There is a wave of mourning in Australian cricket at this time. The former captain and coach of the team have passed away. He breathed his last at the age of 89. Apart from playing a 13-hour marathon innings, this player is known for taking back his decision of retirement in difficult times.

Australia's great captain and batsman Bob Simpson died in Sydney on Saturday. He breathed his last at the age of 89. Apart from being a great Australian player, he was also the team's first full-time coach.

Simpson was one of the most influential figures in Australian cricket. He played 62 Test matches for his country from 1957 to 1978 and took 71 wickets. He was considered one of the best slip fielders. At the age of 16, he made his first class debut for New South Wales, and in his entire career, he scored a total of 21,029 runs and took 349 wickets.

Decision taken in difficulty

After playing 50 test matches, he retired from cricket in 1968, but when the team faced problems, he withdrew his decision of retirement and took over the captaincy of the team. Due to Kerry Packer's World Series, many big players went to play in this league. Then Simpson withdrew his decision and took over the team as captain. He scored 10 centuries in his career and he scored all these centuries while being the captain. He played the best innings of his career against England in Manchester in 1964.

In this innings, he scored 311 runs. This was his highest score in Tests. During this innings, he batted continuously for 13 hours. His and Bill Lawry's pair is considered one of Australia's most successful opening pairs. Both of them had a record partnership of 382 runs for the first wicket against the West Indies in 1965.

Developing young players

In 1986, when the Australian team was going through a difficult phase, the board called Simpson to groom young players. He started this work along with captain Allan Border and groomed players like Dean Jones and Steve Waugh. In 1987, he was also included in the selection panel. From here, he gave a platform to many young players and groomed them, including names like Mark Waugh, Shane Warne, Mark Taylor, Ian Healy, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martin, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting.

PC:Jagran