Wisden overview
No Australian player in his day enjoyed such uniform respect among team-mates as Neil Harvey, a cricketer's cricketer. One of a gifted brotherhood from Melbourne's Fitzroy club, he was a brazen attacking batsman who scored a hundred in his first Ashes Test as a teenager in 1948, an allround fielder of the first flight, and a trenchant observer of the game. He could be a prolific scorer, but was not a pot-hunter, and his gifts were better seen in adverse circumstances, such as his unbeaten 92 against the unstoppable Tyson at Sydney in December 1954, and his 96 against Fazal Mahmood on the Dacca mats five years later. He had only one shot at the Australian captaincy - the Board was wary of his rough edges - but made it count: a replacement for the injured Richie Benaud, he led Australia to a stirring victory in the Ridge Test at Lord's in June 1961. Gideon Haigh

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