Graham Yallop - Post-WSC

Post-WSC

At the end of 1979 the WSC split ended, and Yallop lost his place in the test team. He regained his place for the 1980 tour of Pakistan. He scored an elegant 172 against Pakistan at Faisalabad yet found himself on the outer two Tests afterwards. Although one of the many Australian batsman who struggled on the 1981 Ashes tour, Yallop hit 114 at Old Trafford then was again dropped two games later.

After a golden summer of form in the Sheffield Shield in 1982–83, he was finally given an extended run of Tests in Australia during the season of 1983–84. He had an outstanding season, averaging 92.33 in 5 tests against Pakistan with a high score of 268. He missed the tour of the West Indies at the end of that summer due to injury. The next summer he played his last test, dropped after one test against the West Indies.

Yallop finished his major cricket career in South Africa as a member of the rebel Australian team led by Kim Hughes. After two seasons in South Africa without major success, Yallop returned to the relative obscurity of district cricket in Melbourne, playing for the South Melbourne and Ringwood clubs.

Yallop must carry some blame for this fickleness. Englishman Mike Brearley (his opposite number in the 1978–79 series) noted that Yallop used to "... slide his back foot to and fro in a grandmotherly shuffle ... More than most Test players, Yallop can range from the inept to the masterly." In his final Test, in November 1984, Yallop failed against the West Indian fast bowlers. In scoring 2 and 1, he looked very uncomfortable. An injury sustained while making a sliding save in a one-day match ended his season. Much was made of Yallop's susceptibility to fast bowling because of an unusual incident on the 1981 tour of England. Skipper Kim Hughes shepherded him from Bob Willis's bowling, even though Yallop never asked him to. Commentating on the match, Richie Benaud called Hughes's actions "as curious a captaincy decision as I have ever seen". Undoubtedly, Yallop was more at home against slow bowling and was considered one of the best players of spinners during an era when few existed. Although not ideally suited to the one-day game, Yallop's ODI figures are good and he played in the World Cups of 1979 and 1983 and toured India in 1984. He was a safe fielder behind the wicket and was often positioned in the gully.

Yallop averaged better than one century every five Tests and never went more than six consecutive Tests without a hundred.