Former Australian Test captain and national cricket coach Bob Simpson dies at 89

It’s a huge statement but not undeserved. As news breaks of Simpson’s death at age 89 in Sydney it must be said Australian cricket has lost one of its true game changers and era-shapers who pointed this nation to its 30-year reign near the top of world cricket.

The shorthand version of Simpson’s portfolio – batsman, leg-spinner, Test captain, Australian coach, national selector – was impressive enough but it still vastly undersold the impact of his four decade association with the game at the top level.

Simpson was the man who took on Kerry Packer, returning from a decade of retirement at age 41 to captain the wafer-thin Australian Test side left behind after Packer signed a busload of the country’s best players. Under-siege, against the odds, sniped at by critics, ‘Simmo’ was in his element.

Born in the inner-Sydney suburb of Marrickville on February 3, 1936 to Scottish immigrants, Simpson excelled at range of sports including soccer, basketball and golf and author Ray Robinson once said “if he had more ball skills he would have bounced.’’

Simpson’s father Jock was a printer by trade and a former lower league soccer player in Scotland. It was clear early in his life Bob was a future leader after captaining the Marrickville West Primary Schools under-14 team when he was 12.

Test skipper Allan Border swears those early ball skills never left him. “The thing that got me was when we did slips training he had better, softer hands than anyone – and he was in his 60s,’’ Border told this masthead after learning of Simpson’s death. “I have never seen that before.’’

After marrying his wife Meg in the early 1960s he had two daughters, Debbie and Kim, who married former Test opener Andrew Hilditch.

Simpson will always be remembered for his lengthy association at the top of the order in Tests with Victoria’s Bill Lawry, the union ultimate proof that opposites can attract.

“We were totally different people,’’ Simpson once said. “I would play golf and he was into pigeon racing yet we clicked. I felt comfortable just walking to the wicket with him.’’

THE SINGULAR MAN

Loved by his friends and loathed by his enemies, strong-willed, opinionated, hardworking, Simpson was an easy man to have an argument with.

Joining the national cricket tour as a young journalist in 1993 I asked off-spinner Peter Taylor for advice and he said “just remember this … if you are going to argue with Simmo get your facts right because he never argues unless he wins and you won’t beat him.’’

Fair point. I never did. When he came at you he came hard.

He had a significant number of enemies – and when you fell out with Simmo the damage tended to be long-lasting and deep-seated – but not even his detractors could deny he was one of the most influential figures the Australian game has ever seen as its first full-time national coach from 1986-96.

Players he helped still feel indebted to him. Ian Healy was landing in Dubai on holiday when he received a message from this masthead for comment and immediately wrote back.

“He was my strongest cricket influence,’’ Healy wrote. “A man of confidence and clarity with an eye for bad habits creeping in.’’

Through sheer hard work and the bloody-mindedness perhaps imbued by his Scottish heritage, Simpson brought fitness and discipline to a floundering Australia which went four years without winning a Test series after the retirements of Dennis Lillee, Rod Marsh and Greg Chappell.

By the time he left in 1996 Australia were on top of the world.

Players would playfully taunt him about the fact that while he was razor sharp on cricket matters he could get muddled on simple things like the day he said at training “I went and saw that Mrs Doublemire (Doubtfire) movie last night – gee that Robin Wilson (Williams) is funny.’’

Simpson coached as he played in the 1960s, accepting nothing came easily and hard work was the solution for most problems.

While his Test record of 62 matches and an average of 46.81 was high class, it took him 30 Tests to score his first century and he moved from NSW to Western Australia and back again searching to cement his future at top level.

THE CLASSIC COACH

Simpson came into cricket coaching before the game threw itself at the mercy of computers but it didn’t matter for he had one of the greatest of all computers at his disposal – his mind.

With reflexes so quick he could catch flies with his bare hands, he was one of the greatest slips fieldsmen the game had seen and he made fielding a key priority as the coach of a battling Australian team.

One of Australia’s finest fielders, Mark Waugh, remarked on Fox Cricket that “he had the best reflexes of anybody I have ever seen.”

It was common to see players return from his sessions with bloodied grass stains.

Occasionally when a ball in fielding drills cracked into Simpson’s leg – as it did once when Merv Hughes playfully let it go – Simpson felt pain but never showed it. He was oak-tree tough and would never let the players see him wincing.

Simpson played a key role in unlocking the genius of Shane Warne by persuading him, in the most unusual way, to bowl around the wicket.

“He took me down the nets and bowled his leg-spinners from around the wicket to me,’’ Warne told me.

“I tried to smack him but couldn’t so I used that tactic. He was the best all-round cricket coach I ever had.’’

Those who saw Simpson talking to Warne when they were plotting where to bowl say that Simpson was so excited the exchange said everything about his natural love of the game.

Simpson loved the history of the game and when his hero, fast bowler Ray Lindwall, made a guest appearance at Australian training it was as if he went back to being a boy again in awe of his favourite star.

For all that he achieved, Simpson could be paranoid about his critics. As a batsman in Tests he never let himself believe any bowler was too good for him. It was, in his eyes, always his fault he got out, much to the amusement of fellow players who would ask “have you ever played a bowler better than you Bob … ever?’’

During many interviews for Fox Sports Cricket Legends I found a distinct pattern of players repeating this sort of sentence … “When Simmo was our Australian coach I had a lot of blues with him and struggled to trust him but I look back now and realise he was great for my game and, with Allan Border, some how turned Australian cricket around.’’

THE HOUSEKEEPER

One of Simpson’s greatest skills was as a house detective. Players were astounded that if they had a big night he somehow always found out and there was strong rumours he would befriend key members of hotel concierges who would give him tip-offs.

“Honestly, it wasn’t that hard,’’ Simpson said. “I would just sit in the middle of the bus and say nothing and the players would forget I was there and eventually all the stories of the night before would come out.’’

Ian Healy once recalled injuring himself playfully jumping off a chair in a nightclub and when asked by Simpson why he was a limping he fessed up with the full story.

“Simmo said “it’s hard to feel sorry for you’’ and stormed off but better that than him find out later if I had not told the truth and then be really dark,’’ Healy said. “And the thing was he always did find out eventually … I still don’t know how.’’

Few players have ever loved cricket more than Simpson. “On the morning of a big match you would often see him as one of the first at breakfast dressed in team kit – he loved the game that much and could not wait to go,’’ Healy said.

For all of his legendary toughness, Simpson could also have mellow moments. When Healy scored his first Test century in England Simpson said “I could not be more proud of you if you were my son.’’

Soft words from a hard man whose contribution to Australian cricket will never be forgotten.

PRIME MINISTER’S PRAISE FOR AUSTRALIAN SPORTING GREAT

– AFP

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among those to pay tribute to Simpson for his “extraordinary service” to the sport.

Albanese said Saturday that Simpson’s “extraordinary service to Australian cricket spanned generations”.

“As a player, captain and then era-defining coach, he set the highest of standards for himself and the champions he led,” the prime minister wrote on social media.

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“He will be long remembered by the game he loved.”

Cricket Australia chair, and former NSW Premier, Mike Baird said Simpson was a “mainstay of a very strong Australian team in the 1960s, and he became a leader across the game as Australian and New South Wales captain and as a coach”.

“Bob’s decision to come out of retirement to successfully lead the Australian team during the advent of World Series Cricket in 1977 was a wonderful service to the game, and his coaching set the foundation for a golden generation for Australian cricket,” Baird said in a statement.