Vale Bob Simpson

[Art Vandelay_]

The grandfather of modern Aussie cricket. Started the process under AB's captaincy of toughening up Aussie cricket into the powerhouse we know today.

 

[cricketnut14]

sad news - only saw him play in his comeback.

first coach for australia and one of our best slippers.

was one half of one our greatest opening pairs simpson/lawry.

R.I.P Bob.

 

[Gough]

He transformed the job of a modern cricket coach. I remember watching Australia and the West Indies warm up before the 88/89 Test (Deano 216) and the West indies came out in dribs and drabs, no team kit and nobody taking the warm up, Australia came out together, in matching tracksuits and Allcott and Simpson drilled them. They were still a better team than us but we were more professional and it wouldn't be long before that really paid off, and other teams followed suit.

 

[CliffMcTainshaw]

One of my heroes growing up. Listening on the radio in the middle of the night and hearing him score 311 was beyond comprehension to 12 year old me. One of the all time greats and not just Australia.
RIP Bob Simpson.

 

[Westend]

RIP Bob

Changed the face of Aussie cricket with AB.....built the team from the ground up in our darkest days

87 World Cup and 89 ashes the highlight

set the blueprint for our success

 

[010203]

His contribution to Australian cricket was simply immense.

Vale.

 

[magpie_marty]

He joined in to help during the big split re WSC To young to recall him play in his younger games must have been a top batsman and slip fielder as my late father told me many times.

 

[Gough]

71 wickets at 42 bowling leggies is pretty decent too.

 

[DaRick]

Never mind his excellent playing career during his prime, when he combined technically correct, disciplined batting with some handy legspin (he remains in my 2nd AUS ATG XI over Ponsford for the latter reason). Never mind that he came back to captain a depleted AUS XI against IND in 1977-78, thus delaying IND's first series victory on AUS soil by 40+ years.

No, despite his ATG playing career, he's now best remembered as a coach - the man who kept HMAS Australia afloat when it looked like the crashing waves of rebel tours, ACB incompetence, and an inexperienced and demoralised playing group would finally sink it despite Allan Border's attempts to keep the ship afloat after Kim Hughes' undignified exit.

As Gough notes, he gave the side a shot in the arm, getting rid of overly problematic (Zoehrer) and casual (Ritchie) personalities in favour of men who were willing to do whatever it took to win (Steve Waugh), or would run their knees into the ground for the team (Merv Hughes). Sloppiness was out; steeliness was in, as the side was made into Border's mould. Even the more high-strung personalities (Dean Jones, Geoff Lawson) left everything on the field.

Under his watch, Border became the toughest captain in the world, leading the toughest side in the world. But only Taylor's touch of tactical gold could overcome the West Indies, and Taylor's affable nature, alongside his side's undoubted skill and professionalism, made Simpson redundant. It's ironic, being made redundant by a culture which you helped create, but that's sport.

It says much about Simpson's skill and success as a coach though, that he's better remembered for that nowadays than for his already excellent playing career.

RIP.

 

[sherb]

That's five of the 66-67 touring party to South Africa who have passed in around 12 months.

Redpath, Stackpole, Cowper, Renneberg and now Simpson.

I don't recall Bob Simpson from his first stint as a player but well remember when he came back at the age of 41 to captain a ravaged (due to WSC) Australian team. That 77-78 series against India was one of the best I have seen and Simmo more than held his own with the bat, scoring a couple of hundreds from memory.

He captained the side to the West Indies in 78 and was understandably found out by the WI pace attack. I'm sure he wanted to carry on into the 78-79 Ashes, but he was knocked back by the ACB - if true, that's a pity, I'm sure the Australians would have fared better under him than the 5-1 thrashing they received.

His achievements as coach have already been acknowledged here so I won't go into them.

He was a phenomenal run-scorer in f-c cricket, with a penchant for big scores (at least 10 double centuries, including two triples), and in the 1959-60 Australian season averaged 300.66 in five games (when playing for WA):
98 & DNB; 236* & DNB; 230* & DNB; 79 & DNB; 98 & 161*

He was also a very useful leggie (349 f-c wickets) and an amazing slipper. I always remember this catch he took off Benaud in 1961:


He was a strict disciplinarian and I'm sure would have put some offside over the years because of this, but he was truly a giant of Australian cricket - spanning multiple generations - and both his influence on and contribution to the game were immense.

 

[CliffMcTainshaw]

That's five of the 66-67 touring party to South Africa who have passed in around 12 months.

Redpath, Stackpole, Cowper, Renneberg and now Simpson.

I don't recall Bob Simpson from his first stint as a player but well remember when he came back at the age of 41 to captain a ravaged (due to WSC) Australian team. That 77-78 series against India was one of the best I have seen and Simmo more than held his own with the bat, scoring a couple of hundreds from memory.

He captained the side to the West Indies in 78 and was understandably found out by the WI pace attack. I'm sure he wanted to carry on into the 78-79 Ashes, but he was knocked back by the ACB - if true, that's a pity, I'm sure the Australians would have fared better under him than the 5-1 thrashing they received.

His achievements as coach have already been acknowledged here so I won't go into them.

He was a phenomenal run-scorer in f-c cricket, with a penchant for big scores (at least 10 double centuries, including two triples), and in the 1959-60 Australian season averaged 300.66 in five games (when playing for WA):
98 & DNB; 236* & DNB; 230* & DNB; 79 & DNB; 98 & 161*

He was also a very useful leggie (349 f-c wickets) and an amazing slipper. I always remember this catch he took off Benaud in 1961:


He was a strict disciplinarian and I'm sure would have put some offside over the years because of this, but he was truly a giant of Australian cricket - spanning multiple generations - and both his influence on and contribution to the game were immense.

Dean Jones was certainly put off side.

 

[010203]

NSW SNUB
Steve Waugh, John Howard, David Boon and Mike Baird were among a huge gathering of mourners at the funeral of Bob Simpson at St Anne’s Anglican Church in Strathfield to honour one of our greatest ever captains and players. However we hear no-one from Cricket NSW turned up, which is poor form

The bit in bold is extremely disappointing if true.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/phil-buzz-rothfields-highlights-and-lowlights-marky-markgate-erupts-on-nine-kangaroos-assistant-revealed/news-story/ff1420ac9bfd2e5a561174ed68382911

.

 

[revo333]

Kind of feel like he doesn't get enough credit especially with what he did as a coach.

Hearing stories and tributes he didn't really come across as a well liked person but for the time he was the right person for the job and the players were desperate to win and had had enough of losing.

Anyway all the bad cricket teams I played in had one thing in common, we were bad at fielding.

So there's a lot to learn from him especially the time he put into the fielding, he was 15-20 years ahead of his time in regards to that.