Ian Davis (cricketer) - Bright Start

Bright Start

Ian Davis' talent was spotted early and he was selected to tour the West Indies in 1969/70 with the Australian Schoolboys XI. To ensure he could make the trip his local community in Shoalhaven clubbed together to sponsor his journey, something Davis remains grateful for to this day. On tour Davis was chosen to open the batting with another future test player Gary Cosier for the first two matches against Jamaica Under-19s. He scored 11, 8 and 8. In the third tour match against Barbados he scored one run not out batting at four. In his sixth match of the tour Davis scored a magnificent century against Trindad and Tobago Under-19s and backed up with 50 not out in the second innings. He finished the tour averaging a very good 43.71 from the seven matches he played. Davis was in good company on the tour, along with Cosier, Trevor Chappell and Gary Gilmour went on the represent Australia, while Andrew Sincock had a long first-class career with South Australia.

Davis made his Sheffield Shield debut for New South Wales in November 1973 against Westen Australia at The WACA. Batting at 6 he scored 27 and 25. In his next match Davis scored a first innings 86 against South Australia. Davis' good form was enough to earn him a call-up to the Australian XI to face New Zealand in December 1973 (just a month after debut and aged just 20). A weak New Zealand side were routed by an innings and 25 runs. Davis, batting at 6, scoring 15 runs before being caught behind by Ken Wadsworth off the bowling of Dayle Hadlee.

His maiden first-class century came on 18 January 1974 against Victoria. He scored 109 not out against a Victorian bowling line-up including two other future Australia internationals Jeff Thomson and Ray Bright. Davis ended the season top of the NSW batting averages with 52.90 in 12 innings in 7 Sheffield Shield matches, the 109 not out being his only century, with 5 fifties. He was sixth overall in the Shield batting averages, with Greg Chappell top averaging a remarkable 92.09 in 13 innings.

Davis was selected for the test series in New Zealand playing in all three tests. He scored his first test fifty in Christchurch in March 1974 scoring exactly 50 runs from 107 balls before being caught by New Zealand captain Bev Congdon off the bowling of Richard Hadlee. It was during this tour that Davis made his ODI debut scoring 11 not out in Dunedin.

Davis performed well enough to be included in the Australian squad for the 1974/75 Ashes series at home to England. Although he did not appear in any of the Test matches Davis did face Mike Denness' tourists playing for NSW scoring 4 and 38 batting at 3, being dismissed by Chris Old in both innings. NSW lost the match by 187 runs.

The 1974/75 season was a poor one for Davis. He failed to register a first-class century, scoring only one fifty. He played 15 innings in 8 matches averaging only 17.21. His place in the test XI had been taken by the returning Ross Edwards. Australia regained the Ashes in a series famous for the fierce fast bowling of Lillee and Thomson. For the 1975/76 season Davis moved to Queensland. Under the captaincy of Greg Chappell, Davis was chosen to open the batting. Although not as spectacular as his debut season he averaged 34.08 from 12 innnings in 8 matches, with a top score of 61. That season Queensland won the Gillette Cup beating Western Australia in the final, Davis scored 44 from 57 balls, in a thrilling 4 run win. The 1976/77 season saw a return to form for Davis, he returned to NSW, after just one season away, and topped their batting averages (53.83) after scoring two hundreds in the first four matches of the Sheffield Shield.