Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

110 Achievement and Rejection in Western Australia What is certain is that Carmody’s salary had been halved just when his personal responsibilities were growing. On 27 March 1950 Ruth gave birth to daughter Jill and soon Keith would begin building a family home in the Perth hills. Equally decisive was the decision of the WACA to employ him only from September to March in each of the two years of his revised contract. This arrangement made further country tours impossible, eliminating his own coaching priority and his major achievement . Certainly, there was no justification for WACA secretary Les Truman’s public statement that ‘Carmody was unhappy with his form and felt unable to carry on coaching in a satisfactory manner’. It can only have intensified Keith’s alienation from the WACA if he read The West Australian ’s report of 16 January 1951 that R.J.Bryant – a prominent member of the Executive – had told the Cricket Council that Truman had sought without success an explanation from Mr Carmody before he handed in his resignation. But at least there was great comfort in the reaction of the Cricket Council, representing affiliated district clubs, which ‘carried with acclamation a vote of appreciation of D.K.Carmody’s work.’ The newspaper added: He had done more for West Australian cricket than any other coach, including A.J.Richardson. 50 He had carried the cricket banner into the country and into the schools and had done untold good. He had inaugurated valuable competitions among boys in the country and metropolitan areas … the Junior country week managers had carried a vote of appreciation of the coach’s work. There was good reason for these tributes and some consolation for Carmody a mere four months after his resignation. In April 1951 he attended the welcome for the West Australian schoolboys’ team returning victorious from Adelaide after its first-ever appearance in the Interstate carnival. Despite press reports that the team had bowled and fielded far better than their opponents, it would be too much to attribute the success entirely to Keith’s coaching. Much of it lay with the batting of captain Barry Shepherd, notably 130 in 142 minutes against New South Wales. It’s hard to believe that this future state captain and Test batsman would have remained a hidden talent in Donnybrook in the state’s south- west without the Carmody coaching programme. Not yet 14 in 1951, but already weighing 12 and a half stone, he was always 50 Arthur Richardson, one of the few men to play Test cricket for Australia wearing glasses, was imported from South Australia to coach and captain Western Australia in the 1927/28 and 1928/29 seasons.