Neil Harvey - Move To New South Wales and Non Captaincy

Move To New South Wales and Non Captaincy

After returning from South Africa, Harvey embarrassed the Board of Control when he frankly discussed his financial situation during a television interview. He revealed that the players earned only £85 per Test and that he was almost broke, despite being an automatic selection for Australia. Ten years of making time for cricket had disrupted his working life, so he was contemplating a move to South Africa, the homeland of his wife, Iris. Consequently, Harvey received a job offer to work as a sales supervisor for a glass manufacturer in Sydney, so he moved to New South Wales and gave up the Victorian captaincy. As a new player to NSW, he was behind vice-captain Richie Benaud in the state's pecking order, despite being the Test vice-captain, ahead of Benaud. Fatefully, Craig was unfit for the start of the 1958–59 season, due to the after-effects of hepatitis.

This left the Australian captaincy open again. Harvey started the season strongly and scored 326 runs in his first three innings. This included 160 against Queensland and 149 for his new state against the touring England team of Peter May. In this match, Benaud had captained New South Wales and the hosts had the better of the play. They took a 214-run first innings lead and May's men when 6/356 when time ran out.

Harvey was appointed to captain an Australian XI in a warm-up match against the touring Englishmen, indicating that the selectors were considering him for the Test captaincy. Harvey scored a duck and 38 and the Australians lost heavily by 345 runs on a wicket with a crater. Therefore, Benaud was made Australian captain ahead of Harvey.

As Benaud's deputy, Harvey helped materially in Australia's surprise 4–0 series victory to reclaim the Ashes. Harvey's form was modest, though. He scored 296 runs at 42.29, with more than half coming in one innings—a brilliant 167 in the Second Test at Melbourne, more than half his team's 308, which helped secure an eight wicket victory in the match. Otherwise, a 41 in the Fourth Test was the only other time he passed 25 in the series. Outside the Tests, he scored 92 in the second match of the season between New South Wales and England, and ended the season with 949 runs at 49.95. It was season of two halves; in the latter two months, he scored only 339 runs.

During the 1959–60 season, Australian undertook an arduous tour of the subcontinent, with three and five Tests against Pakistan and India, respectively. Prior to the trip, Harvey made 112 in the second innings to help Lindwall's XI defeat Benaud's XI by seven wickets.

In Dhaka, East Pakistan (now in Bangladesh), Harvey made 96 on a matting pitch over rough ground in the First Test, mastering the medium pace of Fazal Mahmood, while his teammates struggled to score. In the course of the innings, Harvey had to overcome a fever, dysentery and physical illness, which forced him to leave six times to recompose himself. Gideon Haigh called it "one of his most dazzling innings". Described by Benaud as "one of the best innings at Test level", it set up an Australian win. During his stay at the crease, his partners contributed 48 runs while seven wickets fell. Harvey's innings allowed Australia to score 225 in reply to the hosts' 200. Harvey then made 30 in the second innings to help ensure an eight-wicket win.

After scoring 43 in the first innings, the second Test in Lahore came down to a run-chase for Australia, with Harvey and Norm O'Neill seemingly on schedule to win before time ran out. However, the Pakistani fielders began to waste time in an attempt to foil an Australian victory. They swapped the cover and midwicket fielders very slowly whenever the left and right-handed combination of Harvey and O'Neill took a single and changed the batsman on strike. To counter this, Harvey deliberately backed away from a straight ball and let himself be bowled, throwing his wicket away for 37. This allowed Benaud to come in and bat with O'Neill so that the two right-handed batsmen would give the Pakistanis no opportunity to waste time by switching the field. Australia won the match with minutes to spare. Harvey scored 54 and 13 not out in the drawn third Test at Karachi. Australia took the series 2–0, but would not win another Test in Pakistan until 1998. Harvey ended the series with 273 runs at 54.60.

In India, Harvey scored 114 out of Australia's 468 in the First Test at Delhi, setting up an innings victory for Australia. On a pitch conducive to spin at Kanpur for the second Test, Harvey was given a rare opportunity to bowl and he took the wicket of the Indian captain, Gulabrai Ramchand. In addition, he scored 51 and 25, the second highest Australian score in each innings in a low-scoring match, but India won to square the series, with off spinner Jasu Patel taking 14/124. Harvey hit 102 in a drawn third Test in Bombay and took his third (and final) Test wicket, A. G. Milkha Singh, in the fourth Test at Madras. He ended the series with 356 runs at 50.86, a significant contribution to Australia's 2–1 triumph.