23 not out to guide Australia to an eight-wicket victory in the second innings. This was followed by an unbeaten 151 in five and a half hours at Durban, regarded as one of his finest Test innings. Having been dismissed for 75 on a wet wicket in the first innings, Australia had slumped to 3/59 in pursuit of a victory target of 336. On a crumbling, sticky pitch, the Australians were having extreme difficulty with the spin of Hugh Tayfield and faced their first Test defeat against South Africa for 39 years. Despite a few square cuts, Harvey adapted his game to play a patient innings, prompting heckling from spectators for the first time in his career. He registered his slowest ever century on his way to guiding his team to an improbable victory by five wickets.

Harvey continued his productive sequence in the Fourth Test in Johannesburg, scoring an unbeaten 56 and 100 in a drawn match. It was the first Test in which Harvey had played that Australia did not win. Harvey finished the series with 116 in the Fifth Test at Port Elizabeth, as Australia won by an innings and took the series 4–0. He had amassed four centuries in consecutive Tests in the series and had scored six in his first nine Tests, totally 959 runs at 106.55.

Harvey's triple figure average from his first two Test seasons could not be maintained when Australia hosted the 1950/51 Ashes series. Following his success in South Africa, Harvey played regularly at either the No. 3 or No. 4 from that point onwards. He managed 362 runs at 40.22 with three half centuries as Australia took the series 4–1. The Second Test in Melbourne was also low scoring; Harvey made 42 and 31 as Australia won after neither team passed 200. Outside the Tests, Harvey scored 141 in a win over South Australia and then added 146 in the second innings of a match against New South Wales to stave off defeat. He ended the season with 1099 runs at 45.79.

Harvey started the 1952/53 season without a first-class century in more than 18 months and in three matches ahead of the Tests, suffered two defeats and was yet to break his drought. Having failed to score a century in ten Tests and almost three years, the season saw Harvey at his productive best as South Africa, whom he had scored four centuries against three years earlier, toured Australia. On a slow pitch difficult for stroke play, Harvey scored 109 and 52 in Brisbane where Australia grounded out a victory in the First Test. He top-scored in the first innings and was the second top-score (run out) in the second. Harvey then top-scored with 190 in the Third Test in Sydney to set up a large first innings lead of 270 and an innings victory. Harvey alone made more than his opponents in the first innings and the innings saw him complete 1000 Test runs against the South Africans in only eight Tests.

As the series 2–1 in Australia's favour and not yet won, the Fifth Test in Melbourne was a timeless Test. Harvey compiled his third consecutive century and highest Test score of 205 as Australia amassed 520 in the first innings. This put Australia in control of the Test, despite South Africa successfully chasing an unlikely target of 295. Harvey accumulated 834 Test runs at 92.66 in the series. Neil Harvey totalled 1,659 runs at 63.81 for the season, the second highest tally for a season in Australian history, just 31 runs behind Bradman's record.

In 1953 he became only the third Australian in a quarter of a century to score 2,000 runs on an Ashes tour. Bradman (three times) and Stan McCabe were the others. He made 2,040 at 65.80 and his ten centuries were twice that of the next best in the side. Harvey returned to Australia after losing the Ashes and played in the 1953/54 season, which was purely domestic. He scored 639 runs at 42.60, including a century against New South Wales and four fifties. He had a few near-misses during the season; he scored 97 against Queensland in two matches and made 88 against South Australia.

This was followed by a tour in early 1955 to the West Indies, the first by an Australian team. Harvey began with two consecutive centuries, scoring exactly 133 in both the First and Second Tests at Kingston and Port-of-Spain respectively. The matches ended in an innings victory and draw to Australia respectively. In a low scoring match in Georgetown, Harvey scored 38 and 41* as Australia took a 2–0 lead. Another half century in the drawn Fourth Test followed, before Harvey scored the second double century of his career, 204 in the Fifth Test in Kingston in just over seven hours of batting. His 295 run partnership with Colin McDonald was the foundation of a Test total of 8/758, setting up an innings victory for Australia. He totalled 650 runs at 108.33 for the series.

The 1956 Ashes tour to England was a disappointment for Harvey individually as well for the Australians collectively. It was an English summer dominated by off spinner Jim Laker and his Surrey teammate Tony Lock, who repeatedly dismantled the tourists on dusty spinning pitches specifically tailored to their cater for them. As expected, the Australian team's leaders Ian Johnson and Keith Miller, retired from cricket after the tour. Harvey replaced Johnson as Victorian captain and was the logical choice as successor to the Test captaincy, as the most experienced member of the team (48 Tests). Queensland's captain, the veteran paceman Ray Lindwall, was no longer an automatic Test selection. However, both Harvey and Benaud had been criticised for their attitude towards Johnson in an official report to the board about the 1956 tour.

After returning from South Africa, Harvey embarrassed the Board of Control when he frankly discussed his financial situation during a television interview. He revealed that the players earned only £85 per Test and that he was almost broke, despite being an automatic selection for Australia. Ten years of making time for cricket had disrupted his working life, so he was contemplating a move to South Africa, the homeland of his wife, Iris. Consequently, Harvey received a job offer to work as a sales supervisor for a glass manufacturer in Sydney, so he moved to New South Wales and gave up the Victorian captaincy. As a new player to NSW, he was behind vice-captain Richie Benaud.

As Benaud's deputy, Harvey helped materially in Australia's surprise 4–0 series victory to reclaim the Ashes. Harvey's form was modest, though. He scored 296 runs at 42.29, with more than half coming in one innings - a brilliant 167 in the Second Test at Melbourne, more than half his team's 308, which helped secure an eight wicket victory in the match. Otherwise, a 41 in the Fourth Test was the only other time he passed 25 in the series.

In Dhaka, East Pakistan (now in Bangladesh), Harvey made 96 on a matting pitch over rough ground in the First Test, mastering the medium pace of Fazal Mahmood, while his teammates struggled to score. In the course of the innings, Harvey had to overcome a fever, dysentery and physical illness, which forced him to leave six times to recompose himself. Harvey's innings allowed Australia to score 225 in reply to the hosts' 200. Harvey then made 30 in the second innings to help ensure an eight-wicket win.

In India, Harvey scored 114 out of Australia's 468 in the First Test at Delhi, setting up an innings victory for Australia. On a pitch conducive to spin at Kanpur for the second Test, Harvey was given a rare opportunity to bowl and he took the wicket of the Indian captain, Gulabrai Ramchand. In addition, he scored 51 and 25, the second highest Australian score in each innings in a low-scoring match, but India won to square the series.

In the last years of his Test career, Harvey struggled, making 876 runs at 33.69 in three Test series. At the start of the 1960/61 season, there was little indication of this. In his first five innings for the summer, Harvey hit 135 against Queensland, 80 and 63 for an Australian XI against the touring West Indies, 229 against Queensland and 109 for New South Wales against the Caribbean team. However, his form tapered away during the thrilling 1960/61 home series against the West Indies (which included the first tie in Test history). Harvey was ineffective apart from a score of 85 in the second innings of the Third Test, which Australia lost. He then missed the Fourth Test due to injury.

Having stated his intention to retire at the end of the summer, Harvey started his final season in 1962/63 strongly. He scored 83, 44 and 128 not in his first three interstate innings for the season, and then scored 51, 21 and 63 in warm-up matches against England. Beginning steadily with half-centuries in the first and third Tests, Harvey made his 21st and final century in the fourth Test at Adelaide. Scoring 154 in a drawn match at the venue where his international career began 15 seasons earlier, Harvey then returned to his adopted hometown of Sydney for his farewell match. With the series level at 1–1, the Ashes were still alive but the game turned into a dull draw and Harvey scored 22 and 28. Harvey made centuries in two of his last three first-class matches. In his last Sheffield Shield match, he scored an unbeaten 231 against South Australia in less than five hours, including 120 runs in one session.

After retiring, Harvey was an Australian selector from 1967 to 1979. From 1971 onwards, Harvey was the chairman of selectors. Following the rapprochement between the establishment and the WSC players, Harvey left the selection panel. Harvey was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 2000, in the first annual induction of two players since the inaugural ten members were announced in 1996. In 2009, Harvey was one of the 55 inaugural inductees into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985. Harvey received the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours (Australia) for service to cricket.