Danny Southern: 'They buried Steve with my number eight', jumper presentation, Roarke Smith - 2015

One of our favourites

Posted by Speakola on Wednesday, August 26, 2020

22 August 2015, Pattersons Stadium, Perth, Australia

Transcript begins at 3.28

So at 25 I was washed up. My career was finished, and I didn’t know how to deal with it, you wish you could play footy forever, when it’s taken away from you at a young age you don’t know what to do with yourself.

So I decided to take off overseas, as Bevo said, I went and lived over in Egypt, completely different world, completely different environment, it gave me a chance to escape footy, the thing I loved most in life.

When I was over there, I got some tragic news that my brother had passed away. I actually got the news two weeks after he’d died. I was cruising around Iran, no internet, no telephone coverage or anything like that, for me it was quite a real shock, to find out my brother had died, he was my idol, the person I looked up to most in my life.

I didn’t know what to do with myself because I was going to miss his funeral. That was obviously shattering for a young man -- not being there for my family, to support them, and not being able to say goodbye to my brother.

So I thought what could I do to symbolise my love and my respect for him. And so I phone up my dad, and I got him to get my jumper, my rookie jumper, the one that I’d played 24 games in, and I thought the most symbolic thing I could do, or gesture for my brother was to get him to wear that jumper to the grave.

So they buried Steve with my number eight, and that’s with him for eternity.

That jumper meant the world to me. It was the most sacred thing that I had, my most treasured belonging, and so it’s with him resting for an eternity now.

So that’s what the jumper meant to me, Roarke, And good luck for you tomorrow mate. Hopefully you have a long and distinguished career. Enjoy the moment. It’s the one time in your life you get to debut, and enjoy it with your teammates, and I’m sure the elder statesman are going to show you the ropes, mate.

And hopefully you blokes can continue your good form this year.

Good luck with all. Hopefully you get another flag for the Bulldogs, and yeah, I’ll want to be there to help you blokes celebrate.

So thanks for having me today, mate. Number 37 Roarke! I’m going to hand it over.

Source: http://www.westernbulldogs.com.au/video/20...

Wes Hall: 'If you bowl a no ball ... you will never be able to land in Barbados again.' recalling Tied Test - 1960

'If you bowl a no ball, you'll never be able to land in Barbados again'. The famous audio of Wes Hall's final over in the Tied Test in Brisbane, 1960. An amazing bowler and racconteur.

14 December 1980, Dunedin, New Zealand

The funniest and most famous cricket speech ever delivered. No idea when or where! (let us know. Introduced by Jim Maxwell ABC Grandstand.)


As I told you, the over took fifteen minutes, the captain called me and said, ‘Wesley, I'm still watching you.’ He said, ‘whatever you do now, do not bowl a bouncer to Richie Benaud.’

I said ‘Ok Skipper, you just watch me.’

And I walked back, still very hurt, at the shame, the scandal of dropping that catch. My team mates were telling me, 'we are with you, you can't even catch a cold.'

But as I walked back I had other things in mind. I became very purposeful.

If I could only just get this man now, four and half million people in the West Indies would really come awake, and since it was only about three in the morning, that would have been a good achievement.

So I turned, looked around, fingered my cross, prayed a little prayer, pulled at my trousers  and took off.

God was merciful because I found it [ ] about to bowl for four hours, I found that there was a little pep in my step, and there was a little spring in my heels, so I said, ‘eh eh, let’s go Benaud, forgetting all that the Captain had said, I’m bowling the fastest bouncer that I'd ever bowled  in my life.

Benaud feeling surprised, shaped for the hook, it took the glove, and then was Alexander triumphantly in the air, taking the catch and rolling over in great triumph.

I swung round, my arms raised, going towards my captain, hoping he will embrace me, but all I got was a stony silence and a wicked stare.

So I said, 'He's out skipper, he's out!'.

He says, 'What did I tell you?'

I said, 'He's out, he's out.'

And then the joke was no more. He said 'Do you really understand what would have happened had that ball had taken the top edge and gone for four runs?'

For the first time in twelve minutes I remembered that Australia needed four to win.  So there again in deep despair, a batsman out but still no joy.

As the new batsman came in to bat, Meckiff was his name. He took guard, a monumental rabbit,  surely he would not be able to stand the test of time, as I moved in.

But my spirit was broken. How could you expect a man to get a wicket and yet be admonished by his captain? I as walked in meekly, I bowled just as meekly and Meckiff hit it just as sweetly to the mid-wicket boundary.

He ran one, he ran 2, he ran 3. The ball went right to the boundary, about I would say about a metre way, and there was Colin Hunte, not giving up , chasing all the way, picking up the ball just a metre from the boundary and throwing it with remarkable accuracy back to the wicket keeper who did not have to move a centimetre. He took the ball and stumped.

And there was Grout, sprawled out on the ground, and two yards out of his crease.

So another man was out and Sir Frank Warrell came up to me and said, ‘You've got one ball to go.’

I said, ‘I know.’

He says ‘And I'm watching you.’

And I said, ‘I know.’

He says, ‘And what is more, the umpire's watching you too.’

 So I did not understand what he's saying, so I said to him, ‘What are you saying?’

He said, ‘Well listen. One ball to go and if you bowl a no ball ... you will never be able to land in Barbados again.’

 It was then that I saw the predicament I was in. And at that stage Frank Warrell, as cunning as he is, called me over as I made my way back and he says, ‘I have nothing to tell you. But the problem is that batsman doesn't know that I have nothing to tell you. So if I move the man at backward square leg two feet to the right, and then two feet to the left, he wouldn't know that I had nothing to tell you.’

 So he did just that. There was Solomon, two feet to the right and then two feet to the left.

And I made my last lonesome trek back forty yards away from stumps. As I came in, gasping for air, pressing through for the last ball, my feet planted some three yards behind the crease, just in case we had a benevolent Australian umpire.

And so Kline turned the ball backward of square for what looked like an easy run -- it was really, until Solomon, little Joe Solomon, moved smartly to his left picked up the ball and with just one stump to see, threw and hit it bulls-eye. The square leg umpire and an Autralian jumped four feet in the air and still gave him out.

And Meckiff was heard to say as he returned rather  disconcertainly(sic) to the pavilion, ‘fancy losing like that.’

The West Indian cricketers were sure we were not lost. Ten men were out, weren't they? But we didn't know if we had won either.

So we all went off the cricket ground, umpires, players, those who were not playing, those who were out and the extras all gathered into the one dressing room.

We drank beer, we drank champagne and dinner was summoned from the Lemond hotel and we did not leave there until 10.30 that night.

 

 


Source: https://www.cricketvideo.com/great_cricket...