Legacy and Statistical Analysis
Miller's achievements were recognised by a host of awards during his lifetime and posthumously. Miller was one of the ten inaugural inductees into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 1996. In 2000, he was named in the Australian Cricket Board Team of the Century as its vice-captain. In January 2010, Miller was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
He is also one of only four Australian cricketers, (the others being Bradman, Victor Trumper and Shane Warne) to be honoured with a portrait in the Long Room at Lord's in London. Miller is one of only three men (the others being M.H. "Vinoo" Mankad and G.StA. "Garry" Sobers) to have his name on both the batting and bowling honours boards in the visitors' dressing-room there, for scoring both a century and for taking five wickets in a test at the ground.
Miller's abilities as an all-rounder led to enormous success as both batsman and bowler. The ICC player rankings have been applied retrospectively to cricket history and Miller achieved top ten rankings with both bat and ball. As a batsman, he peaked at ninth in the world in 1952, and was a top 20 player from shortly after début and for the rest of the duration of his career. Miller's bowling abilities led to even greater success. By the end of 1946, he was already ranked sixth in the world and thereafter never slipped lower than ninth; for much of his career, he was the second best bowler in the world according to the ratings, remarkably, for a 36-year-old, peaking at the number 1 slot for a few months in 1956. As an all-rounder, therefore, it is unsurprising to find that he was peerless for most of his career, ranked as number one in the world for most of his career, including an unbroken eight year run from June 1948 until his retirement.
Miller's statistics are an inexact measure of his worth to the side. Many of the Australia teams he played in featured very strong batting line-ups, restricting his opportunities as a middle-order player. His verve and enthusiasm were also important contributors to Australian success, as was his ability to produce the unexpected (particularly with the ball) and help break partnerships. It is for this reason that he is remembered for his personality and his one-off feats, more than statistical accomplishment, in Ian Chappell's words "People who saw it still talk of Keith Miller's monster shot that hit the Members Stand clock at the SCG in the 1950s".
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