Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

89 by plaster, string and adhesive tape’; Roper and Pepper had to leave the field for running repairs to their boots; and Cristofani ‘damaged his boots beyond repair’. After a lacklustre draw against a state not yet in the Sheffield Shield, the team was joined in Adelaide by Cheetham and Graham Williams, who’d missed the Indian tour. But their arrival did nothing to prevent a second draw in a match remembered best by the return of Bradman after illness had stopped him from playing throughout the war. A decision that saved him from a duck, before he scored 112, produced controversy both immediate and long-lasting. Bradman complained to the umpire when Pepper audibly resented rejection of a confident appeal for lbw. In the eyes of many, Bradman used his all-powerful position as Test captain and selector and member of both the South Australian Cricket Association Board and the Australian Board of Control to ensure that Pepper never played for Australia. He was soon to depart for a long and successful career in the Lancashire League, while Bradman’s century ended doubts about whether he would resume his career. Innings defeats by Victoria and New South Wales and more exciting draws against Queensland and Tasmania meant the Services team ended the tour without a victory in their own country. That record also meant the Board of Control could feel vindicated in its unwillingness to acknowledge the Victory matches in England as real Tests: only Hassett and Miller would be selected in the first post-war Australian team – on a tour to New Zealand – even though several of the servicemen, as well as Pepper, had been seen as potential Test players before their return home. Carmody was the player whose reputation fell furthest. * * * * * * * As early as 19 July 1945 Stan McCabe, in celebrating Australian success in the third Victory ‘Test’ at Lord’s, had told The Sydney Morning Herald that ‘K.Carmody, R.Cristofani, R.Ellis, K.Miller, C.Pepper, and S.Sismey were all future Test “hopes.”’ If personal bias influenced McCabe’s unusual, long-range assessment of Keith’s status at that stage, the Indian tour gave it supporters and credibility. Sismey saw his 92 at Calcutta as ‘magnificent’, while The Sydney Morning Herald’s Marien acknowledged his enhanced status at the end of the tour: Since the formation of the side all the emphasis has been placed on Lindsay Hassett, Keith Miller, Cec Pepper, and D.R.Cristofani as Test players … [but] Keith Carmody during The Victory ‘Tests’ and the Long Road Home