Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

86 The Victory ‘Tests’ and the Long Road Home Order was maintained when 20,000 assembled for the first day of the second ‘Test’ in Calcutta. The Indian first innings of 386 stretched well into the second day before Carmody, opening the batting with Whitington, ‘contributed a sparkling 40’, reported Marien. By the time he was out lbw he’d shown ‘the spectators a generous view of cricket at its best’. But it was a match giving him no further glory. Thanks to Whitington’s 155, Pettiford’s 101 and ‘an exciting 83 from Miller’, Australia made 472. Another draw became inevitable when India replied with 350 for four, helped by ‘fielding lapses costly to the tourists’. In Sismey’s continuing absence, Carmody was wicketkeeper and ‘missed nine catching or stumping chances in the match’. With Colin Bremner in the touring party, Marien saw Keith’s selection as ‘an excellent illustration of the danger of playing a non-wicketkeeper in a hope of strengthening the batting’. Although the Victorian Bremner’s four catches and six stumpings in seven first-class matches for RAAF and Dominions teams were a modest tally, he was probably a more accomplished keeper. But his career total of eight runs from nine first-class innings makes it easy to understand the preference for Carmody, especially in view of his performances behind the stumps in the ‘Tests’ at Bramall Lane and Lord’s. After flights to Madras from Calcutta, disrupted by engine trouble in one of the two planes, the Australians achieved their only victory of the tour by six wickets over South Zone. Keith recovered from his recent lapses with scores of 33 and 87 not out. In the third ‘Test’ that followed on 7 to 10 December, Hassett’s 143 and Pepper’s hard-hitting 87 redeemed an Australian first innings that began with a Carmody ‘duck’. India’s 525 in reply to Australia’s 339 was distinguished by a brilliant 203 from Modi and 113 from Amarnath. Carmody’s second-innings top score of 92 in an opening stand of 129 with Whitington led to a total of only 275, insufficient to prevent a six-wicket defeat. A single victory and one defeat among so many draws probably mattered little to a team reluctant to tour at the outset, fatigued by travel and illness and intimidated by climate and occasionally hostile crowds. Their frustrations had sometimes surfaced in the field, especially with ‘the seemingly conditioned reflexes of the umpires, whose heads shook – invariably one way – from east to west,’ wrote Marien. 36 Worrying the players even more, as the final ‘Test’ ended, was a cable informing them, said Marien, of 36 In the second ‘Test’, wrote Marien, ‘for remarks passed to an umpire, seam bowler Roper was asked to apologise before the game continued.’