Lives in Cricket No 28 - Keith Carmody

95 of his greatest contribution to cricket in Western Australia after he signed a three-year contract as state coach in July 1947. The £750 per annum position was jointly funded by the WACA and Boans department store – ‘sponsorship’ was not yet common parlance for this type of arrangement – where Keith was to conduct indoor coaching sessions in return for promotional work. * * * * * * * Air travel may have annihilated distance but Keith chose to drive the 4,000 kilometres from Sydney to Perth, roughly half of them on dirt roads from well inside South Australia. By the time he reached the eastern end of the Nullarbor Plain ‘generator trouble’ meant his ‘baby car’ had to be nursed for two days. The WACA had cancelled a planned reception by the time he arrived from Coolgardie on 13 August, ‘very tired but looking forward to getting down to work and meeting the cricketers of the State’. The quoted words were an accurate forecast of his impact in the year ahead. Although his contract didn’t include captaincy of the state team, it was inevitable the selectors would choose him to do so. Bad weather prevented useful preparation when a four-day match against the first Indian team to tour Australia was cut virtually in half. A month later the local press was disappointed that the ‘incomparable Bradman’ was involved with an Australian XI match against the Indians in Sydney and wouldn’t be South Australia’s captain in Perth’s first ever Shield match. 41 But his absence didn’t boost confidence. The Daily News conceded that ‘Western Australia may not win but our cricketers should prove at least that they are not negligible opponents for the States of greater populations and long experience.’ In fact the match proved a triumph for Keith and his team. Dropped in the first over from a chance far easier than the one that soon removed Allan Edwards, his opening partner, Keith went on to make 198, his highest first-class total and foundation for victory by an innings and 124 runs. Although there were other important contributors, the captain’s success was the most auspicious. His ‘sound knowledge of the game’ and ‘his ability to use his knowledge to his best advantage on the big occasion’ impressed The Western Mail correspondent as much as his batting: ‘As State 41 In Bradman’s absence South Australia’s captain was Phil Ridings, older brother of Ken, whose death had led to Carmody’s selection as RAAF captain in England. Interviewed in 1996 he mentioned his brother’s demise, not in relation to Carmody but in suggesting wartime flying could have been no more hazardous than the hair-raising flight to Perth that was many of his team’s first experience of air travel. Achievement and Rejection in Western Australia