Jim Burke (cricketer) - Lancashire League and Recall

Lancashire League and Recall

Burke made his come-back by combining business and cricket, moving to England for a season as Todmorden's professional in the Lancashire League in 1954. He failed to manage a century, but did score five half-centuries including two nineties in 23 matches. Burke made 97 not out and then took 8/14 in a win over East Lancashire, his best batting and bowling figures for the whole season. He took five or more wickets in an innings in 11 matches.

Burke started the new Australian season in 1954–55 with 137 against Queensland. They then scored 6 and 34 not out in his state's match against Len Hutton's touring Englishmen. This was not enough for him to gain selection in the First Test, which AUstralia won by an innings. The Australian selectors recalled him for two Tests in the 1954–55 series against England. The first came in the Second Test in Sydney when Keith Miller was injured. Burke scored 44 and 14 as England levelled the series in a low-scoring 38-run win.

He was dropped for the Third Test when Miller returned. He was recalled for the Fourth Test in Adelaide and made 18 and 5 as England sealed the series with a third win in a row. In the final match of the season, Burke scored 62 in the second innings after New South Wales and England had both scored 172 in the first innings. His team went on to take a 45-run win, the only defeat inflicted on the tourists for the summer apart from the First Test. Burke removed Hutton in the run-chase, taking his only wicket for the season. Overall, Burke did not have a successful season, scoring 404 runs at 36.72.

Burke was omitted for the fifth time when left out of the 1955 squad to tour the West Indies. At this stage, he began to take a defensive attitude, trying to eliminate all risk in order to increase his productivity, something that prompted crowd heckling and demonstrations by Sydneysiders when he walked into bat. There was also a Test opener's berth available, as one the incumbent openers Arthur Morris had retired after returning from the West Indies.

The dour batsman started the 1955–56 season, which was purely domestic, strongly, scoring 85 and 56 in the opening match of the season against Queensland. In his third game of the summer, he made a defensive 189 against Western Australia in Perth, prompting Don Bradman to advise him to utilize more strokeplay. Burke responded, scoring 150 in the next innings, against South Australia, helping to set up an innings win. These strong performances saw Burke called into Lindwall's XI in the Test trial against Johnson's XI. He made 192 in the first innings and was unbeaten on 6 in the second when his team scraped to a two-wicket win. Towards the end of January, he hit 98 and was unbeaten on 57 as New South Wales slumped to 7/121 and avoided a defeat to Victoria when time ran out, helping his state take a third consecutive Shield title. Up to this point in the season, he had only taken 2/125, but he had scored 899 runs at 89.90.