The iconic Keith Miller: A tribute

In 2006, Australian writer Roland Perry wrote a book on Keith Miller titled "Miller's Luck". He simply used the famous legend associated with the great all-rounder as the title of the book.

The defining experience of Miller's life was not playing Test cricket for Australia. In fact, it came a few years before he made his debut for Australia.

He was on duty with the RAAF from January 1942 and was flying Bristol Beauforts and de Havilland Mosquitos on various cross-channel raids. One day, at Bournemouth, his bar was bombed and the occupants were killed; but, with luck on his side, Miller was playing cricket at Dulwich.

On another occasion, nier Kiel Canal, his Mosquito's incendiary tanks had failed to release but Miller somehow survived that as well. These incidents were enough to give birth to the legend of 'Miller's Luck.'

Poor seasons in 1948 and 1948-49 helped the selectors leave Miller out of the 1949-50 tour to South Africa. But they could do nothing to 'Miller's Luck' as Bill Johnston suffered a freak accident and Miller was called in as a replacement.

Australia won the first two Test matches but in the third, at Durban, they were in trouble after each team batted once. South Africa scored 311 and in reply, at the end of the second day, the Aussies managed only 75.

That evening, cricket writer R.S. Whitington encountered a rather cheerful Keith Miller in the lobby of the hotel.Miller greeted him and said, " I hope you haven't been stupid enough to write off our chances in your story to Australia?" When Whitington replied that he hadn't filed it yet, Miller added, " I'm sorry for Dudley Nourse (the South African captain). He's going to have the whole nation down on him like a ton of bricks when South Africa lose."

Whitington was amused: "When they lose? If they lose, you mean. You're still 236 behind." "We're going to win and you'd better say so. You'll probably be the only pressman who does. Just think of the feather that will be in your cap." He even offered £5 on an Australian win. Whitington declined. He knew all about 'Miller's Luck'.

Neil Harvey scored a superb 151* in the fourth innings and Australia won the match by 5 wickets.

In 1980, Mihir Bose's book on Keith Miller was published. There he starts with an incident from the evening on which Garry Sobers retired from First-class cricket. He had broadcast a tribute on him and on the way back, he shared the staff car with one of his colleagues. When they started discussing cricket, she nonchalantly said that she stopped watching cricket ever since Keith Miller retired. She added, " I used to rush to Lord's whenever he was playing."

Miller last played in England in 1956. She was a schoolgirl at that time. She was not the only girl in England who was fascinated by the charm and charisma of Miller. Miller had spent his war years in England and had a lot of friends there.

John Rutherford, the first Western Australian to be selected to play for Australia, remembers that day when the Australians arrived in England for the 1956 Ashes series. " I looked in a paper when we got to London and saw that there was a performance of Beethoven's Ninth at Festival Hall, so I suggested to Keith that we go. And, as Keith walked in, all these people were coming up and saying: "Hello Keith, it's great to have you back." There must have been 50 or so, but Keith replied to them all by name."

No one other than Bradman reached to such heights in terms of popularity among people in a foreign land.

At his best, Miller was very fast and could be devastating as a bowler.As Bradman later wrote in his autobiography, Miller could be 'volatile' but when on song, there was no better cricketer in the world. He took 170 Test wickets at an average of less than 23 in his 55-match playing career. He had all the variations in his armoury. He could bowl off-cutters, slow off-breaks, even googlies! And when he wanted to bowl really fast, he could do that at as well.

In the first Test of the famous 1948 Ashes series, Miller opened the bowling with 'partner in crime' Ray Lindwall. Len Hutton remembered how the fast bowler in Miller took care of him in the second innings.

"He accepted 1s,2s and 3s but boundaries were an indignity he did not cheerfully tolerate, and invariably the next ball would be an absolute fizzer."

"He was trundling away with medium-pace off-breaks when I took two successive boundaries and fourteen in an over. I knew what to expect, and in eight balls I had five bouncers, one of which left the manufacturer's imprint on my shoulder. Two others leapt at my throat from just short of a length as if they had been bowled from no more than ten yards away with a tennis ball."

Hutton was eventually dismissed bowled by Miller in that innings.

Miller was one of the five 'Wisden Cricketers of the Year' in 1954

Miller has shown many a times that he was a perfect team-man and was willing to help out the youngsters.

Neil Harvey made his Ashes debut in the famous Headingley Test of 1948. He was obviously nervous and played at and missed the first three balls. Miller, who was batting at the other end, came down the pitch to have a few words with him. He tried to settle down the young man.

Very soon, Jim Laker was into the attack and Harvey was still batting without scoring a run. Miller told Harvey, " Let me take him for a while." Then, a few balls later, he hit one straight back over Laker's head for six. Three balls later, another six followed. Those two shots did Harvey's confidence a world of good. He thought that this isn't such a tough game after all! Miller's efforts at calming down Harvey's nerves were successful and the youngster went on to score an important century.

Miller led his state team New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield in 1955-56. Their third match of the season, played at Sydney, was against South Australia. NSW scored 215-8 on day one and declared. Next morning, Miller was supposed to pick up Peter Philpott, the young leg-spinner, on his way to the ground and completely forgot about him. He suddenly remembered, took a u-turn, and raced back to pick him up. Somehow, he made it back to the SCG just in time. He took 7 for 12 as South Australia were dismissed for 27.

Miller's controversial book 'Bumper'

Keith Miller led a charming life and did enough to get more than one biographer. Mihir Bose wrote a book on him in 1980. So did R.S. Whitington in 1981. Then, more than a decade later, Roland Perry wrote a couple of books on him.

Miller himself was a prolific writer. He wrote for the Daily Express for many years. He even wrote as many as ten cricket books, most of them being published in the 1950s. Many of them were ghost-written, though- either by Jack Pollard or by R.S. Whitington.

Miller never had the 'luck' to become Australia's captain. He became the vice -captain in 1952-53 but was replaced by Morris before the 1953 Ashes series. It created the unusual and perhaps slightly awkward situation of the New South Wales captain being subordinate to the national vice-captain.

His book 'Bumper' was published in April 1953, just before the Ashes.In that book he criticized Hassett's captaincy and his views on Bradman were not that great as well. He stated that those were the words of co-author Whitington but the damage was already done. This book did play a part in Miller being demoted from the position of the vice-captain.

Miller's views were often honest and, at times, they were even slightly outrageous. When he was clearly irritated with Australia's performance in the 1970-71 Ashes, he wrote in one of the newspapers: " To Hell with The Ashes. Dump them. ( Illingworth, Lawry, the urn etc). Get rid of them...The public just cannot tolerate the play-safe cricket we have so often seen this series".

Bibliography:

The Summer Game by Gideon Haigh

Bradman's Invincibles by Roland Perry

Keith Miller- A Cricketing Biography by Mihir Bose

Fifty Years in Cricket by Len Hutton & Alex Bannister

A Bibliography of Cricket by E.W. Padwick (compiler)