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. One of Australia's all-time favourite cricketing sons, Neil Harvey was a gifted left-hand batsman, brilliantly athletic fielder, and occasional offspin bowler. On account of the richness of his talents, he served Victoria, New South Wales and Australia with great distinction during a first-class career which spanned a 16-year period.

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. First-class cricket had been cancelled during World War II and resumed in 1945–46.[7] At the start of the season, Harvey was selected for a trial match. The Victorian state team played against the Rest of Victoria, and Harvey represented the latter. However, he made a duck in his only innings and was not selected for the senior state side during the season.

An aggressive 113 for Fitzroy against Melbourne Cricket Club in 1946/47 saw Harvey selected for the Victorian team at the age of 18. He made 18 in his only innings during his first-class debut against Tasmania. In the next match against Tasmania, Harvey made his maiden first-class century, scoring 154. He said that his effort was inspired by elder brother Merv, who gained Test selection in the same year. 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. He was selected for an Australian XI, which played the Indians before the Tests in what was effectively a dress rehearsal. 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.

His score of 153 after being promoted to No. 5 made him the youngest Australian Test centurion, surpassing Archie Jackson's previous record. He brought up the mark with an all run five, having turned a short ball from Lala Amarnath towards the square leg boundary. The innings in replacing Bradman was taken to be symbolism of the fact that Harvey had been tipped to become Australia's leading batsman. His innings laid the foundations that secured Australia another innings victory and a 4–0 series triumph. It was only his 13th match at first-class level. The innings ensured him a place on the 1948 tour of England.

At first, Harvey struggled in the English conditions, failing to pass 25 in his first six innings. After asking Bradman about his difficulties, Harvey was told that these were caused by rash shot selection and a tendency to hit the ball in the air. 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 Bill Brown was selected instead. During the first two Tests, Brown struggled in his unfamiliar role, and he was dropped. During the Third Test, opener Sid Barnes was injured, opening a vacancy for the Fourth Test at Headingley.

After England had amassed 496 in the first innings, Australia had slumped to 3/68 with 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. 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 was eventually out for 112 from 183 balls, bowled by Laker while playing a cross-batted sweep.

Harvey ended as the first Australian left-hander to score a century on his Ashes debut, in an innings noted for powerful driving on both sides of the wicket. The innings and the high rate of scoring helped to swing the match into a balanced position. In the second innings, Harvey took two noted catches, including one where he bent over to catch the ball at ankle height while running. 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 day.

No international matches were scheduled for the 1948/49 Australian season, and Harvey had a disappointing first-class 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. 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. He registered his slowest ever century on his way to guiding his team to an improbable victory by five wickets. Harvey brought up the winning runs by clipping a ball from Mann to the midwicket boundary. 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.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. The 1951/52 season was less productive, with the West Indies touring Australia. His only fifty was an 83 in the first innings of the Fourth Test in Melbourne. Australia went on to complete a dramatic one-wicket victory.

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. On a slow pitch difficult for stroke play, Harvey scored 109 and 52 against South Africa in Brisbane where Australia grounded out a victory in the First Test. 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. Harvey made it consecutive centuries in as many matches, with 84 and 116 in Adelaide.

As the series 2–1 in Australia's favour and not yet won, the Fifth Test in Melbourne was a timeless Test.[58] 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. This surpassed Bradman's aggregate of 806 runs in 1931/32 as a series record against South Africa. 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 the last four matches of the season, he scored 95, 148, 49, 81 and 48 to come within striking distance.

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. Harvey returned to form by striking 141 against Gloucestershire before taking 3/9, his first three-wicket haul at first-class level, to help Australia take a nine-wicket win. He added a second century in as many innings with 118 in an innings win over Northamptonshire. Harvey then struck 122 in the rain affected Third Test at Manchester; he helped Australia take a 42-run first innings lead, but was out for a duck in the second innings. With the series locked at 0–0, the Ashes would be won by England after some suspect bowling tactics throughout the series.

The 1954/55 season saw England tour Australia, and Harvey scored 98 in three innings in warm-up matches against the visitors. He struck 162 in the First Test in Brisbane after Australia were sent in, helping to compile 8/601 to set up an innings victory. Harvey's series was unproductive, failing to pass 31 in the six innings of the final three Tests. Australia's form slumped along with that of Harvey, losing the next two Tests and the series 3–1.

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. 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. After the tour Arthur Morris retired, leaving Harvey as the most experienced batsman of the team.

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. On the return to Australia, the team stopped on the Indian subcontinent to play their first Tests on Pakistani and Indian soil respectively. Moving to India, he scored 140 in the drawn Second Test in Bombay, scoring runs all around the ground. He ended with 253 runs at 63.25 for the series. His performances on the subcontinent were marked by his aggressive footwork in moving down to meet the pitch of the ball. After seven months away, the Australians returned home.

After several disappointing results against England, the selectors chose a youthful team. Harvey was named vice-captain to the 22 year old Ian Craig for both the 1956/57 non-Test tour of New Zealand and the 1957/58 Test tour to South Africa. The day after the captaincy announcement, the Harvey-led Victorians met Craig's New South Welshmen at the SCG in the last match of the Shield season. Harvey admitted to being irked by the board's snub and felt that it was because of his blunt nature. He made 209 and later forced New South Wales to follow-on. In the end the match was drawn and Harvey was unable to deny New South Wales the title. Harvey said that his first double century for Victoria "gave me as much pleasure as any innings I had ever played".

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 in the state's pecking order, despite being the Test vice-captain, ahead of 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.

During the 1959/60 season, Australian undertook an arduous tour of the subcontinent, with three and five Tests against Pakistan and India, respectively. In Dhaka, East Pakistan (now in Bangladesh), Harvey made 96 on a matting pitch over rough ground in the First Test, having to overcome a fever, dysentery and physical illness, which forced him to leave six times to recompose himself. In India, Harvey scored 114 out of Australia's 468 in the First Test at Delhi, setting up an innings victory for Australia. He ended the series with 356 runs at 50.86, a significant contribution to Australia's 2–1 triumph.

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.

Harvey began his final tour to England in 1961, and Benaud's regular absences due to a shoulder injury allowed him to lead Australia for a third of the tour matches. Harvey made 114 in the drawn First Test at Edgbaston. This helped Australia take a 321-run first innings lead and put them in control of the match, but the hosts batted for the remainder of the match to stave off defeat. The 2nd Test at Lord's was played on a controversial pitch with a noticeable ridge running across it, which caused irregular bounce, it was one of the great Test matches, known as "The Battle of the Ridge". Victory appeared to be far from certain when Australia slumped to 4/19 on the erratic surface. Harvey sent Peter Burge out to attack the bowling, a tactic that worked as Australia won by five wickets.

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. 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.

He was an Australian selector from 1967 to 1979. Immediately after his appointment, he was embroiled in controversy during the First Test against India at Brisbane in 1967/68. The Queensland Cricket Association wrote to the board, complaining that Harvey, who was the selector on duty at the Test, had missed two hours of play. From 1971 onwards, Harvey was the chairman of selectors. It was a tumultuous period in Australian cricket, where captain Bill Lawry was acrimoniously sacked in the middle of the 1970/71 series against England after a dispute between players and Australian officials.

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 vociferously called for Shane Warne and Mark Waugh to be banned from cricket after it was revealed that they accepted money from bookmakers to give pitch and weather information and the ACB privately fined them. He lamented the decline in player conduct in the modern era, also criticising the modern advent of sledging.

Following the death of Arthur Morris on 22 August 2015, Harvey became the last surviving member of the Invincibles who toured England in 1948. Harvey received the Medal of the Order of Australia in the Queen's 2018 Birthday Honours for service to cricket.