Ian Meckiff

After finishing high school, Meckiff worked as a hardware salesman and lived in Mentone until he married and moved to Beaumaris. The couple had a son. After his retirement, the former paceman worked in advertising, and as a cricket commentator. As of 2001, he was a senior executive with Boyer Sports Media and frequently worked with cricket administrators. However, he refused to play the sport—even at social level—after the incident in Brisbane.

At the start of the season, the Australian Board of Control had issued a directive calling on the umpires to "get tough" in enforcing the laws of cricket, and asked the state associations to "back the umpires to the fullest extent". In the lead-up to the Test, Meckiff was the centre of media attention, and one report described him as cricket's "bogey man". The South Africans were reportedly stunned by Meckiff's selection, giving the impression that they considered him an illegitimate bowler. Reaction in England was also hostile, ahead of Australia's forthcoming tour in the English summer of 1964. Colin Ingleby-Mackenzie wrote in the News of the World: "there is no room in cricket for throwers. Let us hope that...the Australian selectors realise this...otherwise the throwing war will be waged in earnest".

Despite this effort, he was not selected for the Second Test. His season was then marred when he was called for throwing for the first time in any competition. In January 1963, Victoria played South Australia at the Adelaide Oval. After Victoria had made 218, Meckiff removed both openers—Les Favell and Ken Cunningham—for the cost of 19 runs before Jack Kierse no-balled the fourth ball of his fourth over. He continued to bowl; his remaining deliveries were deemed legal by the umpires, and he ended with 5/84 in South Australia's reply of 8/408 declared. The hosts had a target of only 108 in the second innings for victory, but Meckiff removed Favell, Cunningham and Neil Dansie with the new ball to destabilise the run-chase. He ended with 3/25 as the South Australians stumbled to 7/86 and held on for a draw.

In the Test match, which began on 6 December 1963, Australia batted first; Meckiff contributed seven runs before being bowled by Peter Pollock. On the second day, after the Australian innings ended on 435, South Africa began to bat just after the luncheon interval. Bowling from the Stanley Street End, Graham McKenzie conceded 13 runs from the first over. Meckiff took the ball for the second over, bowling from the Vulture Street End to South African captain Trevor Goddard. At the same time, the South African manager Ken Viljoen set up a camera square of the wicket among the spectators and began filming the left-armer's bowling action. Meckiff was no-balled four times by Egar—who was standing at square leg—in what would be his only over of the match. After the Victorian bowled a gentle "loosener" as his first ball (and escaped a front-foot no-ball call), "the drama began". Egar ruled the second, third, fifth and ninth balls to be throws, and therefore illegitimate. After the third and fifth balls—the latter a full toss that Goddard hit for four—Benaud came over to consult his fast bowler. After the ninth ball, Meckiff and Benaud had another meeting, and the remaining three balls were deemed to be fair. In the meantime, the crowd roared loudly, heckling Egar and supporting the beleaguered bowler. Meckiff had previously been passed in five countries, having played Tests in four of these nations. Egar had cleared his bowling on five previous occasions, in three Shield matches and two Tests; the Victorian had bowled 119.1 overs in these games without incident. Egar later said "My only judgement was what I saw at the time". Benaud removed his paceman from the attack and Meckiff did not bowl again in the match, later saying he could not remember the over because he was absorbed by a feeling of complete deflation.

In 1962–63, Meckiff was again under the spotlight when Ted Dexter's Englishmen toured Australia. He topped the bowling averages for the Australian first-class season with 58 wickets at 19.86 from ten matches, as Victoria won the Sheffield Shield, ending New South Wales' run of titles. Meckiff and Alan Connolly formed an effective pace pairing, helping Victoria to win four of its eight Shield games, and take first innings points in two others.

Meckiff was hoping to regain his Test place, and started his 1962–63 campaign in a Sheffield Shield match against South Australia. After Victoria made 174, the paceman took 4/65 to dismiss South Australia for 141 in the first innings. In the second innings he took 3/76 to help seal a win. He continued his early season form in taking match figures of 7/179 against Western Australia, but was unable to prevent defeat. Despite these performances, Meckiff was overlooked for the First Test. He had another chance to vie for national selection when Victoria played England after the opening Test, and took match figures of 4/90 as the tourists completed a five-wicket victory. He dismissed Ray Illingworth, Geoff Pullar and Alan Smith as Victoria took a four-run first innings lead, but the hosts collapsed in their second innings and Dexter's men reached their target of 180 with five wickets in hand.

Meckiff's performances as the leading wicket-taker during the 1962–63 season meant that he could not be justifiably denied national selection on grounds of productivity, so the matter of his legitimacy had to be resolved. Meanwhile, the retirement of pace spearhead Davidson left a vacancy in the Australian team ahead of the 1963–64 home Test series against South Africa. In the opening Shield matches of the season in Melbourne, Meckiff took match figures of 5/102 and 6/107 against South and Western Australia respectively. His wickets included Test batsmen Les Favell, Garry Sobers, Keith Slater and Barry Shepherd. In the latter match he took the first five wickets in the innings to reduce Western Australia to 5/54. Despite his contributions, Victoria were unable to secure victories against either of their opponents. However, as a result of these strong personal performances, Meckiff was selected for the First Test in Brisbane.

The controversy over Meckiff's action persisted as throwing was in the spotlight in England, where it was regarded as a growing problem. The issue prompted numerous international discussions and meetings on amending the throwing law and the interpretation thereof. An expected confrontation with English umpires in 1961 was averted when the bowler suffered multiple injuries in the preceding Australian summer and was omitted from the team to tour England, but Meckiff had two strong seasons in domestic cricket that forced the Australian selectors to recall him for the Tests against South Africa in 1963–64. The Victorian's recall had occurred despite his being no-balled for throwing in two separate Sheffield Shield matches in the previous season. In his first over of the Test, Meckiff was no-balled four times by umpire Egar. Australian captain Richie Benaud chose to not bowl his paceman again, and Meckiff retired from all cricket at the end of the match. The throwing controversy provoked heavy debate among cricket commentators, players and umpires, past and present; some praised Egar's no-ball call while others condemned the umpire and felt that the paceman had bowled in the same way as he had always done. Others felt that Meckiff had been set up so that he would be no-balled in an "execution" or "sacrifice" to prove Australia's resolve against throwing.

Off the field, the throwing controversy was beginning to affect Meckiff adversely. In his 1961 autobiography, prophetically titled Thrown Out, he said the accusations took a deep personal toll on him and his family, and prompted him to shun the public. He became known by the derisive nickname "Chucker" and was credited on the front cover of his autobiography as "Ian 'Chucker' Meckiff". Meckiff reported that from the Melbourne Test onwards, his son was verbally abused by classmates; Meckiff's parents were persistently told their son bowled illegally. He added that doctors believed his anxiety was contributing to stomach ailments. At the time, players were not allowed to talk to the media during the season, and Meckiff was upset because he could not rebut his accusers while they were free to attack him. He denied ever throwing, but admitted he may have been open to suspicion after bowling 15 to 20 overs in a day's play, as his body would begin to fall away in the delivery stride due to fatigue. He had a permanently bent bowling arm; he generated his pace from his wrist action, and asserted that his thin wrists gave the impression that his whole arm was bending.

On his return to Australia, Dowling angrily accused the English cricket community of pre-judging Meckiff. Dowling said the strident press attacks on Meckiff had amounted to intimidation of umpires through the media, and claimed that some administrators had privately told him that the Australian paceman would be called if he toured England. The president of the Marylebone Cricket Club, Sir Hubert Ashton, said he hoped Australia would not choose Meckiff for their 1961 tour.

The throwing controversy subsided during the 1961 English season, and the 1961–62 Australian season was purely domestic, with no touring international teams. As a result, there were no pressing diplomacy imperatives involving throwing. Meckiff was Victoria's leading bowler with 28 wickets at 27.14 in eight matches and was not called. His best performance was 5/53 in the first innings of the match against Queensland at the MCG, which ended in defeat for the home team. Despite healthy results for the season overall, the paceman struggled and took match figures of 2/136 and 3/112 as Victoria lost both their matches against the dominant New South Wales XI, who won their ninth successive Shield. At the end of the season, Meckiff was part of an International XI that toured New Zealand and played against the hosts' national team and against teams from India and Pakistan. He had little success, taking four wickets at 53.00 in three matches.

Within the wider cricket community there was a steady crescendo of comment condemning the prevalence of bowlers with suspect actions. Prior to the alteration of the bowling law by the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1960, the law stated:

In 1960, at a meeting of the Imperial Cricket Conference in London, cricket's "throwing law" was changed to forbid the straightening of the arm at the instant of the ball's delivery. The Australian Board of Control were so concerned about the controversy and its possible impact on the Australian game that they sent Board chairman Dowling and board member Sir Donald Bradman to the meeting, rather than the customary Britain-based representative. Despite the agreed change in the law, because of conflicting interpretations in different countries a compromise was agreed, which specified an amnesty during the forthcoming 1961 Australian tour to England. It was agreed that on the tour, umpires would privately report any concerns about bowling actions to the teams concerned, for them to remedy. After the tour, umpires would "call" bowlers whenever they felt the new law to have been breached.

The Victorian was not called during the 1960–61 Australian season, but his performances were ineffective and he was repeatedly hampered by injuries. In particular, a strained achilles tendon restricted his speed and penetration, particularly in the lead-up to the opening Test. Meckiff played in the First and the Third Tests, taking two wickets at 117.00 and scoring 12 runs at 6.00; he was unable to complete either match, sustaining injuries during the second innings of both fixtures. These fitness problems resulted in his omission for the three other Tests. During the summer, Meckiff's bowling was passed by Col Egar, who later ended his career. He noted that the umpire had told him there was little point in changing his action.

In 1959–60, the season started with a Test trial between the XIs of Lindwall and Benaud. Meckiff claimed a match total of 4/90 for Lindwall's men and was selected for the Test tour of Pakistan and India. Before the team departed, Meckiff demonstrated his new bowling action, which used a rigid left arm during the run-up, before swinging the arm over during the delivery stride. Over the next two years, sceptics and sporting opponents mostly regarded his action as fair, and said so in public. He was not called for throwing in either India or Pakistan, meaning that he had played in five nations without being sanctioned.

Meckiff's most successful Test during the Indian tour was the drawn third match at Brabourne Stadium in Bombay, where he captured 4/79 and 3/67. In the Indian first innings, after removing opener Nari Contractor for 108, Meckiff captured four of the next five wickets as India collapsed from 3/199 to 8/246—they were eventually all out for 289. In the second innings he secured three quick wickets as the hosts slumped from 0/99 to 4/116 before a recovery which prevented their defeat. Meckiff continued to hold the upper hand over Borde, dismissing him in both innings. The Victorian bowler had little success in the final two Tests, taking only three wickets as Australia won the series 2–1. He ended the subcontinental tour with 15 wickets at 35.73, and scored 70 runs at 23.33. He had particular success against Borde, dismissing him five times in as many Tests. Meckiff returned to Australia in time to play his solitary Sheffield Shield match for the 1959–60 season, taking the only ten-wicket match haul of his career. He took 5/41 and 5/84 to set up an easy win over Western Australia. His first innings effort helped dismiss Western Australia for 141, and Victoria replied with 431 to move into a match-winning position. He also helped South Melbourne to another district title, taking 9/51—including a hat-trick—in the last match of the regular season against Fitzroy. This victory allowed South Melbourne to climb from seventh to fourth in the table and become the last qualifier for the semi-finals. They subsequently won their semi-final and the grand final to secure the title.

Persistently hampered by ankle and back injuries, Meckiff aggregated only 19 first-class wickets at 40 for the summer. His best innings performance was 4/39 against Queensland and he was unable to claim more than five wickets in any single match. In one match against arch-rivals New South Wales, the Victorian took a total of 5/155, all of his wickets being Test batsmen. Meckiff was not selected for the Ashes tour. His lack of form saved the Australian selectors the difficult choice of whether to omit him because of his action and avoid a potential run-in with umpires in England. Critics claimed that his new bowling action adopted in 1959–60 had made him legitimate but reduced his pace and effectiveness.

The Victorian paceman's international career peaked in 1958–59 during the English tour of Australia. He started the season with a match for Victoria against the tourists, taking 4/69 and 1/16 in a losing effort. His wickets included English Test batsmen Peter Richardson (twice), Arthur Milton and Raman Subba Row.

Meckiff's career peaked at the Second Test, which began on New Year's Eve, 1958 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It was his first international fixture in front of his home crowd, and also marked the start of his career-long public problem with accusations of throwing. The match was dominated by the Victorian and his left-arm pace partner Davidson; the pair took 18 of the 20 English wickets to fall. England's first innings was headlined by Davidson's 6/64; Meckiff took 3/69, including the wicket of England captain May for 113 with a swinging ball, which breached the batsman's defence and crashed into the stumps. This ended a century partnership with Cowdrey, and triggered a collapse that saw England be dismissed for 259, the last six English wickets falling for 49 runs. Meckiff rated the ball as the best of his career. He made a duck as the hosts replied with 308 to take a 49-run lead. It was in England's second innings that Australia's left-arm pacemen were at their most potent; apart from one over from Benaud the pair bowled unchanged to dismiss England for 87 in the 32nd over, Meckiff taking 6/38. Backed a by a vocal home crowd, the Victorian dismissed opener Richardson for three, before removing Bailey, Tom Graveney and Cowdrey in quick succession. He followed this by removing the English skipper for a second time to leave England at 7/71. This set up a comfortable Australian victory as they reached their target of 39 with the loss of two wickets. The Australian pace duo were aided by a series of difficult, diving catches. The pair combined forces when Davidson caught May, and then Graveney, in the leg trap behind square from the bowling of his fellow left-armer, who called the reflex catches "absolutely unbelievable". Meckiff described the hometown atmosphere as "electrifying", and attributed his performance to the crowd support.

Journalists who wrote books about the 1958–59 season made thinly veiled references to the controversy in the names of their work. Fingleton's account on the series was entitled Four Chukkas to Australia, while E. N. Wellings labelled his tome The Ashes Thrown Away, and accused Meckiff, along with Burke, Rorke and Keith Slater of throwing for Australia in the Tests. An Australian television debate program featured an entire session where English journalists Wellings and Crawford White discussed the throwing issue with former Australian Test cricketers Keith Miller and Sid Barnes.

Strong showings for Victoria earned Meckiff selection in Neil Harvey's XI for the one-off match against Ray Lindwall's XI at the start of January 1957. These annual fixtures were used as trials for the leading players vying for national selection. Lindwall's men batted first and made 428; Meckiff was the most successful bowler, taking 6/75 while his fellow-bowlers struggled to make inroads into the opposition batsmen. His first wicket was Test batsman Ken Mackay for 99, and he followed this by removing Bob Simpson, Norm O'Neill and Graeme Hole in the middle-order. Meckiff followed his productive bowling with 47 runs in a tail-wagging performance, adding 71 for the eighth wicket with Wally Grout as Harvey's men responded with 419. The Victorian took 0/18 in the second innings as Lindwall's team fell for 188 to leave Harvey's XI with a victory target of 198, which was achieved with seven wickets in hand.

Meckiff had performed strongly in his debut first-class season, ending with 27 wickets at an average of 23.66. He was the ninth-highest wicket-taker for the Australian summer and his average was superior to all eight bowlers who took more wickets. At season's end, he was rewarded with selection for Australia's non-Test tour of New Zealand in February and March 1957. The hosts had Test status at the time, but Australia refused to ratify games against their trans-Tasman neighbours as Test matches, citing the weakness of the New Zealand team.

The following season, when the team for the 1957–58 South African tour was announced, Lindwall's name was omitted, despite his 212 Test wickets, second only to Clarrie Grimmett among Australian bowlers. Meckiff was selected for the tour as part of Australia's generational change, after a single season in first-class cricket, and the squad departed for South Africa in October. On the tour, in five first-class matches ahead of the Tests he took 12 wickets, at 26.25.

With an unconventional front-on bowling action, Meckiff progressed through the district cricket ranks at South Melbourne Cricket Club, making his first-class debut for Victoria in 1956–57. After a productive first season, Meckiff was named in a new-look Australian team for the 1957–58 tour of South Africa. This was the result of a generational change in the Australian Test team after a decline in performances in the 1950s. The shift saw Meckiff open the bowling in his debut Test, where he performed strongly to take eight wickets. Generating his pace from an unusual bent-arm action which involved a flick of the wrist, Meckiff reached his peak in the Second Test of the 1958–59 season against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. He took 6/38 in the second innings as England were dismissed for 87, setting up an Australian victory. His achievement was engulfed by controversy, as English media and former players accused him of throwing Australia to victory.

Meckiff made his first-class debut for Victoria in 1956–1957 against Western Australia. Coming in to bat with his state's score at 8 wickets for 77 (8/77), he made 19 not out to help them reach 131, before taking three wickets for 45 runs (3/45) to restrict Western Australia to a 34-run first innings lead. His first wicket was future Australian captain Bob Simpson for a duck, and he followed up by removing Test batsmen Barry Shepherd and Ken Meuleman. Meckiff made 11 in the second innings and took 0/40 as Victoria lost by four wickets.

Meckiff's most prominent showing in his debut season was in the Sheffield Shield match against New South Wales during the Christmas period of 1956. At the time, the two states were by far the strongest in Australia; in the past decade, the teams had 18 of the 20 top-two Shield placings between them, and New South Wales were in the process of winning nine consecutive titles. The arch-rivals were at full strength as no international matches were held during the season.

The tour represented a changing of the guard in Australian cricket following the tour of England and the Indian subcontinent in 1956, with the bowling line-up heavily overhauled due to advancing age, injury and loss of form. Australia had lost three Ashes series in a row, and captain Ian Johnson and his deputy Keith Miller retired upon their return home. Johnson was Australia's first-choice spinner while Miller and the 35-year-old Ray Lindwall had formed Australia's new ball pairing for the previous decade. In addition, the fast bowling all rounder Ron Archer suffered a long-term knee injury during the 1956 tour, while paceman Pat Crawford played only one first-class match in 1956–57 after his marriage broke down. In the wake of Australia's decline in the past five years, the selectors turned to youth in an attempt to rebuild the side, resting several established Test representatives from the side. Ian Craig was installed as the nation's youngest ever captain at the age of 22, having previously played only six Tests without securing a regular position in the team.

Meckiff played Australian rules football for Mentone in the Federal League, helping them win the premiership in 1956. He received offers to play in the Victorian Football League, the top-tier competition at the time, but declined contracts so he could pursue his cricket career. Meckiff also played golf in pennant competition and captained the Victoria Golf Club.

Having failed as a spin bowler in a trial at Richmond in 1950, Meckiff switched to fast bowling in 1951–52 when he began his district career in Victorian Premier Cricket with South Melbourne. He started in the Fourth XI after his brother had to withdraw from a match. The following summer, aged 17, Meckiff was in the senior team and played in South Melbourne's first championship-winning side in his debut season in the First XI, although his club career was sometimes interrupted by national service in the reserves. After receiving requests from cricket administrators, the military authorities scheduled the leave of young players for weekends, so that the impact on their careers would be minimised. At the time, Australia lacked bowlers of great pace, so a teammate advised Meckiff to bowl as fast as he could, without regard for accuracy—a plan he successfully adopted.

Sections of the cricket community believed Meckiff was no-balled to prove that Australia was serious about dealing with the wave of complaints regarding suspected throwing in the 1950s and 1960s. Leading cricket historian David Frith wrote: "Meckiff was a popular Australian, and won much sympathy among those who believed him innocent or to have been victimised in a 'clean-up campaign'." A dinner hosted by Don Bradman at his Adelaide home in January 1963 for visiting state captains was later cited to suggest that Meckiff may have been a sacrificial offering. At the dinner, attended by Bill Lawry of Victoria, Barry Shepherd, Ken Mackay and Benaud, Bradman showed frame-by-frame slow motion film of Meckiff and other suspect Australian bowlers, which purportedly depicted incriminating actions. This indicated Bradman's doubts over Meckiff's legitimacy, yet Bradman was one of the selectors who agreed to the bowler's inclusion in the Brisbane Test team.

Ian Meckiff (born 6 January 1935) is a former cricketer who represented Australia in 18 Test matches between 1957 and 1963. A left-arm fast bowler, he is best known for two matters that were unrelated to his skill as a player: he was the batsman run out by Joe Solomon in 1960, causing the first Tied Test in cricket history; and in December 1963, his career was sensationally ended when he was called for throwing in the First Test against South Africa by Australian umpire Col Egar. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, there had been a media frenzy about the perceived prevalence of illegal bowling actions in world cricket. The controversy and speculation that dogged Meckiff in the years preceding his final match caused sections of the cricket community to believe that he had been made a scapegoat by the Australian cricket authorities to prove their intent to stamp out throwing.

By contrast to the strident condemnation of Meckiff in the English press, Australian opinion was mixed. The former Test opener and leading commentator Jack Fingleton said: "when he [Meckiff] delivered to Bailey, his fastest ball looked most suspect" and that the left-armer should have been called for throwing. Fingleton claimed to know of five former Australian Test cricketers who felt that Meckiff threw, but only named the 1930s paceman Ernie McCormick. Former Australian player Tommy Andrews claimed: "if they stop throwing in Australia, cricket will die". Former Australian captain Ian Johnson argued that if Meckiff were to be cited for an illegal action for jerking his wrist, then leading English bowlers such as Trueman, Brian Statham and Tony Lock, who played against Australia during the season, should also be sanctioned. As with Meckiff, Lock was under scrutiny at the time and later tried to change his bowling action but the new style coincided with a downturn in results. Johnson also noted that any successful spinner would be called for throwing if the law were enforced strictly because of their flicking of the wrist and fingers during the delivery of the ball, as they could not otherwise extract spin. In 1993, Robert Coleman, the historian of the Victorian Cricket Association, decried the anti-Meckiff campaign as "Fleet Street bleating", and said: "there have been no more hysterical outbursts on the subject [of throwing] than occurred during England's 1958–59 tour". Writing decades after the event, Pollard said "Meckiff, in fact, went to the crease with a beautifully relaxed approach, paused momentarily with his arm absolutely straight, and then let the ball go with a blurred swing of the arm that was impossible to follow from 60 yards away, even with the aid of good binoculars."

The match ended on the eve of Meckiff's 24th birthday, but Australian celebrations were marred by English journalists, who levelled accusations of throwing against him and some of his colleagues. The evening edition of the Melbourne Herald carried a column by former English spinner Johnny Wardle, accusing Meckiff of "throwing England out". Wardle's piece was written confrontationally, as a series of sentences starting with "I accuse". This was followed by more anti-Meckiff comments in the English press, including one that dubbed the bowler "the greatest ogre of international cricket since Larwood". The Evening News proclaimed: "Meckiff's throwing was devastating" and The Star said: "at least two of his wickets were obtained by deliveries which looked to be thrown". Former England spinner Ian Peebles asserted that Meckiff and Gordon Rorke threw "the greater number of balls they deliver", while former English paceman Alf Gover claimed that none of the left-armer's deliveries were legal; it was "ridiculous that a player of his action should be the agent of England's destruction". According to Australian writer Jack Pollard, such headlines relegated the Cold War, which usually occupied the front pages, to the interior of the English newspapers.