Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

115 Achievement and Rejection in Western Australia In 1951 the Perth Daily News described a ‘hold-up’ in the match against Victoria in Melbourne ‘while Carmody and Langdon haggled’ over a bowling change: ‘Carmody tossed the ball to Langdon, Langdon tossed it back, and Carmody, now down near the bowler’s crease from his slips position, tossed it back again.’ The game then continued ‘amid a hum of conjecture’. Langdon – the state’s best batsman in the early Shield years – eventually became captain for one season after slumping form and mounting disillusion with the WACA hierarchy led to Carmody’s demotion from the team in 1952/53. But Langdon’s self-confessed indifference to aspects of the role – especially socialising with teammates off the field – was in stark contrast to Carmody’s enthusiasm. Soon Langdon ‘didn’t think twice’ about using the Christmas break from his schoolteaching job to take a holiday, even though it meant missing a Shield match and wrecking any possibility of being selected for the 1953 tour to England. When he abandoned the captaincy to marry his wartime English girlfriend and play a season in the Lancashire League, his absence further weakened a state team also deprived of the recently arrived Ken Meuleman, who spent the entire 1953/54 season touring India with a Commonwealth team, where he confirmed his quality by heading the batting averages in the unofficial ‘Tests’. Only the absence of these fine two batsmen opened the door for Carmody’s return as captain. Initially taking on the vice-captaincy held previously by Edwards and Langdon, Meuleman quickly developed an excellent working relationship with Carmody after arriving in 1952/53 from Victoria with strong credentials. 54 Interviewed in 1997, he rated Carmody 54 Meuleman had been a serious contender for a place in the Australian Test team after strong performances for Victoria in the immediate post-war years and playing a single Test, albeit without scoring a single run, in New Zealand in 1945/46. He moved West after state selectors wanted him to open the batting against his will, Roy Webber’s brief assessment of Keith’s career as at the end of Southern Hemisphere season of 1952/53.