Perth, the capital city of Western Australia, is situated where the Swan river embraces the southeast coast. It is blessed with natural beauty and an easygoing outdoor lifestyle. Bright sunshine, deep blue sea, adventurous landscapes, attractive beaches, festivals and blessed people make Perth one of the most happening places on earth.
Then, at Nelson Crest, East Perth, there lies the WACA cricket ground, which itself has been a spectator of many memorable cricketing incidents for so many years and has been the centre of attraction for the tourists and cricket lovers since Test cricket commenced on this ground.
Since the 1890s, the WACA has been Western Australia's home of cricket. On December 16, 1970, it hosted the first ever Test match and since then, this ground has witnessed some of the most epic battles and eye-catching individual performances which still remain etched in the memories of the cricket lovers.
Traditionally, WACA ground is famous for its pace and bounce as it is regarded as the one of the fastest wickets in the world, but this ground has also gifted some of the best batting performances which are a part of cricket folklore.
A historic day
December 13, 1975. For the first time, the American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show “Saturday Night Live” hosted by Richard Pryor used a time delay, Jane Blalock won the LPGA 14 Colgate Triple Crown Golf Tournament, the former Soviet Union performed a nuclear test in Kazakh and in the Australian Federal Elections, Liberals with coalition under Malcolm Frasier won largest ever parliamentary majority.
So, December 13, 1975, was not just an ordinary day, but it happened to be quite a significant day to remember and from a cricketing perspective, it was made an unforgettable one by a southpaw from Guyana named Roy Fredericks.
It was summer in Australia and on this day, forty years ago in Perth, Malcolm Fraser, the Prime Minister in a minority coalition government, was caught in a brouhaha outside the Northcote town hall. A bunch of angry mobs spat on him and pelted beer cans at him.
A strike at the Carlton & United breweries triggered fears of a beer drought throughout the country and on December 13, 1975, a fire broke in one of the new skyscrapers being built in downtown and thus, the situation at Perth was chaotic and the skyline turned gloomy by smoke.
West Indies' chance tour Down Under
Amid this rut, Perth was hosting the second Test match between West Indies and Australia.
The West Indies were a young side and under the leadership of Clive Lloyd, they had just won the first ever World Cup by beating Ian Chappell’s Australia at Lord’s few months back in 1975. In the same year, Lloyd and his men toured Down Under for a six-match Test series.
West Indies were not supposed to tour during that time. Instead, it was South Africa who were scheduled to visit, but Australia joined the sporting boycott against apartheid. The Caribbeans were offered to play and fill the empty summer schedule.
West Indies were beaten comprehensively by eight wickets in the first Test at Brisbane and then, they traveled to Perth for the second Test.
This was the only Test match which stood out like an oasis in the desert for the Caribbeans who had a thoroughly miserable tour that was brightened by this one match which hit the headlines due to Roy Fredericks’ murderous knock.
Greg Chappell, Australia’s captain, won the toss and elected to bat first. The West Indian pace bowlers kept on dismissing the Aussie batsmen, but Ian Chappell, free from the cares and pressures of captaincy, played an innings of controlled aggression to help Australia post 329 runs in their first innings.
A young Michael Holding, who was playing in his second Test, picked up four wickets and he finished the Australian innings in the second morning in style – Ian Chappell, Jeff Thomson and Ashley Mallett were castled via sheer pace.
Fredericks' outstanding innings
Roy Fredericks came out to open the innings with Bernard Julien, who was an all-rounder and suited more at number six or seven. But, Lloyd played a gamble as at that point of time he had less faith in his another young player Gordon Greenidge who bagged a pair in Gabba.
Anyhow, Dennis Lillee, the tear-away fast bowler took the new ball to bowl the first over. Lillee’s second ball was banged in short and with pace and Fredericks tried to hook it – the ball flew off the top-edge and landed in the crowd sitting on the leg side boundary.
It was a six and thus, one of Test cricket’s most dynamic and jaw-dropping knocks started to unfold.
Back-foot stroke-play requires confidence and courage and to exploit it against the fury of Lillee, Thomson, Walker and Gilmour on a quick wicket was nothing short of a Herculean act.
The fast bowlers of those days didn’t like to be hooked, pulled and cut mercilessly. It was dubbed as an insult to them and on that eventful day, Fredericks kept bruising the ego of the Australian pace attack with a rare disdain.
Lillee sent down his missiles, Thomson bowled like a tornado and Walker and Gilmour hurled down short deliveries regularly, but Fredericks swiveled, turned the bat over and down, brutally hooked and pulled to send the ball into the boundary.
His cut shots were spectacular as well as Ashley Mallett described, “There was many a time when he cut at lifting deliveries, and at the precise instant he struck the ball, both his feet were well clear of the ground. I was fielding in the gully and nothing came anywhere near me, yet Freddo was cutting fiercely, the ball soaring over my head and to my left, round point”.
The famous West Australian sea breeze “Fremantle Doctor” blew the ground and added enough woes to the miseries of the Aussies who were already getting roasted by the heat of the blazing sun and the scorching stroke-play of Fredericks.
Fredericks' bat was 'something between a rapier and a bludgeon'
According to Ashley Mallett, “The Fremantle Doctor added to Australia's woes, for the wind reached 50kph. Add that to the speed of Freddo's ferocious strokes. Surely the good doctor, who with his cooling hand comes to the rescue of the people of Perth every afternoon in summer, could have given Freddo a calming pill to save the poor Aussies from a terrible hiding”.
One of Thomson's deliveries that day was clocked at 99.68 miles per hour by university researchers, and the speed with which it flew off Fredericks’ bat was unimaginable.
Terry Jenner, the twelfth man for the match, was fielding at point as a substitute fielder said, “I'd been sitting there with my feet, up but then I came onto the ground, I think it was for Ross Edwards, my laces were undone so I had to do them up, get out there and go straight to forward point and the first ball off (Gary) Gilmour was a massive square drive that curved towards me, I got down and it spun straight past me and went for four....bloody embarrassing - when you're the 12th man and that's what happens to you.
"But he was awesome, Fredericks. He played hooks, cuts, drives, every shot in the book. It wasn't a mug attack by a long shot, and it was just an awesome innings, one of those innings of a lifetime really ... unbelievable!”
Fredericks notched up his fifty off 33 balls and by lunch, West Indies were 130 for 1. After lunch, one staggering stroke followed after another at a rapid pace. Fredericks scored his hundred off 71 balls and when he was caught at slip after tea, he made 169 runs off 145 balls out of 258.
In his tour book, Frank Tyson wrote, “His flashing bat could be described as lying somewhere between a rapier and a bludgeon."
"His high and full backswing gave each shot a tremendous power, yet at the same time, there was finesse of execution. It would be hard to imagine a better century”.
Fredericks’ 169 outweighed the intensity of the Australian Federal Election and made December 13, 1975, all his own.
It was a big time brutality and still people talk about that blazing knock as because it is never easy to gift Lillee and Thomson buffets of embarrassments without wearing a helmet on the fastest wicket of the world. Roy Fredericks was the man to do that on that sun-kissed day at Perth.
December 13, 1975, was not an ordinary day of Test cricket.
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