Graham Yallop
Graham Neil Yallop is a former Australian international cricketer. Yallop played Test and One Day International cricket for the Australia national cricket team between 1976 and 1984, captaining the side briefly during the World Series Cricket era in the late 1970s. A technically correct left-handed batsman, Yallop played domestically for Victoria, invariably batting near the top of the order and led Victoria to two Sheffield Shield titles. He was the first player to wear a full helmet in a Test match.
Early life
Yallop was born at Balwyn, Victoria in 1952 and played for Richmond age-group sides in the Dowling Shield during the late 1960s. In the summer of 1970/71, he made his grade cricket debut for the club, as well as playing in several games for the Victorian Schools Team at the Australian Schoolboys Cricket Championships. He later reflected, "When we were playing under-16 cricket in Victoria, you're playing against the best under-16 players in the state. So that prepared you for your future in Premier Cricket, I thought that was a very good grounding."Initially more of a bowler, Yallop's coach at Richmond was former England international Frank Tyson, who had emigrated to Australia. "He helped me enormously" Yallop later wrote; "in those days, I was more a bowler than a batsman, and he turned me around. He worked with me for quite a few years to get me up to speed with my batting." In early 1971 Yallop toured Sri Lanka in an Australian Schoolboys side; he averaged 67.75 runs per inning in the three schoolboy internationals, the best of any Australian batsman.
Domestic debut
Yallop made his senior cricket debut for Victoria in December 1972, scoring a half-century on debut against New South Wales. Although he spent most of the season as 12th man in the Victoria side, he scored a second half-century against Western Australia.In 1973 Yallop played for Walsall in the Birmingham League. He also played some games for the Marylebone Cricket Club.
Yallop did not play first-class cricket during the 1973–74 season, but returned to the Victoria side during the 1974–75 summer. He made his List A cricket debut in the Gillette Cup and scored 538 first-class runs during the season at an average of 38.28 runs per innings. These included scores of 34 and 30 against the touring England side and his debut first class century against South Australia.
In 1975 Yallop again played league cricket in England, scoring more than 3,000 runs for North Birmingham. In 22 games for Walsall he averaged 113 runs an innings and scored three centuries.
Test cricketer
After starting the 1975–76 season slowly, Yallop scored two half-centuries against South Australia and made scores of 108 and 95 against New South Wales. As a result he was called into the Australian side for the fourth Test match against the touring West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground, replacing Rick McCosker who had made 20 runs in six innings in the first three Tests of the series. Yallop was surprised at the call up, but said that it was "a great thrill and I'm determined to make the most of my chance".The dropping of McCosker was not popular with Australian captain Greg Chappell and other members of the side, and Yallop was put in to bat at number three, McCosker's usual place in the batting order. In his memoirs Yallop wrote that he had "no doubts that certain members of that team wanted me to fail and therefore prove that the selectors had erred. Normally, a new batsman could expect to be cradled into the side and be 'hidden' down the order until he gets the feel of the test atmosphere." He scored 16 and then 16 not out on debut, and was retained in the side for the fifth Test at Adelaide, scoring 47 and 43 and featuring in century partnerships in each innings, with Ian Redpath and Alan Turner.
McCosker returned to the side for the sixth test at the MCG, batting at number three, but Yallop kept his place; batting down the order at number six he made 57 in the first innings and did not bat in the second. He had averaged 44 runs per innings in the three Tests. Bob Simpson later wrote that when Yallop made his test debut he "was ostracised by the ruling team clique at the time and was never allowed to feel at home in the team. Their attitude seemed to that Yallop had had a privileged upbringing and was something of a spoilt brat. They also felt that he was a little faint hearted against fast bowlers."
Following the retirement of Ian Chappell and Redpath, Yallop had a chance to consolidate his place in the Australian team in 1976–77. Chappell wrote at the start of the summer that he felt the batsman "had a head start" over his rivals "with a couple of steady Test performances last year, but he still has a lot of work ahead and will have to spread his run scoring around Australian grounds a little more consistently than in the past."
In November 1976 The Age wrote that Yallop and Ian Davis were
"the leading candidates" for the number three spot left vacant by Ian Chappell's retirement.
However Yallop again started the summer slowly with scores of 10, 19, 16 and 1, and with Doug Walters returning from injury and Davis promoted to opener, Yallop lost his place in the side. By the time he regained form, Kim Hughes had become the established batsman in "reserve". In January 1977, Ian Chappell selected a hypothetical Ashes tour squad for Cricketer magazine that excluded Yallop, writing that he had not "made enough runs off the Melbourne ground to prove he has the goods" and that "I still maintain that Yallop was picked prematurely for Australia. Yallop was not selected for the tour of England in 1977 and he was not offered a contract with World Series Cricket - in contrast with several other batters who had not played test cricket.
Test recall
The advent of World Series Cricket during 1977 meant that a number of leading Australian cricketers were banned from playing for the national side. Yallop took over the captaincy of Victoria after Richie Robinson signed to play WSC. Bob Simpson came out of retirement to captain Australia over the 1977–78 summer, but Yallop was not selected for the first Test against the touring Indians, once more having started the summer not in top form. Even after a pair of centuries against New South Wales he was not selected until the fifth and final Test of the summer. With the series standing at 2–2, Yallop was selected as vice-captain, scoring 121 runs in Australia's first innings, his maiden Test century as Australian won the series. He made a total of 729 first-class runs that summer, at an average of 56.07 runs per innings. After Yallop's selection Ian Chappell wrote Yallop was a poor player of pace but a good player of spin "and his presence in the current test series should have been a must" from the beginning of the series.1978 West Indies Tour
The Australian side to tour the West Indies was selected at the same time as the fifth Test and Yallop was included, although the vice-captain on the West Indies tour was Jeff Thomson.Yallop scored 24 and 28 against the Leeward Islands, and 12 in the first ODI. He made 66 and 44 not out against Trinidad and Tobago, helping Australia run down a six wicket victory. For the first test, Yallop made only 2 in the first innings but scored 81 in the second, easily Australia's top score. Yallop missed the next tour game, against Barbados, but played in the second test, making 47 and 14.
Yallop scored 118 in a tour game against Guyana when his jaw was broken by a bouncer from Colin Croft. He missed the third Test, which was won by Australia.
Yallop returned to the Australian team for the second ODI, making 7. In the fourth test he scored 75 in the first innings but only 18 in the second as Australia collapsed and lost by 198 runs. Yallop played against Jamaica, making 5 and 58. In the final test he scored 57 and 23 not out. His series tally was 317 Test runs at an average of 45.29.
Australian Captain: "A lamb to the slaughter"
At the beginning of the 1978–79 season, the Australian Cricket Board decided that Bob Simpson should not continue as captain and Yallop was installed as his replacement ahead of the first Test of the Ashes series against England. The Australian side was inexperienced at an international level. According to Christian Ryan, "Most observers suspected John Inverarity, wily and versatile, would have been a more astute choice" than Yallop; the Australian selectors, however, did not have faith in Inverarity's ability at Test level.Yallop made what he later described as a "flippant" prediction that his team would win the Ashes 6–0 and was "bewildered" when his "flippant" prediction was reported straight-faced by the media and taken seriously by the English players. Despite a century in Australia's second innings of the first Test, the team was beaten by seven wickets in the series opener. A further loss in the second Test was followed by what was to be Yallop's only victory as a Test captain in the third match at the MCG.
Two more losses followed, and Australia played the final Test of the summer with the Ashes already lost. At the SCG Australia were dismissed for 198, of which Yallop scored 121; the next highest score was 16 and Yallop later said this was his greatest Test match innings. England made 308 for their first innings; Australia collapsed for 141 and with England needing only 34 runs for victory, Yallop elected to open the bowling in England's second innings with the old ball, to the consternation of England's captain Mike Brearley. Yallop won the man of the match award but Australia had lost the series 5–1. In his account of the series, The Ashes Retained, Brearley wrote that the English players nicknamed Yallop "Banzai" because of his tendency to adopt suicidally attacking fields at all times, when on occasion a more defensive approach may have prevented the England team's free scoring.
Despite the series loss to England, Yallop led Australia against Pakistan in March 1978, again losing the first Test of the two-match series. He injured his calf in a club match, leading Richmond to victory in a district semi final, which forced him to miss the second Test match. Australia finally reversed their losing streak, with Kim Hughes captaining the side, prompting the selectors to drop Yallop as captain in favour of Hughes.