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Bill Lawry

Bill Lawry
Personal information
Full name William Morris Lawry
Born (1937-02-11) 11 February 1937 (age 80)
Thornbury, Victoria, Australia
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Batting style Left-hand
Bowling style Left-arm medium pace
Role Opening batsman
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 219) 8 June 1961 v England
Last Test 3 February 1971 v England
Only ODI (cap 4) 5 January 1971 v England
Domestic team information
Years Team
1956–1972 Victoria
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC List A
Matches 67 1 249 7
Runs scored 5234 27 18734 309
Batting average 47.15 27.00 50.90 51.50
100s/50s 13/27 0/0 50/100 1/1
Top score 210 27 266 108*
Balls bowled 14 0 266 0
Wickets 0 0 5 0
Bowling average n/a n/a 37.60 n/a
5 wickets in innings 0 0 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 0 0 0
Best bowling n/a n/a 1/3 n/a
Catches/stumpings 30/0 1/0 122/0 3/0
Source: CricketArchive, 8 March 2008

William Morris "Bill" Lawry, AM (born 11 February 1937) is a former cricketer who played for Victoria and Australia. He captained Australia in 25 Tests, winning nine, losing eight and drawing eight, and led Australia in the inaugural One Day International match, played in 1971. An opening batsman with a reputation for resolute defence, he had the ability to spend long periods of time at the crease. As his career progressed, he wound back his strokeplay to the point where he was described by an English journalist as "the corpse with pads on". Lawry was unceremoniously dumped as captain and player for the final Test of the 1970–71 Ashes series in Australia. Lawry's sacking is regarded as one of the more distasteful incidents in Australian cricket history—he was not informed personally of the selectors' decision before the decision was first broadcast on radio and he only became aware of his fate when confronted by reporters. Lawry is part of the Nine Network cricket commentary team and has been in the role for over 30 years.

Lawry was born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. He was given the names William Morris after the early Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes. His father Alfred played amateur cricket until the age of 51. Bill never saw his father play, who was aged 47 when Bill was born. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team. He spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's district competition playing for Northcote's fourth team, working his way up to the First XI by the age of sixteen. At the time, he was apprenticed as a plumber and attending Preston Technical College. Lawry was selected for Victoria's Second XI at the age of seventeen. He made a duck against the South Australians and did not see any further action for the Seconds for the rest of the summer of 1954–55. The following season, Lawry was recalled to the Seconds and scored 183 against South Australia.


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