Neil Harvey - International Twilight

International Twilight

In the last years of his Test career, Harvey struggled, making 876 runs at 33.69 in three Test series.

At the start of the 1960–61 season, there was little indication of this. In his first five innings for the summer, Harvey hit 135 against Queensland, 80 and 63 for an Australian XI against the touring West Indies, 229 against Queensland and 109 for New South Wales against the Caribbean team. However, his form tapered away during the thrilling 1960–61 home series against the West Indies (which included the first tie in Test history). Harvey was ineffective apart from a score of 85 in the second innings of the Third Test, which Australia lost. He then missed the Fourth Test due to injury. He struggled in the Tests, scoring only 143 runs at 17.88, but prospered against the Caribbean tourists in the tour matches, scoring 326 runs at 81.50. Overall, he totalled 849 runs at 56.60 for the season.

Harvey began his final tour to England in 1961, and Benaud's regular absences due to a shoulder injury allowed him to lead Australia for a third of the tour matches. This included most of the first month of the tour; Benaud hurt his shoulder in the first match against Worcestershire, and spent most of the next three weeks either not bowling or travelling to London away from his men for specialist treatment. At one stage, Australia were left with only 10 men on the field when Benaud excused himself and his replacement succumbed to illness, requiring an Englishman to stand in. Harvey scored 474 runs at 47.40 in eight matches leading up to the Tests, including centuries against Lancashire and Glamorgan. It seemed that Harvey would captain Australia in a Test for the first time with Benaud's shoulder still problematic, but the captain declared himself fit. Harvey then made 114 in the drawn First Test at Edgbaston. This helped Australia take a 321-run first innings lead and put them in control of the match, but the hosts batted for the remainder of the match to stave off defeat; Benaud's shoulder prevented him from bowling more than nine overs.

The injury forced Benaud out of the next Test, meaning that Harvey finally captained Australia at the highest level, in the Second Test at Lord's, with Davidson carrying an injury and wicketkeeper Wally Grout with a black eye. This meant that Australia's two best bowlers were injured, although Davidson agreed to play. Played on a controversial pitch with a noticeable ridge running across it, which caused irregular bounce, it was one of the great Test matches, known as "The Battle of the Ridge". Davidson took 5/42 and bruised many of the English batsmen with the irregular bounce as the hosts were bowled out for 205. Australia then replied with 339, in large part due to Bill Lawry's 130, during which he sustained many blows. In the second innings, Harvey's captaincy moves proved to be highly productive. He gave the new ball to Graham McKenzie, a young paceman playing in his first international series. McKenzie responded by taking 5/37. Harvey brought the part-time leg spin of Bob Simpson into the attack when Ray Illingworth had just arrived at the crease, and moved himself into the leg slip position. Illingworth edged Simpson into Harvey's hands for a duck. England fell for 202, leaving Australia a target of 69.

However, victory appeared to be far from certain when Australia slumped to 4/19 on the erratic surface. Harvey sent Peter Burge out to attack the bowling, a tactic that worked as Australia won by five wickets. Burge hit the winning runs after earlier being dropped. The "Battle of the Ridge" was the only time Harvey captained Australia in a Test match. Despite the win, Harvey was not prominent in terms of his individual contribution, scoring 27 and four. Harvey described the win as "propbably my proudest moment. We really got on the French champagne that afternoon. I knew it'd be my only Test match as captain and, being at Lord's, I decided to make the best of it."

Benaud returned for the Third Test, when England levelled the series despite twin half-centuries of 73 and 53 from Harvey, who top-scored in both innings on a dustbowl in a match that lasted only three days. Harvey failed to pass 35 in the last two Tests, and ended with 338 runs at 42.25, and was a significant factor in Australia's eventual 2–1 victory. In the second half of the tour, Harvey added centuries against Nottinghamshire and Warwickshire and took his career best bowling fugres of 4/8 against Middlesex to help set up a ten-wicket win. He ended his final tour for Australia with 1452 runs at 44.00 with five centuries. During the season, Harvey and Benaud led aggressively in order to force a result through attacking strategy and a determination to avoid time-wasting.

The 1961–62 was purely domestic, and Harvey played a full season in the Sheffield Shield as New South Wales won their ninth consecutive title. However, Harvey was not prominent in the team's success and scored only 425 runs at 26.56 with two fifties for the season.

Having stated his intention to retire at the end of the summer, Harvey started his final season in 1962–63 strongly. He scored 83, 44 and 128 not in his first three interstate innings for the season, and then scored 51, 21 and 63 in warm-up matches against England.

Harvey was thus selected in the series against England, his last in international cricket. During the season, Harvey applied to the Australian Cricket Board for permission to work as a journalist while also playing cricket. The application was refused, but Harvey wrote some bitter criticism of England captain Ted Dexter at the end of the series. Following a complaint from the Marylebone Cricket Club, the ACB said that it deplored Harvey's comments. Beginning steadily with half-centuries in the first and third Tests, Harvey made his 21st and final century in the fourth Test at Adelaide. Scoring 154 in a drawn match at the venue where his international career began 15 seasons earlier, Harvey then returned to his adopted hometown of Sydney for his farewell match. With the series level at 1–1, the Ashes were still alive but the game turned into a dull draw and Harvey scored 22 and 28. He was bowled by David Allen in the final innings. In the two English innings, he held six catches to equal the world record, a reminder of his prowess as one of Australia's great all-round fielders. Harvey retired as Australia's most capped player, and a tally of runs and centuries second only to Don Bradman.

Harvey made centuries in two of his last three first-class matches. In his last Sheffield Shield match, he scored an unbeaten 231 against South Australia in less than five hours, including 120 runs in one session. This set up a ten-wicket victory. In his final season, Harvey scored 1110 runs at 52.85.