John Russell Watkins (born 16 April 1943), is a former Australian cricketer who played in one Test in 1973.
Watkins was born in Newcastle, New South Wales, where he played most of his cricket. A leg-spinner, he represented Northern New South Wales in non-first-class matches against several touring teams: India in 1967-68 (taking 10 wickets in the match), England in 1970-71, and in 1971-72 against the Rest of the World XI, when he took 4 for 99. A few weeks later he was selected to play for New South Wales against South Australia. In the first innings he took 4 for 72 out of a total of 252 for 5 declared, his victims including Ian Chappell (stumped) and Greg Chappell. In four Sheffield Shield matches the next season he took only six wickets; it was his 6 for 38 to bowl Northern New South Wales to victory against the touring Pakistan side that led the national selectors to choose him as the only spinner for the Third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground a month later, after only five first-class matches in which he had taken 10 wickets at 39.00. (By contrast, in his four matches for Northern New South Wales against touring teams he had taken 24 wickets at 21.35.)
In the Test he bowled inaccurately and took no wickets in his one brief spell, but in the Australian second innings, with Australia eight wickets down and a lead of only 75, his ninth-wicket partnership of 83 with Bob Massie gave Australia enough leeway to achieve a narrow victory. Watkins made 36, having scored only 12 runs in his previous five first-class matches.
He went on the tour to the West Indies that followed, playing four of the minor first-class matches and taking 10 wickets, but he lost confidence in his ability to bowl and never played first-class cricket again. His entire first-class career, of 10 matches, had taken only 14 months. In the match against Trinidad, Doug Walters recalled, Watkins tried to relax by whistling "What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor?" as he ran in to bowl, but still bowled wide of the stumps.
He continued to play club cricket, mostly as a batsman, in Newcastle, where he worked for a shipping company.
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