Sid Barnes

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sid Barnes
leg break
RoleBatsman, occasional wicket-keeper
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 163)20 August 1938 v England
Last Test14 August 1948 v England
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1936/37–1952/53New South Wales
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class
Matches 13 110
Runs scored 1,072 8,333
Batting average 63.05 54.11
100s/50s 3/5 26/37
Top score 234 234
Balls bowled 564 4,451
Wickets 4 57
Bowling average 54.50 32.21
5 wickets in innings 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 0
Best bowling 2/25 3/0
Catches/stumpings 14/– 80/4
Source: CricketArchive, 28 November 2007

Sidney George Barnes (5 June 1916 – 16 December 1973) was an Australian

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 World War II.

He made his first-class debut at the end of the 1936–37 season when selected for New South Wales, and he was later included in the team for the 1938 Australian tour of England, making his Test debut 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.[2]

Barnes had a reputation as an eccentric and was frequently the subject of controversy. This included a celebrated

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 barbiturates and bromide
in a probable suicide.

Early years

Barnes, aged 16, as a Petersham player

Barnes was born in 1916 in Annandale, an inner suburb of Sydney.[3] However, in his autobiography, he claims to have been born in 1918 or 1919 in Queensland,[4] and his military service record has his date of birth as 5 June 1917.[5] 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.[6]

Childhood and club cricket

Barnes attended

Victoria and Queensland.[8]

In 1932–33, Barnes joined the

batsman/wicket-keeper against Paddington, facing the bowling of Hunter Hendry and Alan McGilvray.[9] 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."[10]
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.[11]

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.[12]

Barnes in NSW cap, 1937.

First-class cricket

Barnes had come to the attention of the

South Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground.[14] Batting at number five, Barnes scored 31 and 44, twice being dismissed LBW by the leg spinner Frank Ward.[15] 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 idolized, withdrew the appeal.[14]

Barnes was selected for New South Wales for the opening match of the 1937–38 season against

New South Wales Cricket Association retrospectively deemed the match to be not of first-class status, angering Barnes.[16] 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.[17] As a result of his performances over the season (scoring over 800 runs, averaging 50.56),[18] Barnes was selected as the youngest member of the Australian cricket team to tour England in 1938.[19]

Test cricket

Pre-war debut

Unfortunately for Barnes, he broke his wrist while exercising on the sea voyage to England for the 1938 tour,

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;[26] but Barnes played innings of 41 and 33 and, according to Wisden, "well justified his choice".[27] 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.[28]

Cigarette card showing Barnes as a New South Wales representative

His international career was then put on hold, as all foreign tours were suspended during World War II. He continued to play first-class cricket in Australia, before enlisting in the Second Australian Imperial Force in May 1942.[29] 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.[30]

Post-war series

After scoring 1,050 runs (including six centuries) at an average of 75.00 in the 1940–41 season,

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.[32] 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.[33]

Barnes was made captain of New South Wales for the 1946–47 Australian season, though he only managed to play three matches for the state team. One of those was the 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."[34] 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.[35]

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.[36] 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.[37]

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.[38]

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.[39]

Bradman and Barnes leave the field for an adjournment as both head towards 234.

It was during the

Don Bradman, a record that still stands today.[40][41]
On a rain-affected 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.[42] 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. Hammond and Yardley 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.[43]

Barnes played carefully on the still-suspect pitch the following day, and, late in the afternoon, Bradman, lower in the order than usual due to a leg injury, joined Barnes with the score at 4/159.[44] 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.[45] 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."[46] He confirmed to an interviewer many years later that "it wouldn't be right for someone to make more runs than Sir Donald Bradman".[47]

E.W. Swanton wrote that this "could well have been so for he was a man of quixotic mood and temperament".[48] However the England 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".[49] 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 –[50] 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.[36]

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.[51] 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.[52]

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.

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:

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.[54]

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.[55] 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.[56] In the fourth Test at Adelaide he made 112 and put on 236 with Bradman for the second wicket.[57] 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.[58]

The Invincibles tour

Barnes on the cover of Sporting Life, 1948.

The 1948 Australia team that toured England has become known as The Invincibles, because they did not lose a single game.[59] 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.[60][61]

Before the second Test at Lord's, Barnes wagered £8 at 15/1 on himself to score a century.[20] He made a duck in the first innings but ensured success in the second, making 141.[62]

Barnes and Morris shared century opening partnerships at Lord's and

all out made by the entire England team.[63] In addition to his century at Lord's, Barnes made three other scores over 60 in the series.[24]

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:

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.[64]

However, he received criticism for this approach[65] and it resulted in him missing the fourth Test at Headingley through injury.[24] 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.[64] 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.

H. D. G. Leveson-Gower XI at the Scarborough cricket festival came in just 25 minutes.[67]

Later playing career

Bradman
's testimonial match.

An important concern for Barnes, when returning from the United Kingdom to Australia, was to avoid paying customs

duties 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.[68]

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.[69] 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.[70]

Libel case

Barnes and his legal representative outside the venue of their 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 Oxlade, 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.[69]

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.[69] 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.[71]

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.[72] 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.[69] 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;[73] 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.[18]

Just as the furore appeared to have died down, in April 1952 Sydney's

Daily Mirror published a letter from a reader, Jacob Raith.[74] Responding to a letter in support of Barnes, Raith sided with the Board and suggested that his character was to blame for the omission.[69] Acting on legal advice, Barnes sued Raith for libel and engaged Sydney's leading barrister, Jack Shand KC, as counsel.[75]

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.[69] 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".[71] Barnes was vindicated with a full public apology.[69]

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.[71] 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."[69]

Twelfth man incident

Barnes as twelfth man, dressed in suit and tie and carrying cigars, iced towels, a mirror and comb, a radio and a clothes brush

Resuming for New South Wales in 1952–53, Barnes scored 152 against Victoria in the last match before the beginning of 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.[69]

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".

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.[10]

Style and personality

Barnes played in Don Bradman's Testimonial Match

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.[76] 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.[77]

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."[78] 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.[79]

David Frith wrote of Bill Brown's 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.[1]

He was a part-time leg break bowler, taking 57 wickets in first-class cricket at a useful average of 32.21.[33] Barnes's leg break spun very little, but he had a topspinner which hurried onto the batsman and yielded him many wickets.[33] 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".[29] 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".[10]

Life outside cricket

Barnes in later life

Barnes married a school teacher, Alison Margaret Edward, on 11 June 1942. Alison was the daughter of Kenneth Edward, a

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.[80]

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.[81]

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 professional rugby league footballer Peter Peters.[82] 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.[83] 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.[33]

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.[84] 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".[10]

Statistical analysis

Highest Test Batting Averages
Donald Bradman
(AUS)
99.94
Stewie Dempster (NZ)
65.72
Sid Barnes (AUS)
63.05
Taslim Arif (PAK)
62.62
Adam Voges (AUS)
61.87
Graeme Pollock (SAF)
60.97
George Headley (WI)
60.83
Herbert Sutcliffe (ENG)
60.73
Eddie Paynter (ENG)
59.23
Ken Barrington (ENG)
58.67
Everton Weekes (WI)
58.61
K.S. Duleepsinhji (ENG)
58.52
Wally Hammond (ENG)
58.45
Garfield Sobers (WI)
57.78
Kumar Sangakkara (AUS)
57.40
Jack Hobbs (ENG)
56.94

Source: ESPNcricinfo
Qualification:
10 completed innings,
career completed.

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 Bradman (99.94, 80 innings) and Stewie Dempster (65.72, 15 innings).[85]

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.[24]

Sid Barnes's Test batting performances. The red bars indicate the runs that he scored in an innings, with the blue line indicating the batting average in his last ten innings. The blue dots indicate an innings where he remained not out.[24]

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,[86]
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.[87][88] In those series, Barnes's averages bear comparison to Bradman's, particularly in the more combative Ashes series:[88]

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".[89] Because Barnes played only 19 Test innings, his performances are weighted to just under 85% of their full value.[89] Consequently, even in his own day, he is rated as no better than seventh in the world, at his peak.[90]

Test match performance

  Batting[91] Bowling[92]
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

Notes

  1. ^ a b Frith, David (1987). "What did you do at Lord's, Grandpa?". Wisden Cricket Monthly. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  2. ^ As a convention, cricket seasons are denoted as a single year to represent northern hemisphere summer, or dashed for southern hemisphere. See Cricket season for more information.
  3. Charters Towers in Queensland
    and said so in his autobiography. He also confessed confusion over the year citing 1918 or 1919, rather than 1916."
  4. ^ Barnes, p. 13.
  5. ^ Military service record, National Archives
  6. ^ Smith, pp. 2–3.
  7. ^ Smith, p. 5.
  8. ^ a b Smith, p. 10.
  9. ^ Smith, pp. 11–13.
  10. ^ a b c d Stoddart, Brian (2002). "'Barnes, Sidney George (Sid) (1916–1973)'". Australian Dictionary of Biography. 13. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press: 118–119. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
  11. ^ Smith, p. 13.
  12. ^ Smith, pp. 13–14.
  13. ^ Smith, p. 15.
  14. ^ a b Smith, pp. 7–8.
  15. ^ "New South Wales v South Australia–Sheffield Shield 1936/37". CricketArchive. 23 February 1937. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  16. ^ a b Smith, pp. 17–18.
  17. ^ Smith, p. 20.
  18. ^ a b c "First-class Batting and Fielding in Each Season by Sid Barnes". CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  19. ^ Smith, p. 21.
  20. ^ a b "The 50 Greatest Australian Cricketers". Inside Edge. ACP. 2001. p. 56.
  21. ^ Smith p. 26., quoting Barnes "I had jog-trotted six times around the ship the morning we were due to land in Gibraltar and I started stretching exercises. I leapt to catch the steel rope running across the deck to hold up the sun awnings but the early morning mist had made the stachion slippery and I couldn't hold it. I slipped back and, in falling, threw out my left hand to break the fall. I fell with all my weight on the left hand ..." Smith continues, "A few hours later the pain increased and the hand started to swell. He said nothing just in case there was a ship in Gibraltar on its way back to Australia ..."
  22. ^ "Australians in England in 1938". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1939 ed.). Wisden. p. 227.
  23. ^ Barnes, p. 78.
  24. ^
    Cricinfo
    . Retrieved 15 April 2008.
  25. Cricinfo
    . Retrieved 12 December 2007.
  26. Cricinfo
    . Retrieved 12 December 2007.
  27. ^ "Australians in England in 1938". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1939 ed.). Wisden. pp. 243–246.
  28. ^ "Australians in England in 1938". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1939 ed.). Wisden. pp. 195–253.
  29. ^ a b c "Sid Barnes Obituary". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. 1974. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
  30. ^ Smith, p. 47.
  31. ^ "First-Class matches in Australia in 1945/46". CricketArchive. Retrieved 29 November 2007.
  32. ^ "Overseas Cricket". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1947 ed.). Wisden. p. 629.
  33. ^ a b c d Cashman, pp. 14–15.
  34. ^ Barnes, p. 115. Barnes does not identify who it was that approached him.
  35. ^ Cashman; Franks; Maxwell; Sainsbury; Stoddart; Weaver; Webster (1997). The A-Z of Australian cricketers. p. 67.
  36. ^ a b "M.C.C. Team in Australia and New Zealand, 1946–47". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1948 ed.). Wisden. pp. 728–730.
  37. ^ Barnes, p. 117.
  38. ^ Barnes, p. 118.
  39. ^ Barnes, pp. 121–122.
  40. Cricinfo
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  41. ^ "Test Matches – Highest partnership for the fifth wicket". Cricinfo. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  42. ^ pp32-33, Clif Cary, Cricket Controversy, Test matches in Australia 1946–47, T. Werner Laurie Ltd., 1948
  43. ^ p32, Clif Cary, Cricket Controversy, Test matches in Australia 1946–47, T. Werner Laurie Ltd., 1948
  44. ^ Score given in Australian convention, i.e. four wickets down with the score at 159.
  45. .
  46. ^ Barnes, p. 125.
  47. .
  48. E.W. Swanton
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  49. ^ pp7-8, Alec Bedser, May's Men in Australia, The M.C.C. Tour 1958–59, Stanley Paul, 1959
  50. ^ Barnes, p. 127.
  51. ^ Barnes, pp. 139–147.
  52. ^ Barnes, pp. 146.
  53. ^ Barnes, pp. 151–158.
  54. ^ "Overseas Cricket". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1949 ed.). Wisden. p. 793.
  55. ^ "Bill Brown Test performances". Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 December 2007.
  56. ^ "Overseas Cricket". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1949 ed.). Wisden. p. 794.
  57. ^ "India in Australia, 1947–48". Wisden Cricketers' Almanack (1949 ed.). Wisden. p. 780.
  58. ^ Barnes, p. 158.
  59. ^ "Sporting greats – Australia reveres and treasures its sporting heroes". Australian Government – Culture and Recreation Portal. Archived from the original on 8 April 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2007. The 1948 Australian cricket team captained by Don Bradman, for example, became known as 'The Invincibles' for their unbeaten eight-month tour of England. This team is one of Australia's most cherished sporting legends.
  60. ^ "The Ashes, 1948, 1st Test – England v Australia -Trent Bridge, Nottingham – 10,11,12,14,15 June 1948 (5-day match)". Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 December 2007.
  61. ^ "The Ashes, 1948, 2nd Test – England v Australia – Lord's, London – 24,25,26,28,29 June 1948 (5-day match)". Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 December 2007.
  62. ^ "England v Australia, 1948, 1st Test". CricketArchive. 15 June 1948. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  63. ^ "The Ashes, 1948, 5th Test – England v Australia – The Oval, London – 14,16,17,18 August 1948 (5-day match)". Cricinfo. Retrieved 15 April 2008.
  64. ^ a b Preston, 1949: pp. 240–241.
  65. ^ "Sid Barnes player profile". Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 December 2007.
  66. ^ "Test Batting and Fielding for Australia in England 1948". CricketArchive. Retrieved 28 November 2007.
  67. ^ Preston, 1949: p. 258.
  68. ^ Smith, p. 130.
  69. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Haigh and Frith, pp. 107–111.
  70. ^ Harte, pp. 401–402.
  71. ^ a b c Harte, pp. 422–423.
  72. ^ Harte, p. 256.
  73. ^ "New South Wales v Queensland, Sheffield Shield 1951–52". 1 January 1952. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
  74. ^ Smith, p. 155. "Jacob Raith, a master baker, cricket lover from Sid's own suburb of Stanmore and a former president of Petersham Cricket Club ..." It continues down the same page, "Rather than support the player, whom he did not know despite their associations with the same area, he decided to back the board."
  75. ^ Slee, John (2002). "Shand, John Wentworth (1897–1959)'". Australian Dictionary of Biography. 16. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press: 216–217. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
  76. ^ Robinson, p. 78.
  77. List of cricket terms
    .
  78. ^ Robinson, p. 76.
  79. ^ Robinson, p. 79.
  80. ^ Smith, p. 44.
  81. ^ Smith, pp. 195–196.
  82. ^ Smith, pp. 185–186.
  83. ^ Smith, pp. 183–184.
  84. ^ Smith, pp. 204–205.
  85. Mike Hussey
    ) whose career average in December 2007 exceeded that of Barnes.
  86. Cricinfo
    . Retrieved 25 December 2007.
  87. ^ There was also a fourth, the 1938 Ashes, but Barnes played only one Test.
  88. ^
    Cricinfo
    . Retrieved 25 December 2007.
  89. ^ a b "Frequently Asked Questions". LG ICC Rankings. Retrieved 25 December 2007.
  90. ^ "Sid Barnes Batting Test Ranking Statistics". LG ICC Rankings. Retrieved 25 December 2007.
  91. Cricinfo
    . Retrieved 19 June 2008.
  92. Cricinfo
    . Retrieved 19 June 2008.

References

External links

Media related to Sid Barnes at Wikimedia Commons