Sid Barnes
Encyclopedia
Sidney George Barnes was an Australian cricket
er and cricket writer, who played 13 Test matches
between 1938 and 1948. Able to open the innings or bat
down the order, Barnes was regarded as one of Australia's finest batsmen in the period immediately following the Second World War
. He helped create an enduring record when scoring 234 in the second Test against England at Sydney in December 1946; exactly the same score as his captain, Don Bradman
, in the process setting a world-record 405 run fifth wicket partnership
. Barnes averaged 63.05 over 19 innings in a career that, like those of most of his contemporaries, was interrupted by the Second World War.
He made his first-class
début at the end of the 1936–37 season when selected for New South Wales
and was later included in the team for the 1938 Australian tour of England
, making his Test début in the final international of the series. On the resumption of Test cricket after the war, he was picked as the opening partner to Arthur Morris
. Barnes was a member of The Invincibles, the 1948 Australian team that toured England without losing a single match. Retiring from cricket at the end of that tour, Barnes attempted a comeback to Test cricket in the 1951–52 season that was ultimately and controversially unsuccessful.
Barnes had a reputation as an eccentric and was frequently the subject of controversy. This included a celebrated libel case, following his exclusion from the national team in 1951–52 for "reasons other than cricket ability". He was later involved in an incident where, acting as twelfth man, he performed his duties on the ground in a suit and tie (rather than 'whites'), carrying a bizarre range of superfluous items. Despite this reputation, Barnes was a shrewd businessman who used the opportunities afforded by cricket to supplement his income through trading, journalism and property development. Increasing paranoia
brought about by bipolar disorder
saw Barnes lose many of the friends he had made through the game, as he sought treatment for his depression. On 16 December 1973, he was found dead at his home in the Sydney suburb of Collaroy
; he had ingested barbiturate
s and bromide
in a probable suicide.
, an inner suburb of Sydney. However, in his autobiography, he claims to have been born in 1918 or 1919 in Queensland
, and his military service record has his date of birth as 5 June 1917. He was the third child of Alfred Percival Barnes and Hilda May Barnes (née Jeffery), both from farming families near Tamworth
in northern New South Wales
. After marrying, the couple left Tamworth to take up a lease on a remote sheep station
near Hughenden
in North Queensland. Before Sid was born, Alfred died from typhoid fever
, caused by drinking contaminated water on the family property. After his death, Hilda, widowed and pregnant with her latest child, moved to Sydney with her children and stayed with her sister, where Sid was born. From her husband's estate, Hilda Barnes mother was able to purchase and renovate real estate in Stanmore
and Leichhardt
, New South Wales, to let or sell. Later in life, Barnes would recount how, as a child, he used to collect the rents for his mother.
Barnes attended Stanmore Public School and, although not a scholar, was a keen participant in sporting activities. His introduction to cricket came via his older brother, Horrie; Horrie was a useful batsman who played in the local Western Suburbs Churches league and paid Sid sixpence
to bowl to him after he finished work. Taking an interest in the game, Sid had trials for the school team and was eventually selected in the first XI. An early controversy saw Barnes suspended for three weeks for disputing an umpire
's decision. Successes for both his school team and his local club team, St. Augustine, saw him acquire the nickname The Governor-General—the nickname of Australian Test player, Charlie Macartney, and he was selected for New South Wales Schoolboys to play teams from Victoria
and Queensland
.
In 1932–33, Barnes joined the Petersham
club, and began playing in the third XI. Former Test batsman Tommy Andrews became his mentor at the club and in 1933–34, Barnes made his first-grade cricket
début as a batsman/wicket-keeper
against Paddington, facing the bowling of Hunter Hendry
and Alan McGilvray
. He was soon successful, scoring a century against Manly in February. Even as a young and inexperienced cricketer, he showed a "... brash confidence in his own ability."
When praised for his batting by the great Test bowler Bill O'Reilly
, Barnes responded "Thanks very much, you didn't bowl too badly yourself", leaving O'Reilly speechless.
This success led Barnes to consider cricket as a potential career. However, his mother and stepfather were concerned about the likelihood of cricket providing him with a living. In response, Barnes took a job with a garage
in Mosman
but after finding that the necessary travel interfered too much with playing cricket, he found alternative employment, demonstrating motorbikes in the city.
selectors by the 1936–37 season and was included as twelfth man in the side to play the visiting English side
, taking a catch on the boundary to dismiss Stan Worthington
. He made his first-class
début in the final Sheffield Shield
match of the season, against South Australia
at the Sydney Cricket Ground
. Batting at number five, Barnes scored 31 and 44, twice being dismissed LBW
by the leg spin
ner Frank Ward. Whilst fielding, Barnes managed to find himself in controversy again, running out
Vic Richardson
, the opposition captain, after the end of the over
was called. The square leg umpire had not heard the call of "Over" and upheld the appeal
, much to the disgust of Richardson. The New South Wales captain Stan McCabe
, whom Barnes idolised, withdrew the appeal.
Barnes was selected for New South Wales for the opening match of the 1937–38 season against Queensland
making 68 in a rain-affected match. Against the touring New Zealanders, Barnes fell just short of his maiden first-class century, scoring 97. He appeared to have reached the landmark when scoring 127 not out
against Western Australia
, but the New South Wales Cricket Association
retrospectively deemed the match to be not of first-class status, angering Barnes. He finally scored his maiden first-class century (110) against Victoria in the final game of the season, completing his hundred while bleeding profusely after being struck on the jaw by a ball delivered by Ernie McCormick
. As a result of his performances over the season (scoring over 800 runs
, averaging 50.56), Barnes was selected as the youngest member of the Australian cricket team to tour England in 1938
.
, for fear of being sent home. On arrival in England, he therefore did not play an innings until the last day of June, missing exactly half of the 30 first-class matches scheduled for the tour, including the first two Tests, both of which were drawn. His first innings was 42 against Derbyshire
and he shared in a fourth wicket stand of 176 with Bill Brown
, who made an unbeaten 265. The third Test was a wash-out and he was not picked for the fourth, which the Australians won, although in his autobiography he claimed that he was considered as a candidate to be wicketkeeper, having deputised for Ben Barnett
in that role in tour matches against Warwickshire
and Nottinghamshire
. In the event, his Test début came in the final Test, played at The Oval
. Barnes had to field for 16 hours as England amassed a total of 903 for seven declared, then the highest Test score. Barnes bowled 38 overs in the innings and took the seventh wicket, that of Arthur Wood, for 84 runs. With both Don Bradman
and Jack Fingleton
injured and unable to bat, Australia struggled – England won by an innings and 579 runs – still the largest winning margin in Test cricket history; but Barnes played innings of 41 and 33 and, according to Wisden
, "well justified his choice". In all first-class matches on the tour, Barnes scored 720 runs, and reached 90 three times, though without going on to a first-class century. He scored 140 in a two-day match against Durham
, which was not considered first-class.
His international career was then put on hold, as all foreign tours were suspended during the Second World War. He continued to play first-class cricket in Australia, before enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial Force
in May 1942. Barnes's time in the military was short. A man who was proud of his appearance, he had a uniform made to measure when the one issued did not fit. He met champion golfer Norman Von Nida
early into his enlistment and the two were assigned to the 1st Armoured Division in Greta
. A shortage of tanks and the military regimen led to boredom and Barnes used his hitherto ignored trade background to his advantage, seeking a release to join a tank-making company, which was granted. Von Nida and Barnes remained friends and business partners for many years afterwards.
Barnes was made captain of New South Wales for the 1946–47 Australian season, though only managed to play three matches for the state team. One of those was tour match against the touring MCC team
, and Barnes was approached during the match about becoming an opening batsman for the forthcoming Test series. He wrote in his autobiography: "I had never opened before and was a little dubious. I had, however, struck new balls at different periods of innings and was not afraid of that." He also liked the idea of batting ahead of Bradman in the batting order: "Much better, I thought, to get in before him than to come later, like flat beer after champagne."
Barnes was first-choice as an opener with Arthur Morris
throughout the Test series, although it was not until the Third Test that they had a first-wicket partnership of any substance. Morris had broken into the team as an opener after an injury sidelined Bill Brown for the entire season.
The First Test at Brisbane was dominated by Australia, a pattern that was to be a feature of the series, although Barnes contributed only 31 to the total of 645 which brought an innings victory. Barnes displayed his liking for slightly aggressive practical jokes in this match: during a break for a particularly ferocious thunderstorm, he "got a huge block of ice out of the tub in which our drinks were kept, staggered to the side of the dressing-room and tossed it on to the roof over the English dressing-room. It caused a noise for a start that brought all the Englishmen running and then it came over the side of the gutter, crashed on to the lawn and slithered down the grass. Those English eyes certainly did stand out."
Bradman had words with Barnes after this match about his new role as an opener. Barnes later wrote: "He asked me how I liked it. I said it suited me. 'You batted very well in this game,' he said, 'but not quite as an opener. You were looking for runs all the time. I think what you want to watch as an opener is not getting out ... What is needed from my openers, and is most important, is patience and plenty of it.' I was completely willing to be guided by anything that Bradman wanted me to do."
Years later, Barnes wrote about the effect this had on his batting style. "There was one angle about this change of batting position that didn't appeal to me. I am, by nature, a forcing batsman. I like to take the shine out of a bowler [sic] and I love to hear the ball rattling the pickets, or soaring over the fence ... My footwork was quick and I often caused delight by stepping back feet outside the leg stump and square-cutting ... If I were to become an Australian Test opening batsman I would have to conform to standard. I would have to put up the shutters ... And so I came to the Second Test in Sydney ready to drape myself in the gloomy colors of a Test opening batsman."
It was during the Second Test at Sydney in December 1946, that Barnes made a lasting impression on the world game. Having opened the innings, he made his top Test score of 234 and helped to set a world-record 405 run fifth wicket partnership
with Don Bradman
, a record that still stands today.
On a rain-affect pitch Arthur Morris
was out at 1/24 and Ian Johnson
came out as a nightwatchman
he and Barnes angered the crowd by launching into a series of bad light appeals - up to 12 were counted - before the umpires gave way and play was ended with an hour to spare. This ensured that Australia would not have to play on a sticky wicket and allowed Bradman to rest his leg until play resumed on the Monday. After the series Barnes said on radio;
Barnes carefully played on the still suspect pitch the following day and late in the afternoon was joined by Bradman, lower in the order than usual due to a leg injury, joined Barnes with the score at 4/159. Over six and a half hours later, Bradman was out for 234. Barnes was dismissed just four balls later, also for 234, having batted for over ten hours. In his autobiography, Barnes stated that the coincidence of scores was intended. "Lots of people have asked me whether I deliberately threw my wicket away at 234. The answer is yes." He confirmed to an interviewer many years later that "it wouldn't be right for someone to make more runs than Sir Donald Bradman".
E.W. Swanton wrote that this "could well have been so for he was a man of quixotic
mood and temperament". However the Engand bowler, Alec Bedser
wrote "It was when I was bowling to Sid at Sydney that I first discovered that I could move the ball to leg by use of my wrist and fingers...I held the ball in the same manner as a leg-break bowler
with the fingers across the seam...and on pitching I was surprised to see the ball go away like a leg-break. It also surprised Sid Barnes". This would make Barnes the first batsman to be dismissed by Bedser's "Special Ball" which would claim Bradman for a duck in the Fourth Test at Adelaide.
Barnes injured his hand during fielding practice before the Third Test, and although he went on to play in that game (scoring 45 and 32), he opted out of batting in a state game – according to his autobiography, this cost him the New South Wales captaincy – and he missed the fourth Test. He returned for the final Test and top-scored with 71 in Australia's first innings, adding 30 in the second.
Barnes went to England in 1947. In his autobiography, he claimed that he went as a representative for a wine and spirits company, although after the initial mention of that there is no further word and he appears also to have dealt in commodities that were in short supply because of rationing in England. Once in England, he was approached by Burnley
to play as a professional in Lancashire League cricket, which he did for a while before finding it "too much of a drag" and resigning.
Barnes returned to Australia for the 1947–48 season, keen to win a place on the 1948 tour to England. He was worried that having played as a professional in the Lancashire League would damage his chance of further Test cricket, but at the same time suggested that he had offers from other Lancashire League teams to fall back on should he not be picked. There was also concern that, with his wife now living in Scotland, he would breach the Australian rule that wives were not allowed to travel with Test cricketers. In fact, lack of form and opportunity were a greater threats to Barnes's continued Test career. Arriving back with several state games having already been played, he failed to make runs for New South Wales and was not picked for the first two Tests against the Indian tourists
, Bill Brown taking over as opener with Morris.
The match between Victoria and New South Wales was Barnes's chance to redeem himself. Wisden reported it thus:
He followed that century (158 in total) with a similarly plodding 80 not out in the second innings, and was picked for the third Test, with Brown dropped after a series of low scores in the first two Tests. Barnes made only 12 and 15, jeopardising his place, but what Wisden termed "another of his dour, determined but faultless innings for top score" in the New South Wales game against South Australia ensured a second chance. In the fourth Test at Adelaide
he made 112 and put on 236 with Bradman for the second wicket. With 33 in the final match of the series, his place on the 1948 tour was secure, though he had to give assurances about the amount of contact he would have with his wife, still living in Scotland, before he was confirmed.
The 1948 Australia team that toured England has become known as The Invincibles, because they did not lose a single game. Following their performances during the Australian season
, Barnes and Morris were favoured as Australia's first-choice opening pair, while Brown batted out of position in the middle order in the first two Tests.
Before the second Test at Lord's
, Barnes wagered £8 at 15/1 on himself to score a century. He made a duck
in the first innings but ensured success in the second, making 141.
Barnes and Morris shared century opening partnerships at Lord's and The Oval
, where their 117 run stand dwarfed the 52 all out made by the entire England team. In addition to his century at Lord's, Barnes made three other scores over 60 in the series.
When fielding, Barnes stationed himself as close to the bat as possible at either forward short-leg or point. The report of the tour in the 1949 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
, stated that Barnes's fielding was as important a factor as his batting in The Invincibles success:
However, he received criticism for this approach and it resulted in him missing the fourth Test at Leeds
through injury. In England's first innings of the third Test, he was hit in the ribs by a full-blooded pull shot from Dick Pollard
from the bowling of Ian Johnson
, and had to be carried from the pitch by four policemen. The following day, he collapsed while practising in the nets, and when he went in to bat at number six, he collapsed again and had to retire hurt. After this, he was taken to hospital where he spent 10 days before rejoining the tour for the Derbyshire
match that followed the fourth Test.
Barnes thus played in four of the five Tests, missing the fourth Test through injury. He scored 329 runs, averaging 82.25. During the first-class tour matches, Barnes's performance was less spectacular. In all first-class matches on the tour, he amassed 1354 runs, averaging 56.41. Barnes made 176 in 255 minutes against Surrey
early in the tour, but, apart from his Test hundred, his only other century came in the final tour match, when the final 50 runs of his 151 against the H. D. G. Leveson-Gower XI at the Scarborough cricket festival
came in just 25 minutes.
on the enormous amount of goods he acquired through various deals during the tour. This included good quality English cloth, in very short supply in Australia at this time. Hearing a rumour that Customs officials were waiting in Sydney for him, Barnes disembarked at Melbourne and travelled to Sydney by train. The move worked and he sold his stock at a substantial profit, conservatively estimated to be equal to his tour fee.
Barnes played in Bradman's testimonial match at the MCG in December 1948, but otherwise made himself unavailable for first-class cricket, preferring to pursue business interests. He wrote a regular column for Sydney's The Daily Telegraph
, prosaically titled "Like It or Lump It", in which he often criticised the administration of the game and the amounts paid to Australia's leading cricketers. Barnes was one of a number of cricket writers of the immediate post-war era who adopted a confrontational tabloid style of journalism, in contrast to the more sedate reporting of the 1930s.
, the chairman of Australian cricket's Board of Control
, to ask if there was any impediment to his return to the Australian team. Oxlade told Barnes that he would be judged solely on his batting performances.
During his absence from the Test team, the Australian selectors had been unsuccessful in their attempts to find a reliable partner for Arthur Morris to open the batting. Barnes started the season solidly and, in the last match before the team for the third Test against the West Indies was chosen, he hit 107 against Victoria. The selectors duly picked him for the match, then passed the team list to the Board of Control for ratification. The Board vetoed the inclusion of Barnes and requested the nomination of a replacement player. Unwilling to accept the blame for Barnes's omission, the selectors deliberately deferred their decision on the replacement. When the team was not announced at the scheduled time, journalists uncovered the story and Barnes became a cause célèbre
for many weeks, missing all of the remaining Tests. Speculation abounded as to the nature of his supposed misdeeds. These included jumping the turnstile at a ground when he forgot his player's pass; insulting the Royal Family; theft from team-mates; drunkenness; and stealing a car.
The Board of Control had granted themselves the power to exclude a player from the national team "on grounds other than cricket ability" following the poor behaviour of some members of the 1912 team that toured England. They had a secret dossier, compiled during the season, documenting Barnes's behaviour and they doctored the minutes of the meeting at which they discussed his selection. Publicly, the Board remained silent on their policy and how it related to Barnes. On the field, Barnes responded with an innings of 128 in three hours against Queensland; off the field, he sought answers from the administrators, but was frustrated by their evasiveness. His form tapered off during the closing stages of the season and he finished with 433 first-class runs at an average of 39.36.
Just as the furore appeared to have died down, in April 1952 Sydney's Daily Mirror
published a letter from a reader, Jacob Raith. Responding to a letter in support of Barnes, Raith sided with the Board and suggested that his character was to blame for the omission. Acting on legal advice, Barnes sued Raith for libel and engaged Sydney's leading barrister
, Jack Shand KC, as counsel.
The case began in Sydney's District Court on 21 August 1952. Shand's examination of the various Board members appearing for the defendant revealed the Board's maladministration, pettiness and its acceptance of rumour as fact. No firm reason was put forward for the omission of Barnes and a division within the Board was evident when several of its members spoke highly of him. As Barnes began his testimony on the second day of proceedings, Raith's counsel announced settlement of the case and commented to the court, "... seldom in the history of libel actions has such a plea failed so completely and utterly". Barnes was vindicated with a full public apology.
Although the court case portrayed "an awful image of the chaos and bigotry under which Australian cricket was administered", it did little to alter the Board's culture. The next major court case involving Australian cricket, the World Series Cricket
challenges of 1977–78 demonstrated that the Board was still run as a "closed shop", over 25 years later. In an analysis of the Barnes libel case, Gideon Haigh
wrote, "... far from becoming a watershed in player-administrator relations, it may even have discouraged players contemplating defiance of the Board but lacking the wherewithal to retain a hotshot criminal barrister."
. Nevertheless, the selectors overlooked him for the first Test and in the following state match, against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval
, Barnes offered to act as twelfth man to provide an opportunity for a younger player, Ray Flockton
. During a drinks break on the second day of the match, he appeared on the ground in a suit and tie, (rather than 'whites') carrying superfluous items such as cigars, iced towels, a mirror and comb, a radio and a clothes brush. The crowd initially responded well to the joke, but their mood soured when the interval extended beyond its scheduled time and Barnes received criticism for delaying the game. The South Australian team, captained by Australian selector Phil Ridings
, officially complained to the New South Wales Cricket Association
(NSWCA), which asked Barnes to express regret over the incident. Despite the association's support for Barnes during his problems of the previous season, he prevaricated. Eventually, the NSWCA forwarded a written apology on his behalf.
Barnes appeared just once more for New South Wales, against South Africa at New Year 1953, then made himself unavailable for selection, conceding that "his card had been marked". The Australian team
toured England in 1953 and lost the Ashes after holding them for 19 years. Barnes wrote Eyes on the Ashes, a book about the tour that included trenchant criticism of the behaviour of the Australian team, which did not go down well with some of his former team-mates.
Journalist Ray Robinson
called Barnes the Artful Dodger of cricket, alluding to both his batting style and his off-field business dealings, and wrote that he, "... would rather steal a run like a pickpocket than hit an honest four with a straightforward stroke." Robinson summarised his safety-first approach in going so far back as the bowler delivered:
David Frith
wrote of Bill Brown's
memories of Barnes as a person, and his controversial fielding:
He was a part-time leg break
bowler, taking 57 wickets in first-class cricket at a useful average of 32.21.Cashman, pp. 14–15. Barnes's leg break spun very little, but he had a topspinner
which hurried onto the batsman and yielded him many wickets. Barnes was also a substitute wicket-keeper and a versatile fieldsman. During his career, he was noted for his disaffection for cricket administrators and umpires. On the 1948 tour of England, after an Australian appeal
was turned down by umpire Alec Skelding
, he grabbed a stray dog and presented it to Skelding, stating: "Now all you want is a white stick". A complex character, Barnes, "... rarely forgave a slight or forgot a good turn. Stocky, with blue eyes and powerful wrists, he had a passion for physical fitness, and was an enthusiastic big-game fisherman and golfer".
Professor
of Theology
at the University of Sydney
. The couple met at a country dance, when Barnes, on his way back from an exhibition match in Katoomba
, was bet the price of the meal that he could not get the young girl to dance with him. Within twelve months the pair were married.
Outside of cricket, Barnes followed his mother into property development (see above) and at various times entered into partnerships with Keith Miller
and Norman Von Nida
. His suspicious nature, which grew as time passed, saw these partnerships and developments end in arguments and recriminations. While Barnes was not a millionaire, he was a successful and organised businessman.
As a writer, Barnes had no claims to literary talent; his copy was ghost-written
, in all likelihood by his friend Jack Tier and later by former rugby league player Peter Peters
. His writing was of a provocative tone; his column in the Daily Express
during the 1953 tour was called "The Aussie They Couldn't Gag". His forthright opinions certainly cost him friends and hardened the opinions of others about him. At the end of the 1953 tour, he published Eyes on the Ashes, and his autobiography, It Isn't Cricket. He also wrote The Ashes Ablaze in 1955, and turned to full-time writing, mostly for Sydney's The Daily Telegraph
. His columns were perceived as being deliberately controversial, and, as time went by, increasingly regarded as carping.
In later life, Barnes suffered from depressive illness. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder
and treated with a combination of medication, mainly diazepam
, and electroconvulsive therapy
. He spent much of his last years in and out of clinics seeking treatment for his condition. In 1973, Barnes died at his home in Collaroy
, one of Sydney's northern beach suburbs, from barbiturate
and bromide
poisoning. Although the medications were certainly self-administered, the coroner
could not "determine intent". He was survived by his wife and three children.
(99.94, 80 innings) and Stewie Dempster (65.72, 15 innings).
Barnes's short career was dominated by his monumental double hundred, but he was a consistent performer, as the chart (left) reveals. Age did not seem to diminish his abilities; in his last eight Test innings, aged 31–32, he passed 50 five times and scored two of his three Test hundreds.
Comparing players from Test cricket is an exercise usually flawed by the different conditions, rules of the day and oppositions faced. However, a useful comparison can be made between Barnes and Bradman because they were contemporaries in the same team. Bradman is generally acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time, fully a third better (statistically) than the next best man in history (see completed career averages chart, right). Barnes and Bradman
played together in three series. In those series, Barnes's averages bear comparison to Bradman's, particularly in the more combatitive Ashes
series:
Another way of viewing a player's performance without distortion is by using the world rankings, which have been applied retrospectively to assess the careers of past players. However, the ratings employ a measure to "damp down the oscillation of points of new players". Because Barnes played only 19 Test innings, his performances are weighted to just under 85% of their full value. Consequently, even in his own day, he is rated as no better than seventh in the world, at his peak.
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 and cricket writer, who played 13 Test matches
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...
between 1938 and 1948. Able to open the innings or bat
Batting (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball with a cricket bat to score runs or prevent the loss of one's wicket. A player who is currently batting is denoted as a batsman, while the act of hitting the ball is called a shot or stroke...
down the order, Barnes was regarded as one of Australia's finest batsmen in the period immediately following the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He helped create an enduring record when scoring 234 in the second Test against England at Sydney in December 1946; exactly the same score as his captain, Don Bradman
Donald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
, in the process setting a world-record 405 run fifth wicket partnership
Partnership (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in partnership, although only one is on strike at any time. The partnership between two batsmen will come to an end when one of them is dismissed or retires, or the innings comes to a close In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in...
. Barnes averaged 63.05 over 19 innings in a career that, like those of most of his contemporaries, was interrupted by the Second World War.
He made his first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
début at the end of the 1936–37 season when selected for 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...
and was later included in the team for the 1938 Australian tour of England
Australian cricket team in England in 1938
The 1938 Ashes series between Australia and England was drawn. England and Australia won a Test each, with two of the other Tests drawn and the third game of the series, scheduled for Manchester, abandoned without a ball being bowled, only the second instance of this in more than 60 years of Test...
, making his Test début in the final international of the series. On the resumption of Test cricket after the war, he was picked as the opening partner to Arthur Morris
Arthur Morris
Arthur Robert Morris MBE is a former Australian cricketer who played 46 Test matches between 1946 and 1955. An opener, Morris is regarded as one of Australia's greatest left-handed batsmen. He is best known for his key role in Don Bradman's Invincibles side, which made an undefeated tour of...
. Barnes was a member of The Invincibles, the 1948 Australian team that toured England without losing a single match. Retiring from cricket at the end of that tour, Barnes attempted a comeback to Test cricket in the 1951–52 season that was ultimately and controversially unsuccessful.
Barnes had a reputation as an eccentric and was frequently the subject of controversy. This included a celebrated libel case, following his exclusion from the national team in 1951–52 for "reasons other than cricket ability". He was later involved in an incident where, acting as twelfth man, he performed his duties on the ground in a suit and tie (rather than 'whites'), carrying a bizarre range of superfluous items. Despite this reputation, Barnes was a shrewd businessman who used the opportunities afforded by cricket to supplement his income through trading, journalism and property development. Increasing paranoia
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
brought about by bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
saw Barnes lose many of the friends he had made through the game, as he sought treatment for his depression. On 16 December 1973, he was found dead at his home in the Sydney suburb of Collaroy
Collaroy, New South Wales
Collaroy is a suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Collaroy is located 22 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Warringah Council and part of the Northern Beaches region...
; he had ingested barbiturate
Barbiturate
Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system depressants, and can therefore produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to total anesthesia. They are also effective as anxiolytics, as hypnotics, and as anticonvulsants...
s and bromide
Bromide
A bromide is a chemical compound containing bromide ion, that is bromine atom with effective charge of −1. The class name can include ionic compounds such as caesium bromide or covalent compounds such as sulfur dibromide.-Natural occurrence:...
in a probable suicide.
Early years
Barnes was born in 1916 in AnnandaleAnnandale, New South Wales
Annandale is a suburb of Inner West Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Annandale is located within 3-5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt. Annandale's northern end lies on Rozelle Bay,...
, an inner suburb of Sydney. However, in his autobiography, he claims to have been born in 1918 or 1919 in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, and his military service record has his date of birth as 5 June 1917. He was the third child of Alfred Percival Barnes and Hilda May Barnes (née Jeffery), both from farming families near Tamworth
Tamworth, New South Wales
Tamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...
in northern New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
. After marrying, the couple left Tamworth to take up a lease on a remote sheep station
Sheep station
A sheep station is a large property in Australia or New Zealand whose main activity is the raising of sheep for their wool and meat. In Australia, sheep stations are usually in the south-east or south-west of the country. In New Zealand the Merinos are usually in the high country of the South...
near Hughenden
Hughenden, Queensland
Hughenden is a town in Queensland, Australia situated on the banks of the Flinders River. It was named after Hughenden Manor, the home of former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. At the 2006 census, Hughenden had a population of 1,154.-History:...
in North Queensland. Before Sid was born, Alfred died from typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
, caused by drinking contaminated water on the family property. After his death, Hilda, widowed and pregnant with her latest child, moved to Sydney with her children and stayed with her sister, where Sid was born. From her husband's estate, Hilda Barnes mother was able to purchase and renovate real estate in Stanmore
Stanmore, New South Wales
Stanmore is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in New South Wales, Australia. Stanmore is located 6 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of Marrickville Council.-History:...
and Leichhardt
Leichhardt, New South Wales
Leichhardt is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney in New South Wales, Australia. Leichhardt is located 5 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Leichhardt...
, New South Wales, to let or sell. Later in life, Barnes would recount how, as a child, he used to collect the rents for his mother.
Childhood and club cricket
Sixpence (Australian)
The Australian Sixpence was a coin used in the Commonwealth of Australia prior to decimalization. It was minted from 1910 until 1963, excluding 1913, 1915, 1929–33 inclusive, 1937, 1947 and 1949...
to bowl to him after he finished work. Taking an interest in the game, Sid had trials for the school team and was eventually selected in the first XI. An early controversy saw Barnes suspended for three weeks for disputing an umpire
Umpire (cricket)
In cricket, an umpire is a person who has the authority to make judgements on the cricket field, according to the Laws of Cricket...
's decision. Successes for both his school team and his local club team, St. Augustine, saw him acquire the nickname The Governor-General—the nickname of Australian Test player, Charlie Macartney, and he was selected for New South Wales Schoolboys to play teams from Victoria
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....
and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
.
In 1932–33, Barnes joined the Petersham
Petersham, New South Wales
Petersham is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Petersham is located 6 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Marrickville Council...
club, and began playing in the third XI. Former Test batsman Tommy Andrews became his mentor at the club and in 1933–34, Barnes made his first-grade cricket
Sydney Grade Cricket
Sydney Grade Cricket is a cricket competition played in Sydney, Australia. The competition began in 1893 when a number of clubs, which had been playing for many years on an ad hoc basis, voted to create a formal competition structure....
début as a batsman/wicket-keeper
Wicket-keeper
The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being guarded by the batsman currently on strike...
against Paddington, facing the bowling of Hunter Hendry
Hunter Hendry
Hunter Scott Thomas Laurie Hendry was a cricketer who played for New South Wales, Victoria and Australia national cricket team.Nicknamed Stork, he was a formidable batsman who bowlers found difficulty in delivering to...
and Alan McGilvray
Alan McGilvray
Alan David McGilvray AM MBE was an Australian cricketer who played several first-class seasons for New South Wales in the mid-1930s before becoming the doyen of Australian cricket commentators...
. He was soon successful, scoring a century against Manly in February. Even as a young and inexperienced cricketer, he showed a "... brash confidence in his own ability."
When praised for his batting by the great Test bowler Bill O'Reilly
Bill O'Reilly (cricketer)
William Joseph "Bill" O'Reilly , often known as Tiger O'Reilly, was an Australian cricketer, rated as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. Following his retirement from playing, he became a well-respected cricket writer and broadcaster.O'Reilly was one of the best spin bowlers to...
, Barnes responded "Thanks very much, you didn't bowl too badly yourself", leaving O'Reilly speechless.
This success led Barnes to consider cricket as a potential career. However, his mother and stepfather were concerned about the likelihood of cricket providing him with a living. In response, Barnes took a job with a garage
Automobile repair shop
An automobile repair shop is a place where automobiles are repaired by auto mechanics and electricians.- Types :The automotive garage can be divided in so many category....
in Mosman
Mosman, New South Wales
Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the Municipality of Mosman.-Localities:In February...
but after finding that the necessary travel interfered too much with playing cricket, he found alternative employment, demonstrating motorbikes in the city.
First-class cricket
Barnes had come to the attention of the New South WalesNew South Wales Blues
The New South Wales cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team based in Sydney, New South Wales...
selectors by the 1936–37 season and was included as twelfth man in the side to play the visiting English side
English cricket team in Australia in 1936-37
The England cricket team toured Australia in the 1936-37 season to play a five-match Test series against Australia for The Ashes. The tour was organised by the Marylebone Cricket Club and matches outside the Tests were played under the MCC name....
, taking a catch on the boundary to dismiss Stan Worthington
Stan Worthington
Thomas Stanley "Stan" Worthington, , was a cricketer who played for Derbyshire between 1923 and 1947 and for England between 1930 and 1937. He was an all-rounder scoring over 19000 runs and taking over 600 first class wickets....
. He made his first-class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
début in the final Sheffield Shield
Pura Cup
The Sheffield Shield is the domestic cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Prior to the Shield being established, a number of intercolonial matches were played. The Shield, donated by Lord Sheffield, was first contested during...
match of the season, 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 the Sydney Cricket Ground
Sydney Cricket Ground
The Sydney Cricket Ground is a sports stadium in Sydney in Australia. It is used for Australian football, Test cricket, One Day International cricket, some rugby league and rugby union matches and is the home ground for the New South Wales Blues cricket team and the Sydney Swans of the Australian...
. Batting at number five, Barnes scored 31 and 44, twice being dismissed LBW
Leg before wicket
In the sport of cricket, leg before wicket is one of the ways in which a batsman can be dismissed. An umpire will rule a batsman out LBW under a series of circumstances which primarily include the ball striking the batsman's body when it would otherwise have continued on to hit the batsman's...
by the leg spin
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
ner Frank Ward. Whilst fielding, Barnes managed to find himself in controversy again, running out
Run out
Run out is a method of dismissal in the sport of cricket. It is governed by Law 38 of the Laws of cricket.-The rules:A batsman is out Run out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing...
Vic Richardson
Vic Richardson
Victor York Richardson OBE was a leading Australian sportsman of the 1920s and 1930s, captaining the Australian cricket team and the South Australian Australian rules football team, representing Australia in baseball and South Australia in golf, winning the South Australian state tennis title and...
, the opposition captain, after the end of the over
Over (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an over is a set of six consecutive balls bowled in succession. An over is normally bowled by a single bowler. However, in the event of injury preventing a bowler from completing an over, it is completed by a teammate....
was called. The square leg umpire had not heard the call of "Over" and upheld the appeal
Appeal (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an appeal is the act of a player on the fielding team asking an umpire for a decision regarding whether a batsman is out or not. According to the Laws of Cricket, an umpire may not rule a batsman out unless the fielding side appeals...
, much to the disgust of Richardson. The New South Wales captain Stan McCabe
Stan McCabe
Stanley Joseph McCabe was an Australian cricketer who played 39 Test matches for Australia from 1930 to 1938. A short, stocky right-hander,...
, whom Barnes idolised, withdrew the appeal.
Barnes was selected for New South Wales for the opening match of the 1937–38 season 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...
making 68 in a rain-affected match. Against the touring New Zealanders, Barnes fell just short of his maiden first-class century, scoring 97. He appeared to have reached the landmark when scoring 127 not out
Not out
In cricket, a batsman will be not out if he comes out to bat in an innings and has not been dismissed by the end of the innings. One may similarly describe a batsman as not out while the innings is still in progress...
against Western Australia
Western Warriors
The Western Australia cricket team are an Australian first class cricket team representing the state of Western Australia...
, but the New South Wales Cricket Association
New South Wales Cricket Association
The New South Wales Cricket Association is a sporting club who administer cricket in New South Wales, based at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Their trading name is Cricket NSW....
retrospectively deemed the match to be not of first-class status, angering Barnes. He finally scored his maiden first-class century (110) against Victoria in the final game of the season, completing his hundred while bleeding profusely after being struck on the jaw by a ball delivered by Ernie McCormick
Ernie McCormick
Ernest Leslie McCormick was an Australian cricketer who played in 12 Tests from 1935 to 1938....
. As a result of his performances over the season (scoring over 800 runs
Run (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a run is the basic unit of scoring. Runs are scored by a batsman, and the aggregate of the scores of a team's batsmen constitutes the team's score. A batsman scoring 50 or 100 runs , or any higher multiple of 50 runs, is considered a particular achievement...
, averaging 50.56), Barnes was selected as the youngest member of the Australian cricket team to tour England in 1938
Australian cricket team in England in 1938
The 1938 Ashes series between Australia and England was drawn. England and Australia won a Test each, with two of the other Tests drawn and the third game of the series, scheduled for Manchester, abandoned without a ball being bowled, only the second instance of this in more than 60 years of Test...
.
Test cricket
Pre-war début
Unfortunately for Barnes, he broke his wrist while exercising on the sea voyage to England for the 1938 tour, keeping the injury secret until the tourists had departed GibraltarGibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
, for fear of being sent home. On arrival in England, he therefore did not play an innings until the last day of June, missing exactly half of the 30 first-class matches scheduled for the tour, including the first two Tests, both of which were drawn. His first innings was 42 against Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
and he shared in a fourth wicket stand of 176 with Bill Brown
Bill Brown (cricketer)
William Alfred "Bill" Brown, OAM was an Australian cricketer who played 22 Tests between 1934 and 1948, captaining his country in one Test. A right-handed opening batsman, his partnership with Jack Fingleton in the 1930s is regarded as one of the finest in Australian Test history...
, who made an unbeaten 265. The third Test was a wash-out and he was not picked for the fourth, which the Australians won, although in his autobiography he claimed that he was considered as a candidate to be wicketkeeper, having deputised for Ben Barnett
Ben Barnett
Benjamin Arthur Barnett was an Australian cricketer who played in 4 Tests in 1938....
in that role in tour matches against Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
and Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club
Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Nottinghamshire, and the current county champions. Its limited overs team is called the Nottinghamshire Outlaws...
. In the event, his Test début came in the final Test, played 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...
. Barnes had to field for 16 hours as England amassed a total of 903 for seven declared, then the highest Test score. Barnes bowled 38 overs in the innings and took the seventh wicket, that of Arthur Wood, for 84 runs. With both Don Bradman
Donald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
and Jack Fingleton
Jack Fingleton
John "Jack" Henry Webb Fingleton OBE was an Australian cricketer who was trained as a journalist and became a political and cricket commentator after the end of his playing career...
injured and unable to bat, Australia struggled – England won by an innings and 579 runs – still the largest winning margin in Test cricket history; but Barnes played innings of 41 and 33 and, according to Wisden
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
, "well justified his choice". In all first-class matches on the tour, Barnes scored 720 runs, and reached 90 three times, though without going on to a first-class century. He scored 140 in a two-day match against Durham
Durham County Cricket Club
Durham County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Durham. Its limited overs team is called the Durham Dynamos. Their kit colours are blue with yellow trim and the shirt sponsor was...
, which was not considered first-class.
His international career was then put on hold, as all foreign tours were suspended during the Second World War. He continued to play first-class cricket in Australia, before enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial Force
Second Australian Imperial Force
The Second Australian Imperial Force was the name given to the volunteer personnel of the Australian Army in World War II. Under the Defence Act , neither the part-time Militia nor the full-time Permanent Military Force could serve outside Australia or its territories unless they volunteered to...
in May 1942. Barnes's time in the military was short. A man who was proud of his appearance, he had a uniform made to measure when the one issued did not fit. He met champion golfer Norman Von Nida
Norman Von Nida
Norman Guy Von Nida was an Australian professional golfer.Von Nida was born in Strathfield and grew up in Brisbane. He turned professional in 1933, after attracting attention by winning the Queensland Amateur aged just 18...
early into his enlistment and the two were assigned to the 1st Armoured Division in Greta
Greta, New South Wales
Greta is a small town in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia in Cessnock City Council. It has a population of around 1000 people. It is largely a commuter town located midway between Cessnock, Singleton and Maitland...
. A shortage of tanks and the military regimen led to boredom and Barnes used his hitherto ignored trade background to his advantage, seeking a release to join a tank-making company, which was granted. Von Nida and Barnes remained friends and business partners for many years afterwards.
Post-war series
After scoring 1,050 runs (including six centuries) at an average of 75.00 in the 1940–41 season, Barnes played little cricket until 1945–46, when he scored centuries in five successive matches for New South Wales. He was picked for the 1945–46 Australian tour of New Zealand and played in the representative match that was later designated as the first Test match between the two countries: he made 54 as Australia won easily. The post-war period also saw a new approach to batting on the part of Barnes. He discarded his aggressive and flamboyant shot-making and re-invented himself as a watchful, more defensive player, which made his scoring more prolific, although less crowd pleasing.MCC tour of Australia in 1946–47
The Marylebone Cricket Club tour of Australia in 1946-47 under the captaincy of Wally Hammond was its eighth since it took official control of overseas tours in 1907-1908 and the first since the Second World War. The touring team played as England in the 1946–47 Ashes series against Australia, but...
, and Barnes was approached during the match about becoming an opening batsman for the forthcoming Test series. He wrote in his autobiography: "I had never opened before and was a little dubious. I had, however, struck new balls at different periods of innings and was not afraid of that." He also liked the idea of batting ahead of Bradman in the batting order: "Much better, I thought, to get in before him than to come later, like flat beer after champagne."
Barnes was first-choice as an opener with Arthur Morris
Arthur Morris
Arthur Robert Morris MBE is a former Australian cricketer who played 46 Test matches between 1946 and 1955. An opener, Morris is regarded as one of Australia's greatest left-handed batsmen. He is best known for his key role in Don Bradman's Invincibles side, which made an undefeated tour of...
throughout the Test series, although it was not until the Third Test that they had a first-wicket partnership of any substance. Morris had broken into the team as an opener after an injury sidelined Bill Brown for the entire season.
The First Test at Brisbane was dominated by Australia, a pattern that was to be a feature of the series, although Barnes contributed only 31 to the total of 645 which brought an innings victory. Barnes displayed his liking for slightly aggressive practical jokes in this match: during a break for a particularly ferocious thunderstorm, he "got a huge block of ice out of the tub in which our drinks were kept, staggered to the side of the dressing-room and tossed it on to the roof over the English dressing-room. It caused a noise for a start that brought all the Englishmen running and then it came over the side of the gutter, crashed on to the lawn and slithered down the grass. Those English eyes certainly did stand out."
Bradman had words with Barnes after this match about his new role as an opener. Barnes later wrote: "He asked me how I liked it. I said it suited me. 'You batted very well in this game,' he said, 'but not quite as an opener. You were looking for runs all the time. I think what you want to watch as an opener is not getting out ... What is needed from my openers, and is most important, is patience and plenty of it.' I was completely willing to be guided by anything that Bradman wanted me to do."
Years later, Barnes wrote about the effect this had on his batting style. "There was one angle about this change of batting position that didn't appeal to me. I am, by nature, a forcing batsman. I like to take the shine out of a bowler [sic] and I love to hear the ball rattling the pickets, or soaring over the fence ... My footwork was quick and I often caused delight by stepping back feet outside the leg stump and square-cutting ... If I were to become an Australian Test opening batsman I would have to conform to standard. I would have to put up the shutters ... And so I came to the Second Test in Sydney ready to drape myself in the gloomy colors of a Test opening batsman."
Partnership (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in partnership, although only one is on strike at any time. The partnership between two batsmen will come to an end when one of them is dismissed or retires, or the innings comes to a close In the sport of cricket, two batsmen always bat in...
with Don Bradman
Donald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
, a record that still stands today.
On a rain-affect pitch Arthur Morris
Arthur Morris
Arthur Robert Morris MBE is a former Australian cricketer who played 46 Test matches between 1946 and 1955. An opener, Morris is regarded as one of Australia's greatest left-handed batsmen. He is best known for his key role in Don Bradman's Invincibles side, which made an undefeated tour of...
was out at 1/24 and Ian Johnson
Ian Johnson (cricketer)
Ian William Geddes Johnson CBE was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an average of...
came out as a nightwatchman
Nightwatchman (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a nightwatchman is a lower-order batsman who comes in to bat higher up the order than usual near the end of the day's play...
he and Barnes angered the crowd by launching into a series of bad light appeals - up to 12 were counted - before the umpires gave way and play was ended with an hour to spare. This ensured that Australia would not have to play on a sticky wicket and allowed Bradman to rest his leg until play resumed on the Monday. After the series Barnes said on radio;
We could have played on, but it was a Test match and we just had to win. I realised something drastic had to be done or three wickets might be lost. So I appealed after every second ball. I complained of the people moving about, the light, and, in fact, anything, in an effort to get the appeal upheld. HammondWally HammondWalter Reginald "Wally" Hammond was an English Test cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning his career as a professional, he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England...
and YardleyNorman YardleyNorman Walter Dransfield Yardley was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England, as a right-handed batsman and occasional bowler. An amateur, he captained Yorkshire from 1948 to 1955 and England on fourteen occasions between 1947 and 1950,...
were inspecting the wet pitch. I knew there was a chance of losing valuable wickets so I just kept on appealing until the umpires answered me.
Barnes carefully played on the still suspect pitch the following day and late in the afternoon was joined by Bradman, lower in the order than usual due to a leg injury, joined Barnes with the score at 4/159. Over six and a half hours later, Bradman was out for 234. Barnes was dismissed just four balls later, also for 234, having batted for over ten hours. In his autobiography, Barnes stated that the coincidence of scores was intended. "Lots of people have asked me whether I deliberately threw my wicket away at 234. The answer is yes." He confirmed to an interviewer many years later that "it wouldn't be right for someone to make more runs than Sir Donald Bradman".
E.W. Swanton wrote that this "could well have been so for he was a man of quixotic
Quixotism
Quixotism is impracticality in pursuit of ideals, especially those ideals manifested by rash, lofty and romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action. It also serves to describe an idealism without regard to practicality...
mood and temperament". However the Engand bowler, Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
wrote "It was when I was bowling to Sid at Sydney that I first discovered that I could move the ball to leg by use of my wrist and fingers...I held the ball in the same manner as a leg-break bowler
Wrist spin
Wrist spin is a type of bowling in the sport of cricket. It refers to the cricket technique and specific hand movements associated with imparting a particular direction of spin to the cricket ball...
with the fingers across the seam...and on pitching I was surprised to see the ball go away like a leg-break. It also surprised Sid Barnes". This would make Barnes the first batsman to be dismissed by Bedser's "Special Ball" which would claim Bradman for a duck in the Fourth Test at Adelaide.
Barnes injured his hand during fielding practice before the Third Test, and although he went on to play in that game (scoring 45 and 32), he opted out of batting in a state game – according to his autobiography, this cost him the New South Wales captaincy – and he missed the fourth Test. He returned for the final Test and top-scored with 71 in Australia's first innings, adding 30 in the second.
Barnes went to England in 1947. In his autobiography, he claimed that he went as a representative for a wine and spirits company, although after the initial mention of that there is no further word and he appears also to have dealt in commodities that were in short supply because of rationing in England. Once in England, he was approached by Burnley
Burnley Cricket Club
Burnley Cricket Club, based at Turf Moor in Burnley, Lancashire, is a cricket club in the Lancashire League.The club was a founder member of the Lancashire League in 1892. Its captain for the 2011 season is Steve Brunt and its professional is Imad Wasim...
to play as a professional in Lancashire League cricket, which he did for a while before finding it "too much of a drag" and resigning.
Barnes returned to Australia for the 1947–48 season, keen to win a place on the 1948 tour to England. He was worried that having played as a professional in the Lancashire League would damage his chance of further Test cricket, but at the same time suggested that he had offers from other Lancashire League teams to fall back on should he not be picked. There was also concern that, with his wife now living in Scotland, he would breach the Australian rule that wives were not allowed to travel with Test cricketers. In fact, lack of form and opportunity were a greater threats to Barnes's continued Test career. Arriving back with several state games having already been played, he failed to make runs for New South Wales and was not picked for the first two Tests against the Indian tourists
Indian cricket team in Australia in 1947-48
The India national cricket team toured Australia in the 1947–48 season to play a five-match Test series against Australia. Australia won the series 4-0, with one match drawn....
, Bill Brown taking over as opener with Morris.
The match between Victoria and New South Wales was Barnes's chance to redeem himself. Wisden reported it thus:
Barnes needed a score to rehabilitate himself in the eyes of the Test Selectors and he spent all Saturday over 131 runs while 20,000 impatient spectators barracked loudly. His dismissal on the third day evoked cheers all round the ground.
He followed that century (158 in total) with a similarly plodding 80 not out in the second innings, and was picked for the third Test, with Brown dropped after a series of low scores in the first two Tests. Barnes made only 12 and 15, jeopardising his place, but what Wisden termed "another of his dour, determined but faultless innings for top score" in the New South Wales game against South Australia ensured a second chance. In the fourth Test at Adelaide
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...
he made 112 and put on 236 with Bradman for the second wicket. With 33 in the final match of the series, his place on the 1948 tour was secure, though he had to give assurances about the amount of contact he would have with his wife, still living in Scotland, before he was confirmed.
The Invincibles tour
Cricket season
Cricket seasons are the times of the year when cricket is played.Because top-class cricket is almost always played outdoors, on uncovered pitches, and rain prevents play, the seasons in each country are geared to coincide with the driest months of the year. The hours of daylight and the temperature...
, Barnes and Morris were favoured as Australia's first-choice opening pair, while Brown batted out of position in the middle order in the first two Tests.
Before the second Test 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...
, Barnes wagered £8 at 15/1 on himself to score a century. He made a duck
Duck (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a duck refers to a batsman's dismissal for a score of zero.-Origin of the term:The term is a shortening of the term "duck's egg", the latter being used long before Test cricket began...
in the first innings but ensured success in the second, making 141.
Barnes and Morris shared century opening partnerships at Lord's and 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...
, where their 117 run stand dwarfed the 52 all out made by the entire England team. In addition to his century at Lord's, Barnes made three other scores over 60 in the series.
When fielding, Barnes stationed himself as close to the bat as possible at either forward short-leg or point. The report of the tour in the 1949 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom...
, stated that Barnes's fielding was as important a factor as his batting in The Invincibles success:
Probably a number of batsmen were sufficiently affected by his close attendance to cause them to lose concentration on the bowler running up, but equally important was the fact that the knowledge of his presence influenced opponents to avoid strokes in that direction. The Barnes demeanour in the field illustrated the general purposefulness of the Australians.
However, he received criticism for this approach and it resulted in him missing the fourth Test at Leeds
Headingley Stadium
Headingley Stadium is a sporting complex in the Leeds suburb of Headingley in West Yorkshire, England. It is the home of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, rugby league team Leeds Rhinos and rugby union team Leeds Carnegie ....
through injury. In England's first innings of the third Test, he was hit in the ribs by a full-blooded pull shot from Dick Pollard
Dick Pollard
Richard "Dick" Pollard was an English cricketer born in Westhoughton, Lancashire, who played in four Tests between 1946 and 1948...
from the bowling of Ian Johnson
Ian Johnson (cricketer)
Ian William Geddes Johnson CBE was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an average of...
, and had to be carried from the pitch by four policemen. The following day, he collapsed while practising in the nets, and when he went in to bat at number six, he collapsed again and had to retire hurt. After this, he was taken to hospital where he spent 10 days before rejoining the tour for the Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Cricket Club
Derbyshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the England and Wales domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Derbyshire...
match that followed the fourth Test.
Barnes thus played in four of the five Tests, missing the fourth Test through injury. He scored 329 runs, averaging 82.25. During the first-class tour matches, Barnes's performance was less spectacular. In all first-class matches on the tour, he amassed 1354 runs, averaging 56.41. Barnes made 176 in 255 minutes against Surrey
Surrey County Cricket Club
Surrey County Cricket Club is one of the 18 professional county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Surrey. Its limited overs team is called the Surrey Lions...
early in the tour, but, apart from his Test hundred, his only other century came in the final tour match, when the final 50 runs of his 151 against the H. D. G. Leveson-Gower XI at the Scarborough cricket festival
Scarborough Festival
The Scarborough Festival is an end of season series of cricket matches featuring Yorkshire County Cricket Club which has been held in Scarborough, on the east coast of Yorkshire, since 1876. The ground, at North Marine Road, sees large crowds of holiday makers watching a mixture of first class...
came in just 25 minutes.
Later playing career
An important concern for Barnes, when returning from the United Kingdom to Australia, was to avoid paying customs dutiesDuty (economics)
In economics, a duty is a kind of tax, often associated with customs, a payment due to the revenue of a state, levied by force of law. It is a tax on certain items purchased abroad...
on the enormous amount of goods he acquired through various deals during the tour. This included good quality English cloth, in very short supply in Australia at this time. Hearing a rumour that Customs officials were waiting in Sydney for him, Barnes disembarked at Melbourne and travelled to Sydney by train. The move worked and he sold his stock at a substantial profit, conservatively estimated to be equal to his tour fee.
Barnes played in Bradman's testimonial match at the MCG in December 1948, but otherwise made himself unavailable for first-class cricket, preferring to pursue business interests. He wrote a regular column for Sydney's The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
, prosaically titled "Like It or Lump It", in which he often criticised the administration of the game and the amounts paid to Australia's leading cricketers. Barnes was one of a number of cricket writers of the immediate post-war era who adopted a confrontational tabloid style of journalism, in contrast to the more sedate reporting of the 1930s.
Libel case
At the beginning of the 1951–52 season, Barnes had a change of heart and returned to the New South Wales team in a bid to play Test cricket again. He approached Aubrey OxladeAubrey Oxlade
Robert Aubrey Oxlade was an Australian cricket administrator. Oxlade was born in 1882, the son of Robert Oxlade and Sara Stanton .He joined Manly Warringah Cricket Club in 1910, and was later President of the club...
, the chairman of Australian cricket's Board of Control
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia, formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the Australian Board of Control for International Cricket...
, to ask if there was any impediment to his return to the Australian team. Oxlade told Barnes that he would be judged solely on his batting performances.
During his absence from the Test team, the Australian selectors had been unsuccessful in their attempts to find a reliable partner for Arthur Morris to open the batting. Barnes started the season solidly and, in the last match before the team for the third Test against the West Indies was chosen, he hit 107 against Victoria. The selectors duly picked him for the match, then passed the team list to the Board of Control for ratification. The Board vetoed the inclusion of Barnes and requested the nomination of a replacement player. Unwilling to accept the blame for Barnes's omission, the selectors deliberately deferred their decision on the replacement. When the team was not announced at the scheduled time, journalists uncovered the story and Barnes became a cause célèbre
Cause célèbre
A is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning and heated public debate. The term is particularly used in connection with celebrated legal cases. It is a French phrase in common English use...
for many weeks, missing all of the remaining Tests. Speculation abounded as to the nature of his supposed misdeeds. These included jumping the turnstile at a ground when he forgot his player's pass; insulting the Royal Family; theft from team-mates; drunkenness; and stealing a car.
The Board of Control had granted themselves the power to exclude a player from the national team "on grounds other than cricket ability" following the poor behaviour of some members of the 1912 team that toured England. They had a secret dossier, compiled during the season, documenting Barnes's behaviour and they doctored the minutes of the meeting at which they discussed his selection. Publicly, the Board remained silent on their policy and how it related to Barnes. On the field, Barnes responded with an innings of 128 in three hours against Queensland; off the field, he sought answers from the administrators, but was frustrated by their evasiveness. His form tapered off during the closing stages of the season and he finished with 433 first-class runs at an average of 39.36.
Just as the furore appeared to have died down, in April 1952 Sydney's Daily Mirror
The Daily Mirror (Australia)
The Daily Mirror was an afternoon paper established by Ezra Norton in Sydney, Australia in 1941, gaining a licence from the Minister for Trade and Customs, Eric Harrison, despite wartime paper rationing. In October 1958, Norton and his partners sold his newspapers to the Fairfax group, which...
published a letter from a reader, Jacob Raith. Responding to a letter in support of Barnes, Raith sided with the Board and suggested that his character was to blame for the omission. Acting on legal advice, Barnes sued Raith for libel and engaged Sydney's leading barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, Jack Shand KC, as counsel.
The case began in Sydney's District Court on 21 August 1952. Shand's examination of the various Board members appearing for the defendant revealed the Board's maladministration, pettiness and its acceptance of rumour as fact. No firm reason was put forward for the omission of Barnes and a division within the Board was evident when several of its members spoke highly of him. As Barnes began his testimony on the second day of proceedings, Raith's counsel announced settlement of the case and commented to the court, "... seldom in the history of libel actions has such a plea failed so completely and utterly". Barnes was vindicated with a full public apology.
Although the court case portrayed "an awful image of the chaos and bigotry under which Australian cricket was administered", it did little to alter the Board's culture. The next major court case involving Australian cricket, the 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...
challenges of 1977–78 demonstrated that the Board was still run as a "closed shop", over 25 years later. In an analysis of the Barnes libel case, Gideon Haigh
Gideon Haigh
Gideon Clifford Jeffrey Davidson Haigh is an English-born Australian journalist, who writes about sport and business. He was born in London of a Yorkshire father and an Australian mother, and was raised in Geelong, Victoria.- Career :Haigh has been writing about sport and business for over...
wrote, "... far from becoming a watershed in player-administrator relations, it may even have discouraged players contemplating defiance of the Board but lacking the wherewithal to retain a hotshot criminal barrister."
Twelfth man incident
Resuming for New South Wales in 1952–53, Barnes scored 152 against Victoria in the last match before the beginning of the Test series against South AfricaSouth African cricket team in Australia in 1952-53
The South Africa national cricket team toured Australia in the 1952-53 season and played 5 Test matches against Australia. The series was drawn 2-2, the first time a rubber between the two sides had not been won by Australia....
. Nevertheless, the selectors overlooked him for the first Test and in the following state match, against South Australia at the 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...
, Barnes offered to act as twelfth man to provide an opportunity for a younger player, Ray Flockton
Ray Flockton
Raymond George "Ray" Flockton was an Australian cricketer who played cricket for New South Wales.Flockton was a Sydney traffic policeman, who also played first-class cricket...
. During a drinks break on the second day of the match, he appeared on the ground in a suit and tie, (rather than 'whites') carrying superfluous items such as cigars, iced towels, a mirror and comb, a radio and a clothes brush. The crowd initially responded well to the joke, but their mood soured when the interval extended beyond its scheduled time and Barnes received criticism for delaying the game. The South Australian team, captained by Australian selector Phil Ridings
Phil Ridings
Phil Lovett Ridings was an Australian cricketer.Ridings made 107 first-class appearances for South Australia, scoring 9 hundreds. Primarily a batsman, he also took 61 first-class wickets with his fast-medium pace bowling...
, officially complained to the New South Wales Cricket Association
New South Wales Cricket Association
The New South Wales Cricket Association is a sporting club who administer cricket in New South Wales, based at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Their trading name is Cricket NSW....
(NSWCA), which asked Barnes to express regret over the incident. Despite the association's support for Barnes during his problems of the previous season, he prevaricated. Eventually, the NSWCA forwarded a written apology on his behalf.
Barnes appeared just once more for New South Wales, against South Africa at New Year 1953, then made himself unavailable for selection, conceding that "his card had been marked". The Australian team
Australian cricket team in England in 1953
The Australian cricket team toured England in the 1953 season to play a five-match Test series against England for The Ashes.England won the final Test to take the series 1-0 after the first four Tests were all drawn. England therefore recovered the Ashes for the first time since losing them in...
toured England in 1953 and lost the Ashes after holding them for 19 years. Barnes wrote Eyes on the Ashes, a book about the tour that included trenchant criticism of the behaviour of the Australian team, which did not go down well with some of his former team-mates.
Style and personality
Barnes gripped the bat very low on the handle and bent over so far in his stance that the knuckles of his right hand were level with his knees. He stood with his heels almost together and the toes of his left foot pointing toward extra cover, which left him open-chested when facing the bowler. A noticeable flourish in his backlift enabled him to follow the swinging delivery and play it late if necessary. His first movement was back and across the crease to cover the stumps from the view of the bowler, putting him in position to play the hook, leg glance, sweep and his favourite square cut shot.Journalist Ray Robinson
Ray Robinson (cricket writer)
Raymond John Robinson was an Australian journalist and author, best known for his writings on the sport of cricket. Born in Melbourne, Robinson attended Brighton State school and joined the Melbourne's The Herald as a copyboy. Given a cadetship with the paper, he reported on Australian football...
called Barnes the Artful Dodger of cricket, alluding to both his batting style and his off-field business dealings, and wrote that he, "... would rather steal a run like a pickpocket than hit an honest four with a straightforward stroke." Robinson summarised his safety-first approach in going so far back as the bowler delivered:
Though this routine made his play air-tight in one way, it simplified opposing captains' field-placing to curb his scoring, it left him with a back-foot addict's liability to go leg-before-wicket or be caught behind on either side, and it allowed his attackers to bowl their most awkward length ... he could have made more runs since the war as a stroke-player, and won popular backing as a candidate for the title of world's best batsman, instead of the austere distinction of looking the hardest Australian to get out.
David Frith
David Frith
David Edward John Frith is a leading cricket writer and historian. Cricinfo describes him as "an author, historian, and founding editor of Wisden Cricket Monthly".-Life and career:...
wrote of Bill Brown's
Bill Brown (cricketer)
William Alfred "Bill" Brown, OAM was an Australian cricketer who played 22 Tests between 1934 and 1948, captaining his country in one Test. A right-handed opening batsman, his partnership with Jack Fingleton in the 1930s is regarded as one of the finest in Australian Test history...
memories of Barnes as a person, and his controversial fielding:
'Bagga' Barnes was also Bill's room-mate, and his affection for his late lamented pal, a lovable rogue, was obvious. He recalled the furore over Barnes's provocative field positioning, extremely close at silly mid-on, and how criticism of his foot being too close to the mown pitch prompted him to plonk his boot a couple of feet into the forbidden territory – and a couple of feet more when the English crowd roared at him.
He was a part-time leg break
Leg spin
Leg spin is a type of spin bowling in the sport of cricket. A leg spinner bowls right-arm with a wrist spin action, causing the ball to spin from right to left in the cricket pitch, at the point of delivery. When the ball bounces, the spin causes the ball to deviate sharply from right to left, that...
bowler, taking 57 wickets in first-class cricket at a useful average of 32.21.Cashman, pp. 14–15. Barnes's leg break spun very little, but he had a topspinner
Topspinner
A top-spinner is a type of delivery bowled by a cricketer bowling either wrist spin or finger spin. In either case, the bowler imparts the ball with top spin by twisting it with his or her fingers prior to delivery...
which hurried onto the batsman and yielded him many wickets. Barnes was also a substitute wicket-keeper and a versatile fieldsman. During his career, he was noted for his disaffection for cricket administrators and umpires. On the 1948 tour of England, after an Australian appeal
Appeal (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, an appeal is the act of a player on the fielding team asking an umpire for a decision regarding whether a batsman is out or not. According to the Laws of Cricket, an umpire may not rule a batsman out unless the fielding side appeals...
was turned down by umpire Alec Skelding
Alec Skelding
Alexander Skelding was a first-class cricketer and umpire, who is remembered as one of the great characters in the game.-The Fast Bowler:...
, he grabbed a stray dog and presented it to Skelding, stating: "Now all you want is a white stick". A complex character, Barnes, "... rarely forgave a slight or forgot a good turn. Stocky, with blue eyes and powerful wrists, he had a passion for physical fitness, and was an enthusiastic big-game fisherman and golfer".
Life outside cricket
Barnes married a schoolteacher, Alison Margaret Edward on 11 June 1942. Alison was the daughter of Kenneth Edward, a ScottishScottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of Theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. The couple met at a country dance, when Barnes, on his way back from an exhibition match in Katoomba
Katoomba, New South Wales
Katoomba is the chief town of the City of Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia and the administrative headquarters of Blue Mountains City Council. It is on the Great Western Highway 110 kilometres west of Sydney and 39 kilometres south-east of Lithgow. Katoomba railway station is on the...
, was bet the price of the meal that he could not get the young girl to dance with him. Within twelve months the pair were married.
Outside of cricket, Barnes followed his mother into property development (see above) and at various times entered into partnerships with Keith Miller
Keith Miller
Keith Ross Miller MBE was an Australian Test cricketer and a Royal Australian Air Force pilot during World War II. Miller is widely regarded as Australia's greatest ever all-rounder. Because of his ability, irreverent manner and good looks he was a crowd favourite...
and Norman Von Nida
Norman Von Nida
Norman Guy Von Nida was an Australian professional golfer.Von Nida was born in Strathfield and grew up in Brisbane. He turned professional in 1933, after attracting attention by winning the Queensland Amateur aged just 18...
. His suspicious nature, which grew as time passed, saw these partnerships and developments end in arguments and recriminations. While Barnes was not a millionaire, he was a successful and organised businessman.
As a writer, Barnes had no claims to literary talent; his copy was ghost-written
Ghostwriter
A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...
, in all likelihood by his friend Jack Tier and later by former rugby league player Peter Peters
Peter Peters
Peter Peters is an Australian former professional rugby league footballer, commentator and journalist.He was a first grade player for Parramatta Eels and Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles from 1969 to 1974, playing in the 1972 and 1973 premiership winning teams, Later he became a football commentator on...
. His writing was of a provocative tone; his column in the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
during the 1953 tour was called "The Aussie They Couldn't Gag". His forthright opinions certainly cost him friends and hardened the opinions of others about him. At the end of the 1953 tour, he published Eyes on the Ashes, and his autobiography, It Isn't Cricket. He also wrote The Ashes Ablaze in 1955, and turned to full-time writing, mostly for Sydney's The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph (Australia)
The Daily Telegraph is an Australian tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, by Nationwide News, part of News Corporation.The Tele, as it is also known, was founded in 1879. From 1936 to 1972, it was owned by Frank Packer's Australian Consolidated Press. That year it was sold to...
. His columns were perceived as being deliberately controversial, and, as time went by, increasingly regarded as carping.
In later life, Barnes suffered from depressive illness. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder or bipolar affective disorder, historically known as manic–depressive disorder, is a psychiatric diagnosis that describes a category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated energy levels, cognition, and mood with or without one or...
and treated with a combination of medication, mainly diazepam
Diazepam
Diazepam , first marketed as Valium by Hoffmann-La Roche is a benzodiazepine drug. Diazepam is also marketed in Australia as Antenex. It is commonly used for treating anxiety, insomnia, seizures including status epilepticus, muscle spasms , restless legs syndrome, alcohol withdrawal,...
, and electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy , formerly known as electroshock, is a psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect. Its mode of action is unknown...
. He spent much of his last years in and out of clinics seeking treatment for his condition. In 1973, Barnes died at his home in Collaroy
Collaroy, New South Wales
Collaroy is a suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Collaroy is located 22 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Warringah Council and part of the Northern Beaches region...
, one of Sydney's northern beach suburbs, from barbiturate
Barbiturate
Barbiturates are drugs that act as central nervous system depressants, and can therefore produce a wide spectrum of effects, from mild sedation to total anesthesia. They are also effective as anxiolytics, as hypnotics, and as anticonvulsants...
and bromide
Bromide
A bromide is a chemical compound containing bromide ion, that is bromine atom with effective charge of −1. The class name can include ionic compounds such as caesium bromide or covalent compounds such as sulfur dibromide.-Natural occurrence:...
poisoning. Although the medications were certainly self-administered, the coroner
Coroner
A coroner is a government official who* Investigates human deaths* Determines cause of death* Issues death certificates* Maintains death records* Responds to deaths in mass disasters* Identifies unknown dead* Other functions depending on local laws...
could not "determine intent". He was survived by his wife and three children.
Statistical analysis
Only six players with ten or more completed innings have achieved an end of career average in excess of 60. Barnes's 63.05 in 19 innings ranks him as number three in the history of Test cricket, behind Sir Donald BradmanDonald Bradman
Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...
(99.94, 80 innings) and Stewie Dempster (65.72, 15 innings).
Barnes's short career was dominated by his monumental double hundred, but he was a consistent performer, as the chart (left) reveals. Age did not seem to diminish his abilities; in his last eight Test innings, aged 31–32, he passed 50 five times and scored two of his three Test hundreds.
Comparing players from Test cricket is an exercise usually flawed by the different conditions, rules of the day and oppositions faced. However, a useful comparison can be made between Barnes and Bradman because they were contemporaries in the same team. Bradman is generally acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time, fully a third better (statistically) than the next best man in history (see completed career averages chart, right). Barnes and Bradman
played together in three series. In those series, Barnes's averages bear comparison to Bradman's, particularly in the more combatitive Ashes
The 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...
series:
| Barnes | Bradman | |
|---|---|---|
| English cricket team in Australia in 1946–47 | 73.83 | 97.14 |
| Indian cricket team in Australia in 1947–48 | 43.00 | 178.75 |
| Australian cricket team in England in 1948 | 82.25 | 72.57 |
Another way of viewing a player's performance without distortion is by using the world rankings, which have been applied retrospectively to assess the careers of past players. However, the ratings employ a measure to "damp down the oscillation of points of new players". Because Barnes played only 19 Test innings, his performances are weighted to just under 85% of their full value. Consequently, even in his own day, he is rated as no better than seventh in the world, at his peak.
Test match performance
| Batting | Bowling | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opposition | Matches | Runs | Average | High Score | 100 / 50 | Runs | Wickets | Average | Best (Inns) |
| England | 9 | 846 | 70.50 | 234 | 2/4 | 118 | 1 | 118.00 | 1/84 |
| India | 3 | 172 | 43.00 | 112 | 1/0 | 100 | 3 | 33.33 | 2/25 |
| New Zealand | 1 | 54 | 54.00 | 54 | 0/1 | – | – | – | – |
| Overall | 13 | 1072 | 63.05 | 234 | 3/5 | 218 | 4 | 54.50 | 2/25 |
External links
- Sid Barnes player profile at CricinfoCricinfoESPNcricinfo is believed to be the largest cricket-related website on the World Wide Web. Content includes news,articles, live scorecards,live text commentary and a comprehensive and searchable database called 'StatsGuru', of historical matches and players from the 18th century to the present...
- CricketArchive statistics
- North Sydney District Cricket Club – Sid's Sydney Grade Club
- Sid Barnes Childhood