David Hookes
Encyclopedia
David William Hookes was an Australia
n cricket
er, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian
cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in the middle order. His international career got off to a sensational start in the Centenary Test
at Melbourne
in 1977 when he hit England captain Tony Greig
for five consecutive boundaries, but a combination of circumstances ensured that he never became a regular in the Australian team. He wrote in his autobiography, "I suspect history will judge me harshly as a batsman because of my modest record in 23 Tests and I can't complain about that".
For many years, he was a leading figure in Australian domestic cricket, most notably in his role as captain of South Australia (SA). Wisden
called him, "a first-class destroyer of second-rate bowling ". He scored a century from 34 balls in a match against Victoria in 1982, and finished his career as the highest run-scorer in Sheffield Shield history.
An outspoken man who had several brushes with the game's officials, Hookes retired at the end of the 1991–92 season and pursued his media career. He moved to Melbourne in 1995 and broadcast on Radio 3AW. His popularity among players and his reputation for strong leadership led to his appointment as coach of the Victorian team in 2002. The team enjoyed success under his tutelage, but he died after being punched by a hotel bouncer outside a pub where he had been drinking with Victorian players following their victory in a match earlier in the day.
(WSC) and then toured England. Playing all five Tests, Hookes compiled 283 runs at 31.44, with scores of 85 at The Oval
and 50 at Lord's
.
Hookes was one of the key personalities marketed by the breakaway WSC organisation. In a "Supertest" at the Sydney Showground
in 1977, a bouncer
from Andy Roberts broke his jaw, and his confidence never fully recovered from the injury. Nevertheless, he was the third-best performed Australian batsman behind Ian
and Greg Chappell
with 770 runs (at 38.5 average) in 12 "Supertests" played during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons. His future in the Australian team following the rapprochement between WSC and official cricket seemed assured.
The SACA
took a gamble by appointing Hookes as South Australia captain at the start of the 1981–82 season. He responded to the challenge and led the state to the Sheffield Shield. Improved confidence and form led to his reinstatement in the Australian team for the 1982–83 Ashes series, and he batted consistently for 344 runs at 49.14 average with a best score of 68 in the fourth Test at Melbourne. Continuing his good form on the following tour of Sri Lanka
, Hookes scored 143 off 152 balls in the first Test between the nations.
. This earned him a fine and he was dropped from the 1983–84 Test series against Pakistan. He returned for five Tests in the West Indies during the 1984 tour and passed 20 in seven of his ten innings, yet made only one half-century, 51 at Antigua in the fourth Test.
Frustrated by Hookes's failure to turn regular starts into big scores, the Australia selectors ignored him for the next eighteen months. He was not selected for the 1985 tour of England even though there had been an exodus of Australian players on a rebel tour of South Africa. His last international appearances were in 1985–86, when he played two Tests against both New Zealand and India, and two ODIs in the World Series Cup. Thereafter, Australia pursued a selection policy of giving prolonged opportunities to younger players and passing over older players with inconsistent records.
On 7–8 March 1987, Hookes and Wayne Phillips shared an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 462 for South Australia against Tasmania
, with Hookes making his highest ever score of 306 not out. In all First Class cricket, Hookes scored 12,671 runs in 178 matches at an average of 43.99.
.
In 2002, he was selected as the new coach of the Victorian
cricket team. He led a revival of the team, which had struggled in previous years. The team subsequently rose back to the top of the Australian domestic competition.
During August 2003, Hookes was criticised after his comment in reference to Helen Cohen Alon, a South African woman who had claimed Australian cricketer Shane Warne
had sexually harassed her via telephone. Commenting on her as "some dopey, hairy-backed sheila who has dobbed [Warne] in across the other side of the world. If that's what she wants to do to earn some cash that's her decision. Let's find out the facts before we hang Warney on this one".
.http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1364301.htm Miss Padfield was present when he died, this fact controversially highlighted by Derryn Hinch
on his Melbourne radio show.http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/07/1075854114419.html?from=storyrhs
, Melbourne
, with members of the Victoria and South Australia cricket teams, to celebrate a win by the former over the latter in a one-day match. Shortly after midnight, the party was asked to leave the hotel, though there are conflicting stories as to the reason. It is also unclear whether the party left voluntarily or were forced to leave. The security staff continued following the party for a short distance outside the hotel, and there was an altercation. Witnesses gave highly conflicting testimony of what occurred and who started the fight, but what is not in doubt is that Hookes fell to the ground, hitting his head in the process, and going into cardiac arrest. He was revived by paramedics but did not regain consciousness. He was taken to Melbourne's Alfred Hospital and placed on life support. The following evening after family and friends had said their goodbyes Hookes was taken off the machine and died shortly afterwards. Hookes was an organ donor and ten people received transplanted organs.
A memorial service was held on Adelaide Oval
on 27 January 2004 attended by all members of the Australian
, South Australia
and Victoria
cricket teams, as well as the Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks
. Total attendance was estimated at 10,000. His estranged wife Robyn declined to participate in his memorial service, but sat in one of the outer grandstands. Zdravko Micevic
, who punched Hookes, was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted. Micevic claimed that Hookes had punched him first without provocation.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n 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, broadcaster and coach of the Victorian
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
cricket team. An aggressive left-handed batsman, Hookes usually batted in the middle order. His international career got off to a sensational start in the 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 ...
at 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 when he hit England captain Tony Greig
Tony Greig
Anthony "Tony" William Greig is a former English Test cricketer and currently a commentator.Born in Queenstown, South Africa, Greig qualified to play for England by virtue of his Scottish father. He was a tall batting all-rounder who bowled both medium pace and off spin. He became captain of the...
for five consecutive boundaries, but a combination of circumstances ensured that he never became a regular in the Australian team. He wrote in his autobiography, "I suspect history will judge me harshly as a batsman because of my modest record in 23 Tests and I can't complain about that".
For many years, he was a leading figure in Australian domestic cricket, most notably in his role as captain of South Australia (SA). Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
called him, "a first-class destroyer of second-rate bowling ". He scored a century from 34 balls in a match against Victoria in 1982, and finished his career as the highest run-scorer in Sheffield Shield history.
An outspoken man who had several brushes with the game's officials, Hookes retired at the end of the 1991–92 season and pursued his media career. He moved to Melbourne in 1995 and broadcast on Radio 3AW. His popularity among players and his reputation for strong leadership led to his appointment as coach of the Victorian team in 2002. The team enjoyed success under his tutelage, but he died after being punched by a hotel bouncer outside a pub where he had been drinking with Victorian players following their victory in a match earlier in the day.
Cricket career
Hookes made his First Class debut in 1975–76 for SA. A rush of form in February 1977, when he scored five centuries from six innings in 17 days, led to his selection for the Centenary Test in March, 1977, at the age of 21.Test debut and WSC
During Australia's second innings of the match, Hookes made 56, and hit Tony Greig for five consecutive boundaries. Shortly after, he signed a contract with World Series CricketWorld 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...
(WSC) and then toured England. Playing all five Tests, Hookes compiled 283 runs at 31.44, with scores of 85 at The Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
and 50 at Lord's
Lord's Cricket Ground
Lord's Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and Wales Cricket Board , the European Cricket Council and, until August 2005, the...
.
Hookes was one of the key personalities marketed by the breakaway WSC organisation. In a "Supertest" at the Sydney 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...
in 1977, a bouncer
Bouncer (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a bouncer is a type of delivery, usually bowled by a fast bowler. It is pitched short so that it bounces on the pitch well short of the batsman and rears up to chest or head height as it reaches the batsman.Bouncers are used tactically to drive the batsman back on to his...
from Andy Roberts broke his jaw, and his confidence never fully recovered from the injury. Nevertheless, he was the third-best performed Australian batsman behind Ian
Ian Chappell
Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation...
and 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...
with 770 runs (at 38.5 average) in 12 "Supertests" played during the 1977–78 and 1978–79 seasons. His future in the Australian team following the rapprochement between WSC and official cricket seemed assured.
Problems post-WSC
However, Hookes managed just one Test and two ODIs when injury curtailed his 1979–80 season. Returned to fitness, he toured Pakistan in 1980 but made a pair in the first Test at Karachi, dismissed twice by spin bowler Iqbal Qasim. His play against slow bowling had not developed and he was vulnerable to the well-flighted delivery as his footwork was non-existent. Dropped from the Australian team, his form failed to improve in the following Australian season, and he lost his place in the South Australia team as well.The SACA
Šaca
Šaca is a borough of Košice, Slovakia.The first written record about Šaca dates back to 1275. Since 1427 the landowners of Šaca were the family of Semsey which built a castle here in the 15th century, however, it was pulled down on the order of the King Matthias Corvinus...
took a gamble by appointing Hookes as South Australia captain at the start of the 1981–82 season. He responded to the challenge and led the state to the Sheffield Shield. Improved confidence and form led to his reinstatement in the Australian team for the 1982–83 Ashes series, and he batted consistently for 344 runs at 49.14 average with a best score of 68 in the fourth Test at Melbourne. Continuing his good form on the following tour of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, Hookes scored 143 off 152 balls in the first Test between the nations.
Last seasons
Hookes's performances were more subdued during the 1983 World Cup in England. Australia played poorly in the tournament. When the team returned home, Hookes criticised the team's captain, Kim HughesKim 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...
. This earned him a fine and he was dropped from the 1983–84 Test series against Pakistan. He returned for five Tests in the West Indies during the 1984 tour and passed 20 in seven of his ten innings, yet made only one half-century, 51 at Antigua in the fourth Test.
Frustrated by Hookes's failure to turn regular starts into big scores, the Australia selectors ignored him for the next eighteen months. He was not selected for the 1985 tour of England even though there had been an exodus of Australian players on a rebel tour of South Africa. His last international appearances were in 1985–86, when he played two Tests against both New Zealand and India, and two ODIs in the World Series Cup. Thereafter, Australia pursued a selection policy of giving prolonged opportunities to younger players and passing over older players with inconsistent records.
Domestic performances
Despite his failure to live up to expectations at the highest level, Hookes continued to captain South Australia until 1990, when he was sacked. In October 1982, Hookes thrashed a 43 minute, 34 ball century, which in some respects is the fastest hundred in first-class history.On 7–8 March 1987, Hookes and Wayne Phillips shared an unbroken fourth wicket stand of 462 for South Australia against Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
, with Hookes making his highest ever score of 306 not out. In all First Class cricket, Hookes scored 12,671 runs in 178 matches at an average of 43.99.
Batting style
Hookes was an aggressive strokeplayer against fast bowling, and was known to play the hook shot effectively. However he had problems playing spin. He was known as an "eye" player - or one who relied more on his eye, than on sound batting technique.Retirement
After his retirement, he became involved in the media, making appearances on television and hosting a radio programme with fellow sportscaster Gerard HealyGerard Healy
Gerard Healy is a former Australian rules footballer and commentator.Healy attended St Bede's College in Mentone, where he was the Senior Football Captain.-Melbourne Demons:...
.
In 2002, he was selected as the new coach of the Victorian
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
cricket team. He led a revival of the team, which had struggled in previous years. The team subsequently rose back to the top of the Australian domestic competition.
During August 2003, Hookes was criticised after his comment in reference to Helen Cohen Alon, a South African woman who had claimed Australian cricketer Shane Warne
Shane Warne
Shane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
had sexually harassed her via telephone. Commenting on her as "some dopey, hairy-backed sheila who has dobbed [Warne] in across the other side of the world. If that's what she wants to do to earn some cash that's her decision. Let's find out the facts before we hang Warney on this one".
Personal life
Hookes married his childhood sweetheart and first wife Roxanne, but left her for his second wife, Robyn Gellman. They were married for 22 years. Hookes had two stepchildren from Robyn, Kristofer Gellman and Caprice Gellman. Hookes and Robyn separated in late 2003 due to Hookes's infidelities.http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1364301.htm At the time of his death he had been in a two-year relationship with Christine Padfield, then marketing coordinator at Cricket VictoriaCricket Victoria
Cricket Victoria is the governing body for the sport of cricket in Victoria. It was formed on 29 September 1875 as the Victorian Cricket Association...
.http://www.abc.net.au/austory/content/2005/s1364301.htm Miss Padfield was present when he died, this fact controversially highlighted by Derryn Hinch
Derryn Hinch
Derryn Nigel Hinch is an Australian media personality best known for his work on Melbourne radio. He is currently the host of 3AW's drive time radio show...
on his Melbourne radio show.http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/07/1075854114419.html?from=storyrhs
Death
On the night of 18 January 2004, Hookes went to the Beaconsfield Hotel in St KildaSt Kilda, Victoria
St Kilda is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 6 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Port Phillip...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, with members of the Victoria and South Australia cricket teams, to celebrate a win by the former over the latter in a one-day match. Shortly after midnight, the party was asked to leave the hotel, though there are conflicting stories as to the reason. It is also unclear whether the party left voluntarily or were forced to leave. The security staff continued following the party for a short distance outside the hotel, and there was an altercation. Witnesses gave highly conflicting testimony of what occurred and who started the fight, but what is not in doubt is that Hookes fell to the ground, hitting his head in the process, and going into cardiac arrest. He was revived by paramedics but did not regain consciousness. He was taken to Melbourne's Alfred Hospital and placed on life support. The following evening after family and friends had said their goodbyes Hookes was taken off the machine and died shortly afterwards. Hookes was an organ donor and ten people received transplanted organs.
A memorial service was held on Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
on 27 January 2004 attended by all members of the Australian
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
, 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...
and Victoria
Victorian Bushrangers
The Victorian cricket team, nicknamed the Bushrangers, is an Australian cricket team based in Melbourne, that represents the state of Victoria. It is administered by Cricket Victoria and draws its players from Melbourne's Premier Cricket competition...
cricket teams, as well as the Premier of Victoria, Steve Bracks
Steve Bracks
Stephen Philip Bracks AC is a former Australian politician and the 44th Premier of Victoria. He first won the electoral district of Williamstown in 1994 for the Australian Labor Party, and was party leader and Premier from 1999 to 2007....
. Total attendance was estimated at 10,000. His estranged wife Robyn declined to participate in his memorial service, but sat in one of the outer grandstands. Zdravko Micevic
Zdravko Micevic
Zdravko Micevic is a Melbourne-based Australian professional boxer, but is best known for his involvement in the death of former Australian cricketer David Hookes.-David Hookes:...
, who punched Hookes, was charged with manslaughter but was acquitted. Micevic claimed that Hookes had punched him first without provocation.