Melbourne, Oct 30 : Less than 24 hours after the death of former Test off-spinner Ashley Mallett, comes the news of Australian great Alan Davidson’s passing away on Saturday.
The 92 years old bowling allrounder had made his international debut in 1953 and had played till 1963.
In his decade-long career, Davidson featured in 44 test matches and had 186 wickets at an average of 20.53 to his credit. His career-best figures is 7/93 that came against India in 1959.
Davidson, a destructive left-arm fast bowler claimed 11 wickets and also contributed with bat by scoring 80-run knock.
He was fondly nicknamed ‘The Claw’ as he was someone who could swing the ball prodigiously, hit it hard, and catch it with elan.
Davidson was no mug with the bat either. He scored five half-centuries in all.
One of those came in the famous first-ever tied Test match between Australia and West Indies in 1960. He had walked into the middle with a broken finger and finished it with the honour of becoming the first to take 10 wickets and score 100 runs in the tied match.
The legendary Australian all-rounder was also inducted into the International Cricket Council’s Hall of Fame in 2011.
Davidson played his last match in 1963 against England in Brisbane, where he clinched 6 wickets. And was also the leading bowler having taken 24 wickets in the entire series.
After retiring from international cricket, Davidson stepped into administration and served as the president of Cricket New South Wales for 33 years and also served as a selector from 1979 to 1984.
After his demise, cricket Australia took to twitter and paid their condolences by tweeting, “Vale Alan Davidson. Australian cricket is mourning the loss of the 92-year-old, who in his prime was widely recognised as one of cricket’s predominant all-rounders.”
Mallett passed on Friday at the age of 76.
