Australian Test cricketer John Gleeson dies aged 78
John Gleeson, the Australian Test cricketer of the 1970s who has died aged 78, will be remembered as a spinner who bamboozled batsmen with his unusual bent middle finger grip.
Born in the NSW country town of Wingaree on March 14, 1938, Johnny remained a jolly, un-spoilt country boy despite his successes in cricket. His Test career was short. From 1967 to 1972 he took 93 wickets at an average of 36.20 in 29 Tests. Not impressive figures but it is how he snared his victims which made him famous.
Australian spin bowler John Gleeson, 1970Credit:Getty
According to his spin partner Ashley Mallett, "As with two of Australia's great leg-spinners – Clarrie Grimmett and Shane Warne – Johnny Gleeson, the finger-flick spinner of the 1970s, played the mystery card of his art as well as Martin Luther King Jnr. worked a crowd".
Nicknamed CHO (Cricket Hours Only) Gleeson's repertoire was limited in comparison with the man who inspired him, Jack Iverson. In his armoury of tricks, Gleeson had a flat-trajectory off-break, a seam-up faster ball and a finger-flick leg-break which he delivered with a seeming off-break action. It was the leg-break which caused all the consternation for batsmen.
John and Martin Gleeson who played together in Martin's 100th gameCredit:Anthony Brady
I remember watching Gleeson bowl in the Bombay Test of 1969 where he took seven wickets. Indian batsman Ashok Mankad was bowled by him with a ball which pitched middle and leg and hit the top of off-stump, the Nawab of Pataudi fell to a similar ball and Dilip Sardesai was snapped up by wicket-keeper Brian Taber.
Gleeson preferred wickets traditionally good for seam bowlers. To quote Doug Walters, another country cricket legend, "Gleeson was a mystery bowler with an unusual action. Batsmen worked him out later in his career. I certainly did. To me he was more of a seamer than a spinner and played better on pitches that seamed rather than those which spun."
Boy Johnny Gleeson started as a wicket-keeper batsman. But after his thumb was broken by a snorter from Alan Davidson he was unable to bat. So Gleeson turned to bowling and in a few years a star was born.
As a youngster he twice toured the world with the Emus, a group of bush cricket lovers, who spent their own money to taste cricket overseas. He dabbled with Western Suburbs Club before he was spotted by Balmain District Cricket Club's captain Keith Stimson in 1965.
John Gleeson put everything into a delivery, 1972Credit:Getty
Gleeson was then a postal technician in the Tamworth Post Master General (PMG) office and could not afford to travel every Saturday by air. He had expressed his intention to play in a city club to Dick Burgess, Hon. Secretary of the Umpires' Association during an Inter City PMG match. Acting on Burgess's recommendation, Stimpson went to see young Gleeson in action.
Impressed by his unusual grip and ability to turn the ball sharply, Stimpson recommended his name to the Balmain Cricket Club. The Balmain Rugby League's Club sponsored his air travel. Gleeson was an outstanding success there and his climb to the top started with Balmain.
How he developed his mystery ball makes a good story. He revealed that it was after watching former Australian leg-spinner Jack Iverson bowl for Victoria. Iverson had mastered his unique grip after experimentally flicking table-tennis balls down a table. Gleeson learnt it by bowling at gum trees in Tamworth. His long and strong fingers helped.
Author Jack Pollard summed up: "His [Gleeson's] fingers could handle the job because they were used to unscrambling telephone wires. He never turned the ball as sharply as Iverson had done, but he used the bent-finger grip with far more subtlety."
Gradually he lengthened the distance between delivery and the tree until his finger was strong enough to propel the ball the full distance of a cricket pitch. His short-distance strategy worked, just as it does for anyone wanting to learn to bowl the flipper, a ball invented by Grimmett and utilised so brilliantly in the modern era by Warne. Gleeson approached the wicket like a long-striding Groucho Marx, looking for his next cigar.
In 1966-67, he took four wickets in five balls, including a hat-trick, in a Sydney grade match, before taking 5-28 against Victoria. He was subsequently selected in an Australian second XI team to tour New Zealand. He made his Test debut in the 1967-68 Test series against India in the first Test in Adelaide, taking two wickets in each innings.
He toured England in 1968. Newspapers were full of articles about the mystery of his bowling. A story in The Daily Telegraph was headlined "Gleesonitis", to depict opposing batsmen's plight to 'read' his spin.
England's captain Mike Smith commented: "I didn't know what to make of him. He bowled three different types of deliveries at me and they all seemed to come out of the hand without a noticeable change in action." He compared Gleeson to the West Indies spinner ✓Sonny Ramadhin who baffled batsmen in the 1950s.
After India, Gleeson toured South Africa, taking 19 wickets and no batsman other than Barry Richards could fathom his spin. Richards, a genius with a bat, told his teammates: "You don't have to read Gleeson. Use your feet and hit it on the half volley; that way doesn't matter which way it's turning."
Australia's captain Bill Lawry loved using Gleeson because he gave nothing away, and knew how to build and maintain pressure on batsmen, always playing the mystery card. If Jack Iverson was the torchbearer in the finger-flick bowling business, Gleeson kept the flame burning. A shortish man with long fingers, to me he resembled a jockey who played the piano.
John William Gleeson is survived by his wife Sandra, two daughters and two sons.
Kersi Meher-Homji