Sid Barnes With The Australian Cricket Team in England in 1948 - Aftermath

Aftermath

Barnes used the opportunity of travelling around England to pursue his business interests, cutting many deals. When he was rested from the first match against Yorkshire, he stayed in the capital and made deals at the London Exhibition. During breaks in play, or when Australia was batting and he had already been dismissed, he often spent the time inspecting local factories and talking to other businesspeople. An important concern for Barnes, when returning to Australia by boat after the tour, was to avoid paying customs duties on the enormous amount of goods he acquired through various deals during the tour. This included fine English cloth, which was in very short supply in Australia. Hearing a rumour that customs officers were waiting in Sydney for him, Barnes disembarked at Melbourne and travelled to Sydney by train. The move worked and he sold his stock at a substantial profit, conservatively estimated to be equal to his tour fee. Upon returning to Australia, Barnes opted out of first-class cricket to focus on business interests. He wrote a newspaper column, in which he often criticised cricket administrators and the small share of revenue they gave to players. Barnes wrote in a confrontational manner, often lampooning and angering the authorities.

At the beginning of the 1951–52 season, Barnes returned to the New South Wales team in a bid to regain his Test position, and performed well. He was chosen by the selectors but the board disallowed his selection for conduct reasons rather than ability. The media figured this out and publicised it, and Barnes was overlooked for the whole season. Speculation abounded as to the nature of his supposed misdeeds. These included jumping the turnstile at a ground when he forgot his player's pass, insulting the royal family, theft from team-mates, drunkenness, stealing a car, parking his car in someone else's space, or that Barnes had lampooned the board in the narration accompanying the home movies he made of the 1948 tour. In later years, a file of unknown authorship was found; it accused Barnes of allowing young spectators to enter the playing arena to field the ball instead of doing so himself, and of denigrating umpires by making gestures implying they were blind.

The Board had a secret dossier documenting Barnes's behaviour and they doctored the minutes of the meeting at which they discussed his selection. The matter came to a head when a letter attributed to man named Jacob Raith was published in the paper, criticising Barnes's character, and praising the board, which prompted Barnes to sue with the intention of prising out an explanation for his omission. Cricket administrators were called to testify about the matter and more details became public. According to cricket historian Gideon Haigh, "it was effectively the Board, not Raith, in the dock".

Keith Johnson, the team manager during the 1948 tour, became the centre of attention. He wrote and had always claimed that the touring party had been completely harmonious and loyal. A series of administrators came forward to say that Barnes had misbehaved on the 1948 tour, even though Johnson's official report had made no mention of any problems. There were also positive reports. Aubrey Oxlade, the chairman of the board, said that the batsman's indiscretions were "childish things" and "not serious at all". Frank Cush, another board member who had supported Barnes's inclusion, replied "none at all" when asked if there were any legitimate reasons for excluding Barnes. Selector Chappie Dwyer said "I have a very high opinion of him as a cricketer ... and I have no objection to him as a man".

Johnson was called as a witness, and under questioning, a different story came out. Johnson agreed that his written report of the 1948 tour had said that the team had behaved "in a manner befitting worthy representatives of Australia" and that "on and off the field their conduct was exemplary". However, in a verbal report, Johnson said he had drawn the board's attention to various misdemeanours by Barnes during the 1948 tour that, in his opinion, were sufficiently serious to warrant the player's exclusion from future Australian Test sides. Johnson said that Barnes had shown a "general reluctance for anything savouring of authority". The misdeeds included taking pictures as the Australian team was presented to the royal family on the playing arena during the Second Test at Lord's, asking permission to travel alone in England—Barnes' family was living in Scotland at the time—and "abducting" twelfth man Toshack to play tennis during the match at Northamptonshire on a court "300 yards from the pavilion". Under cross-examination, Johnson said that Barnes's photography of the royal family at Lord's was the most serious incident. He admitted he had not known that Barnes had received permission to take the photos. Barnes's lawyer then established that his client had then shown the films to raise money for various charities. He further showed that Barnes had not agitated when reminded of the policy against players meeting with family members on tour. However, Johnson believed that the cumulative effect of the misdeeds "warranted omission from the team" and he saw no problem in the fact that his verbal advice to the board recommending Barnes' exclusion was at odds with the written report on the 1948 tour. Under cross-examination, Johnson admitted that "I don't always write what I think", and ended up being embarrassed by Barnes's lawyer. The case collapsed on its second day, after Barnes was issued with a public apology regarding the letter. After the libel trial, Johnson resigned from all cricket administration, while Barnes continued to be overlooked. Although the court case portrayed "an awful image of the chaos and bigotry under which Australian cricket was administered", it did little to alter the board's culture towards players.