Bruce Laird
Encyclopedia
- For the NFL Player see Bruce Laird (American football)
Bruce Malcolm Laird (born 21 November 1950, Mount Lawley, Western Australia
Mount Lawley, Western Australia
Mount Lawley is an inner suburb of Perth, Western Australia. Most of the suburb lies within the Local Government Area of the City of Stirling and small portions are in the City of Vincent and City of Bayswater...
) is a former Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
n and Australian cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er. He was an opening batsmen who played in 21 Tests
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
and 23 ODIs. He also starred in World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
.
Early career
Bruce Laird represented his home state of Western AustraliaWestern Warriors
The Western Australia cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team representing the state of Western Australia...
in Sheffield Shield cricket, making his debut in February 1973 aged 22. He opened the batting against a strong Victorian bowling line-up including Alan Thomson
Alan Thomson
Alan Lloyd "Froggy" Thomson , a school teacher, is a former Australian cricketer and Australian rules football umpire.He played District cricket with the Fitzroy Cricket Club, and took 5/39 against Richmond in their first innings, in his first ever first XI match for the club, on Saturday, 27 March...
and Alan Hurst
Alan Hurst (cricketer)
Alan George Hurst is a former Australian cricketer who played in twelve Tests and eight ODIs between 1975 and 1979...
. Laird was dismissed early in both innings scoring 3 and 16. Western Australia won by 3 wickets and went on to win the 1972/73 Shield. Laird would not force his way into the first XI in the 1973/74 season but would become the regular opener in the 1974/75 season. His first century came against New South Wales
New South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
in just his fourth first-class match. He scored 117 in a first wicket partnership of 203 with Wally Edwards
Wally Edwards
Walter John Edwards is a former Australian cricketer who played in 3 Tests and one ODI from 1974 to 1975....
. His second hundred was scored against Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
, he scored 127 before being run out. In eight matches he scored 703 runs, joint top of the charts with the great Greg Chappell
Greg Chappell
Gregory Stephen Chappell MBE is a former cricketer who captained Australia between 1975 and 1977 and then joined the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation, before returning to the Australian captaincy in 1979, a position he held until his retirement 1983...
, at an average of 46.86 scoring two hundreds and four fifties.
International recognition
Laird's excellent season was rewarded with a place on the 1975 AshesThe Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. It is one of the most celebrated rivalries in international cricket and dates back to 1882. It is currently played biennially, alternately in the United Kingdom and Australia. Cricket being a summer sport, and the venues...
Tour to England. He did not play in any of the Test matches but did play in nine first-class matches against the County sides. He scored 488 runs in 9 matches at an average of 32.53, with a top score of 127. He was unlucky not to be picked for the first Test match having made 207 runs in three County matches. However the selectors backed Alan Turner who had made 156 against Kent
Kent County Cricket Club
Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...
in the first County match and Rick McCosker
Rick McCosker
Richard Bede McCosker is a former New South Wales and Australian cricketer.McCosker played in 25 Tests and 14 One Day Internationals in a career spanning 1975 to 1982 playing as a right hand batsman....
. The decision proved correct as the Australians thrashed England at Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...
by an innings and 85 runs. Despite only scoring 359 runs in the first innings, Australia bowled England out twice for 101 and 173. McCosker then cemented his place in the side with back-to-back hundreds against Sussex
Sussex County Cricket Club
Sussex County Cricket Club is the oldest of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Sussex. The club was founded as a successor to Brighton Cricket Club which was a representative of the county of Sussex as a...
at Hove
County Cricket Ground, Hove
The County Cricket Ground, also known as the Probiz County Ground for sponsorship reasons, is a cricket venue in Hove, England. It is home to Sussex County Cricket Club. It is one of the few county grounds to have deckchairs for spectators - which are in the colours of Sussex CCC - blue and white....
. The remaining tests were all drawn and Australia retained the Ashes with a 1-0 series win.
The following season with Western Australia was a disappointment for Laird. He played all eight Shield matches but scored just one hundred and averaged only 28.07. His side struggled with the bat with no player scoring more than one hundred, but with top fast bowlers Mick Malone
Mick Malone
Michael Francis Malone is a former Australian cricketer who played in one Test and 10 ODIs from 1977 to 1982. Malone played in only one Test prior to joining World Series Cricket. In English county cricket he had a period with Lancashire...
and Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...
they managed to win four matches.
World Series Cricket
Bruce Laird was signed up to Kerry Packer'sKerry Packer
Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer, AC was an Australian media tycoon. The son of Sir Frank Packer and Gretel Bullmore, the Packer family company owned controlling interest in both the Nine television network and leading Australian publishing company Australian Consolidated Press, which were later...
World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket
World Series Cricket was a break away professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 and organised by Kerry Packer for his Australian television network, Nine Network. The matches ran in opposition to established international cricket...
in 1977. He was a star of the tournament playing in 13 Supertests. In four 1977/78 Supertests Laird scored two hundreds, the first in the 3rd Supertest against the West Indies at Football Park, Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
. His score of 106 helped the Aussies to a 220 run win. He scored 106 again in the first innings of the first Supertest against the World XI at RAS Showground
Sydney Showground (Moore Park)
The former Sydney Showground at Moore Park was the site of the Sydney Royal Easter Show in New South Wales, Australia from 1882 until 1997, when the Show was moved to the new Sydney Showground at Homebush Bay, which was built for the Sydney 2000 Olympics...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, although he made just six in the second innings as the Australians lost by 4 wickets.
The second season of World Series Cricket was not as successful for Laird. He did not score a century, although he did play in all four of Australia's Supertests. He did enough to be selected for the lucrative WSC Tour of the West Indies. There he played in all five Supertests, scoring one century, 122, in Australia's win at Queen's Park Oval
Queen's Park Oval
Queen's Park Oval, in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, is currently the largest capacity cricket ground in the West Indies and has hosted more Test matches than any other ground in the Caribbean. It also hosted a number of matches in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. It is privately owned by the...
, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad and Tobago officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an archipelagic state in the southern Caribbean, lying just off the coast of northeastern Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles...
. The series was drawn 1-1.
Return to Official Cricket
After Packer reached a deal with the cricket authorities the Australian WSC players returned to their State sides and were once again available for international selection. Having played well during WSC Laird was selected immediately for the Australian XI to face the West Indies in 1979 at BrisbaneBrisbane Cricket Ground
The Brisbane Cricket Ground, commonly known as The Gabba, is a major sports stadium in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. It is named after the suburb of Woolloongabba, in which it is located....
. He scored 92 and 72 in the drawn match. All but three of the Australian XI had played WSC, Alan Border, Kim Hughes
Kim Hughes
Kimberley John Hughes is a former cricketer who played for Western Australia, Natal and Australia. He captained Australia in 28 Tests between 1979 and 1984 before captaining a "rebel" Australian team in a tour of South Africa, who at the time were subject to a sporting boycott.A right-handed...
and Rodney Hogg
Rodney Hogg
Rodney Malcolm Hogg is a former Victorian, South Australian and Australian cricketer. He was a fast bowler. Hogg played in 38 Tests and 71 ODIs between 1978 and 1985. In Tests he took 123 wickets at an average of 28.47.-Career:...
those who did not. Laird scored 69 in the second innings of the second test however the Australians were thrashed by ten wickets. Another fifty followed in the third and final test however the West Indians won convincingly again by 408 runs. Alvin Kallicharran
Alvin Kallicharran
Alvin Isaac Kallicharran is a former West Indian batsman of Indo-Guyanese ethnicity who played from 1972 to 1981. His elegant, watchful batting style produced some substantial innings for a West Indian team very much in its formative years in the seventies...
, their only non-WSC player, scored a match winning century. This test series was run in the same format as Packer's Supertests with matches played between three sides, England also featuring. In the two tests Laird played against England his top score was 74 in the third test. Australia beat England in all three matches.
Alongside the test series against the West Indies, the first World Series Cup
World Series Cup
The World Series Cup was the name of the One Day International cricket tournament that took place in Australia every season between Australia and two touring teams from 1979-80 to 1995-96. The tournament was renamed the World Series from 1990-1. This was the very first of the One Day International ...
was played. The tournament was the spin-off from WSC and followed the same triangular format, England again being the third team. Laird played his first ODI against the West Indies on 27 November 1979 scoring 20 from 38 balls as Australia won by 5 wickets. That would be his top score in the tournament as Australia did not qualify for the final.
This was a busy time for the Australian international cricketers as a tour to Pakistan followed in February 1980 just days after the conclusion of the third test against England. Greg Chappell led the side and Laird partnered Graham Yallop
Graham Yallop
Graham Neil Yallop is a former cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. He captained Australia briefly during the tumultuous era of World Series Cricket in the late 1970s...
at the top of the order in the first test in Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
. The Pakistan side featured seven former WSC players and defeated the Australians by 7 wickets. It was in Karachi that Laird passed 500 test runs. Having gone 1-0 up the second test was played on a typically dead Pakistani wicket designed for a draw. Australia scored 617 from 211 overs including a double century from Greg Chappell, but Laird missed out bagging a duck fourth ball. Predictably the third test at Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
also ended in a bat dominated draw with Julien Wiener
Julien Wiener
Julien Mark Wiener is a former Australian cricketer who played in six Tests and seven one-day internationals from 1979 to 1980. A right-handed opening batsman and a very occasional off spin bowler, he is the only known Jewish Australian to represent his country at cricket...
opening with Laird for the second match scoring 93 and Alan Border a patient 150 from six and a half hours at the crease.
After the tour to Pakistan, the Australians went to England to play the second Centenary Test
Centenary Test
Centenary Test refers to two matches of Test cricket played between the English cricket team and the Australian cricket team, the first in 1977 and the second in 1980. These matches were played to mark the 100th anniversaries of the first Test cricket matches played in Australia and in England ...
match at Lord's. The match was not as exciting as the first Centenary Test in Melbourne
Melbourne Cricket Ground
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light...
in 1977, ending in a draw as a Geoffrey Boycott
Geoffrey Boycott
Geoffrey Boycott OBE is a former Yorkshire and England cricketer. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's most successful opening batsmen...
(128 not out) inspired England refused to chase 370 in a day finishing on 244 for the loss of just three wickets.
Dropped
The long period of international cricket was broken and Laird was afforded the opportunity to return to regular Shield cricket. He played 6 matches in the 1980/81 season opening with the young star Graeme WoodGraeme Wood
Graeme Malcolm Wood is a former Australian cricketer who played in 59 Tests and 83 ODIs from 1978 to 1989. He scored nine Test centuries in his career and it was a West Australian record until 2001-02 when it was passed by Justin Langer....
, his opening partner in the Centenary Test. Wood had the better season scoring 542 runs to Laird's 209. Despite Western Australia winning the Shield that year, this poor form saw Laird dropped from the Test side and replaced by his team-mate. Wood was then selected for 25 consecutive Test matches and would continue to feature in the side until 1992, scoring nine hundreds in his test career. Laird missed three test series against New Zealand, India and the famous Ashes series in England in 1981
Australian cricket team in England in 1981
The tour by the Australian cricket team in England in 1981 included the 51st Ashes series of Test matches between Australia and England. Despite having been 1–0 down after two Tests, England won the next three Tests to finish 3–1 victors , thus retaining the Ashes...
. But would earn a recall to the test side for the home series against Pakistan, thanks to a bright start to the 1981/82 Shield season. A score of 110 not out and the continuing success of his partnership with Wood, convincing returning captain Greg Chappell to call on him again.
Laird was picked for the next twelve tests to partner Wood at the top of the batting order. They started well against Pakistan averaging 65 runs for the first wicket in the three test series, with a best of 109. In the opening test of the summer held at the WACA Ground
WACA Ground
The WACA is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. WACA are the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association....
, Laird was one of seven Western Australians selected in the Australian Test team, alongside Wood, Kim Hughes
Kim Hughes
Kimberley John Hughes is a former cricketer who played for Western Australia, Natal and Australia. He captained Australia in 28 Tests between 1979 and 1984 before captaining a "rebel" Australian team in a tour of South Africa, who at the time were subject to a sporting boycott.A right-handed...
, Rod Marsh
Rod Marsh
Rodney William Marsh MBE is a former Australian wicketkeeper.A colourful character, Marsh had a Test career spanning from the 1970–71 to the 1983–84 Australian season. In 96 Tests, he set a world record of 355 wicketkeeping dismissals, the same number his pace bowling Western...
, Bruce Yardley
Bruce Yardley
Bruce Yardley is a former Australian cricketer who played in 33 Tests and 7 ODIs from 1978 to 1983...
, Dennis Lillee
Dennis Lillee
Dennis Keith Lillee, AM, MBE is a former Australian cricketer rated as the "outstanding fast bowler of his generation"...
and Terry Alderman
Terry Alderman
Terence Michael Alderman is a former Australian cricketer.He began his first-class career in 1974 with Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield and came to international prominence when he was chosen for the Australian national team to tour England in 1981...
. It was in the 1981/82 World Series Cup that Laird would score his only international century, 117 not out against the West Indies. Back in the Test arena, Laird and Wood averaged 43.1 as a partnership, with two century partnerships and six of fifty or more. However Australia were not performing well and the selectors wanted changes. It happened that Laird was dropped after a 3-0 whitewash defeat against Pakistan in 1982 and never regained his place.
He ended his 21 Test career having never scored an official Test century, with the three he scored in the Supertests never being officially recognised. Of the players who haven't scored a Test century, Laird has scored more runs than any other Australian opener and has the highest batting average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...
amongst players with more than 1000 Test runs or more than twenty innings batted.
Laird continued to represent Australia in ODIs until his final game in Pakistan in October 1982 when he scored a 91 not out in an unsuccessful run chase. After being dropped by Australia Laird's Shield form improved. In 1982/83 he scored 610 runs (ave. 40.66) and Western Australia won the Shield in the final against New South Wales. Western Australia completed the double winning the MacDonalds Cup against New South Wales by four wickets. In 1983/84, he spent most of the season batting at five. Laird smashed 684 runs at 48.85 and captained Western Australia for the first time in Shield cricket against South Australia
Southern Redbacks
The South Australia cricket team, nicknamed the Southern Redbacks and known as the West End Redbacks due to their sponsorship agreement with local brewers West End, are an Australian first class cricket team based in Adelaide, South Australia, and represent the state of South Australia...
at Perth.
Bruce Laird bowed out of professional cricket by winning another Shield title defeating Queensland
Queensland Bulls
The Queensland cricket team, nicknamed the Bulls, are the Brisbane-based Queensland representative cricket team in Australia's domestic cricket tournaments:*Sheffield Shield, 4-day matches with first-class status, since the 1926/27 season...
in the 1983/84 final, finishing with scores 63 and 54 as Western Australia won by four wickets.