Merv Harvey - Post-war Resumption and Only Test

Post-war Resumption and Only Test

After the war ended in 1945, first-class cricket resumed in 1945–46. Harvey played in a trial match for state selection. Playing for the Rest of Victoria against the first-choice state team, he made 82 and 25. This was not enough to convince the state selectors and Harvey did not get a recall to the Victorian team until the end of the season when he played against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval. He responded by striking a career-best 163 to help his team to an innings win.

Immediately after the war, Harvey faced a lot of competition for a place as an opening batsman in the Australian team, but a vacancy arose in 1946–47, when Bill Brown, who had captained Australia the previous season and opened for the country in Tests in the 1930s, was sidelined with injury for the whole summer.

In the first match of the season, Harvey’s Victorians faced the touring England cricket team led by Wally Hammond. In the first innings, Harvey made 21 of the team’s 189 before being caught and bowled by leg spinner Doug Wright. He then made 57 before being dismissed by Alec Bedser as the hosts fell for only 204 in pursuit of 449 for victory, losing by 244 runs.

This was enough for him to be selected in the Australian XI for a match against the Englishmen, in what was effectively a Test dress rehearsal. Rain curtailed the match, and the game did not reach the second innings; Harvey made 22 in his only opportunity.

There was another match for Victoria against South Australia before the Tests, allowing him another chance to push his claim for national selection. It was also his first Sheffield Shield match; his previous appearances for Victoria in interstate games were in seasons where the competition was called off due to war and replaced by one-off matches. Harvey could manage only 9 as Victoria amassed 548 in their first innings. They needed 79 runs for victory in 35 minutes on the last afternoon, and with quick scoring required, the more aggressive Keith Miller opened in place of Harvey. When the first wicket fell with the target almost completed, Harvey came in and made three not out by the time the match was over. These performances were not enough for the Australian selectors and Harvey was overlooked for the team for the first two Tests.

After this, Harvey had two opportunities to press for selection for the next Test. He made 13 in an innings victory over Queensland and continued to be overlooked. The second match was the Shield clash with arch-rivals New South Wales, which started on Boxing Day at the MCG. After the visitors had made 205, Harvey opened with Ken Meuleman, who was out at 1/31, bringing Miller to the crease. Miller hammered the bowling and Victoria were 1/154 at the end of the day. The next day, the 271-run partnership ended after just over three hours when Miller fell at 2/302. Harvey went on to make 136 in what was generally regarded as his best innings. He famously hooked leading Australian paceman Ray Lindwall, the fastest in the world at the time, over the fence into the public bar for six. It was one of the few occasions that Lindwall was hit for six in his long career. Victoria declared at 8/560, Test bowlers Lindwall and Ernie Toshack taking the most punishment with figures of 1/100 and 0/133 from 18 and 21 overs respectively, as Victoria went on to win by an innings and 114 runs.

In the return match against Queensland, Harvey made 17 as Victoria took a convincing innings win. In the next match against New South Wales, Harvey played with Neil for the first time at first-class level, and pair played together for their state’s two remaining matches of the season, although they never batted together as Merv was always out before Neil came in, usually at No. 6. Merv made 30 and 44, failing to capitalise on his starts to make a big score with a Test vacancy beckoning; incumbent opener Sid Barnes was injured and unavailable for the Fourth Test.

Nevertheless Harvey was selected to play his only Test, the Fourth Test at Adelaide, filling in for the injured Barnes. England batted first and made 460 before being dismissed late on the second day. Harvey opened with Arthur Morris, and made 12 in the first innings before being bowled by Bedser while playing an aggressive shot. With only a few minutes of play left, the Australian captain Don Bradman came in and he too was bowled by Bedser, without scoring a run. Harvey later privately said the Bradman had told him to play cautiously and survive until the end of the day, rather than attack, and that the captain was angry with the resulting two wickets. According to Harvey, Bradman told him that he would never be selected for Australia again. The tourists then declared during the last afternoon and left Australia a target of 314. The target was not a realistic offer and Morris and Harvey put on an opening stand of 116 before the latter was bowled for 31 by the medium pace of occasional bowler Norman Yardley. The match ended in a draw with Australia on 1/215.

Barnes recovered and resumed his position for the Fifth Test. Harvey ended his season by scoring 10 in his only innings of Victoria’s second tour match against England, which was drawn, and was 3 not out in the first innings of the Shield match against South Australia when it was washed out. Harvey made his captaincy debut in the latter match as Lindsay Hassett was representing Australia in the Fifth Test, and his bowlers dismissed South Australia for 222 in Victoria’s only innings in the field. This washed-out drawn match was the only time in six Shield matches during the season that Victoria did not emerge victorious, and they won the competition. Harvey ended the season with 405 runs at 33.75.