Eddie Gilbert (cricketer)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Eddie Gilbert
Personal information
Full name
Harold Edward Gilbert
Born(1905-08-01)1 August 1905
Woodford, Queensland, Australia
Died9 January 1978(1978-01-09) (aged 72)
Wacol, Queensland, Australia
BattingLeft-handed
BowlingRight arm fast
RoleBowler
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1930/31–1935/36
Queensland
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 23
Runs scored 224
Batting average 7.22
100s/50s 0/0
Top score 34*
Balls bowled 4,920
Wickets 87
Bowling average 28.97
5 wickets in innings 6
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 6/64
Catches/stumpings 4/–
Source: CricketArchive, 12 January 2010

Harold Edward Gilbert (1 August 1905 – 9 January 1978), known as Eddie Gilbert, was an Australian

England fast bowler) Harold Larwood or anyone else.”[1]

Early and personal life

Gilbert was taken from his home near Woodford at the age of three as part of the Stolen Generations and grew up on farms while living in the Barambah Aboriginal Reserve, now known as Cherbourg, north of Brisbane. He took up cricket at a young age, initially playing as a slow bowler but quickly developing pace cultivated through a flexible wrist that he said was from years of hard work and practice.

Cricket career

First class career

Further information: 1930–31, 1931–32, 1932–33, 1933–34, 1934–35, and 1935–36 seasons

After playing with the State Colts in 1930, Gilbert was selected in the

1868 Aboriginal cricket tour of England
was not considered first-class.)

In his first season with

Queensland Gilbert played five of their six Sheffield Shield games, racking up fifteen wickets in the process. Gilbert had bowled upward of 141 overs and had a bowling average of 33.46. His best performance was 4–44. Overall, in his first season with the team, Gilbert had finished with the 13th best bowling average amongst bowlers whom had bowled more than 15 overs.[2]

Following on from his first season with

Queensland, Gilbert played five of Queensland's six matches in 1931–32. With the team having had better results than the previous season, Queensland saw Gilbert bowl less and take more wickets (21). Both of those factors also greatly improved Gilbert's bowling average. At seasons-end Gilbert had taken the fifth most wickets in the competition and had earned his first five-wicket haul against Victoria (5–67).[3][4]

In Gilbert's third season in the

Queensland finish their first innings on 129 runs. Gilbert's bowling proved to be vital for Queensland in South Australia's first innings. Indeed, it was his best performance of the season. With Herbert Gamble and Francis Brew dismissing the opening two batsman (caught), Gilbert bowled out top-order batsman Roy Lonergan for 31. Brew then took another and Cassie Andrews took his first via lbw. Gilbert then took three wickets in a row to finish the innings 4–58. South Australia's second innings remained steady (76/1), however and Gilbert's second innings was unsuccessful having not taken any wickets. Queensland lost by 9 wickets.[9][10]

In his career, Gilbert played in 19

South African
sides. In one match against the touring West Indian team, he took 5/65. Despite his success, it is unlikely that he was ever seriously considered for the Australian Test team due to doubts about his action, his Aboriginality and the fact that he represented Queensland, then a relatively weak team.

The era of 'protection'

Gilbert in April 1932

As an Aboriginal man living in Queensland in 1931, Eddie Gilbert was bound by the restrictions of the Protection of Aboriginals Act 1897. This meant that he needed written permission to travel from his Aboriginal settlement each time he played in a first-class match. Reference to his correspondence survives in the Queensland State Archives. (QSA A/4736, Home Secretary, Register of Letters Received, 1931, Extracts - Aborigines General).

Retirement

Gilbert retired from the game in 1936 due to poor form, whereupon officials in the Queensland Cricket Board and the Aboriginal Protectorate arranged for his return to an Aboriginal settlement. Gilbert died at the Wolston Park Hospital near Brisbane on 9 January 1978, aged 72 after many years of ill health due to alcoholism and mental illness. It was thought by some people that his health issues stemmed from the racism he suffered: he was not being allowed to room with the team and made to sleep in a tent on the practice pitch. In addition, he was forced out of the game and labelled a cheat because of his suspect bowling action.

In 2015 Gilbert's son Barney unveiled the sign at the dedication of the Eddie Gilbert Memorial Field near the hospital, with folk singer Dermot Dorgan offering his tribute song "Eddie Gilbert" about the life and struggles of the iconic fast bowler.[11]

Dismissing Bradman

Gilbert dismisses Bradman for a duck in November 1931

On 6 November 1931 in a match against

Brisbane Cricket Ground (the "Gabba") in Brisbane, he dismissed opener Wendell Bill for a duck with his first ball. The incoming batsman was Don Bradman
.

Bradman was hurried by Gilbert, but he somehow managed to keep the first ball out. The second was a harmless one, just outside leg. The third ball was too quick: it screamed past Bradman's bat and thudded into the gloves of Leonard Waterman. The fourth was as fast, and hit Bradman on his underbelly. The impact knocked his bat off, leaving him in agony. It took him time, but he got back to his feet. Then came the bouncer, a really quick one. Bradman tried to counterattack, but it was too quick. The top-edge went up in the air, and Waterman took it easily.[12]

Bradman recalled years later that the five deliveries he faced from Gilbert in that match were the fastest he had experienced in his career. Bradman said The keeper took the ball over his head, and I reckon it was halfway to the boundary and that the balls from Gilbert were unhesitatingly faster than anything seen from Larwood or anyone else. Although as he added in his autobiography, Bradman thought Gilbert's action was 'decidedly suspect'.

Gilbert played against Bradman on two more occasions, as well as Douglas Jardine during the infamous 1932/33 Bodyline tour.

Bowling style

Gilbert in his follow-through, c. 1930

Though he had a controversial action he was called only once for throwing and that for jerking his wrist. Importantly the straightness of his arm was never contradicted by umpires. The occasion of him being called was the match between

MCG in 1931. The umpire Andrew Barlow
, no-balled him 13 times for his action.

Alan McGilvray said he had "absolutely no doubt" that Gilbert was "the fastest bowler I ever saw" and that "no matter how I analyse cricket down the years, I cannot imagine anybody bowling a ball faster than Eddie Gilbert". Of the legality of Gilbert's action, McGilvray commented, "It was hard to tell whether he actually chucked or not, because he let the ball go with such a fling of his right arm you got precious little sight of it."[13]

Recognition

In 2007 Queensland Cricket erected a bronze statue of Gilbert in Greg Chappell Street, outside Allan Border Field, Albion.[14] Designed by Pauline Clayton, the statue shows Gilbert in full flight. The monument was dedicated in November 2008.[15] In 2007, Indigenous Sport Queensland established the Eddie Gilbert Medal to recognise Queensland's best indigenous sports person.[16]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Smith, Martin (6 November 2014). "On this Day: Gilbert floors Bradman". cricket.com.au. Cricket Australia. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Sheffield Shield 1930/31: Bowling – Most Wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  3. ^ "Sheffield Shield 1931/32: Bowling – Most Wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  4. ^ "Sheffield Shield". The Mercury. Vol. CXXXVI, no. 20, 121. Tasmania, Australia. 3 February 1932. p. 10. Retrieved 3 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Sheffield Shield 1932/33: Bowling – Most Wickets". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  6. ^ "Sheffield Shield 1932/33 – Table". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  7. ^ "Victoria – Queensland – 1932/33". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  8. ^ "Debacle!". The Sun. No. 7124. New South Wales, Australia. 29 October 1932. p. 6 (Cricket Stumps). Retrieved 3 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Queensland – South Australia – 1932/33". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  10. National Advocate. New South Wales, Australia. 1 February 1933. p. 2. Retrieved 3 July 2022 – via National Library of Australia
    .
  11. ^ Gould, J. (9 July 2015) A field of dreams for Aboriginal bowler who bounced Bradman Queensland Times
  12. ^ "Don Bradman and his ducks". 27 August 2014.
  13. ^ Alan McGilvray, The Game Goes On, ABC Books, Sydney, 1987, pp. 111-12.
  14. ^ English, Peter (2014). "The long tail". ESPN Crickinfo. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  15. ^ "Eddie Gilbert | Monument Australia".
  16. ^ "Sports awards". Indigenous Sport Queensland website. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2015.

References

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eddie_Gilbert_(cricketer)&oldid=1209918641"