John Henry Webb Fingleton, OBE (28 April 190822 November 1981) was an Australian Test cricketer, journalist and commentator. He was also an athletic and gifted fieldsman, who built his reputation in the covers.
Later he became noted along with Vic Richardson and Bill Brown in South Africa in 1935–36 as part of Bill O'Reilly's leg-trap. Neville Cardus, once described the Fingleton-Brown combination as "crouching low and acquisitively, each with as many arms as an Indian god". In ten Tests together as an opening partnership, the pair averaged 63.75 for the first wicket, higher than any other Australian pair with more than 1,000 runs.
Early years
thumb|Fingleton's father James served in the New South Wales parliament
Born at Waverley in the inner eastern suburbs of Sydney, His parents were James, a tram driver and union organiser who became a member of the New South Wales Parliament, and Belinda May Webb. The family was Irish Catholic—Fingleton's paternal grandfather had immigrated to Australia in the 1870s.
In 1913, at the age of five, Fingleton's father was elected into state parliament as a representative of the centre left, labour-union oriented Australian Labor Party, and the family moved into a larger house. It was here that Fingleton learned to play street cricket. Fingleton was educated at the Roman Catholic St Francis's School, in the inner city suburb of Paddington before moving to Waverley College. There he began a lifelong association with prose.
In 1917, the family fell upon hard times when the elder Fingleton lost his seat and resumed his job as a tram driver, but in 1918 contracted tuberculosis. The father succumbed in 1920 when Jack was twelve, and the funeral director was Australian Test wicket-keeper Sammy Carter.
Without their breadwinner, the Fingleton family were in further trouble and Belinda opened a seafood shop and withdrew her eldest son Les to support her. However, the business failed and the family home was at risk, so Jack was forced to quit school at the age of 12. He did a variety of jobs such as selling food at cinemas, washing bottles and sweeping floors.
At the age of fifteen, Fingleton took the first steps in his journalism career, when his cousin helped him to become a copy boy with the now defunct Sydney Daily Guardian. Encouraged by his former headmaster, who had prompted his interest in writing, Fingleton quickly eased into his new career. Fingleton started as a sports reporter, and had a narrow escape when he was sacked by Robert Clyde Packer for breaking a pot, but then reinstated. Fingleton then risked being fired by removing cricket articles written by the famed Neville Cardus from the newspaper's archive against policy for his personal use.
Fingleton was unable to distinguish himself on the field while at school, but after joining Waverley, he made quick progress. Fingleton trained early in the morning, before heading to the office and working in the afternoon so that the articles would be printed in the evening. He was unable to afford the club membership so a patron sponsored him. At the age of 16, he broke into the First XI of a grade team which included Test players Alan Kippax, Hanson Carter and Arthur Mailey. Within a year, Fingleton's grade performances were being reported in Sydney newspapers.
In the same year, his journalistic mentor Pedlar Palmer moved to the Sydney Morning Herald and Fingleton became disenchanted. He was coaxed by a cricketer-journalist to move to his publication, the Telegraph Pictorial, where he worked for several years before the outbreak of the Second World War.
First-class debut
left|thumb|Jack Fingleton's Test career batting performance. The red bars indicate the runs that he scored in an innings, with the blue line indicating the [[batting average (cricket)|batting average in his last ten innings. The blue dots indicate an innings where he remained not out.]]
Having scored a century for Waverley against Petersham the week before, Fingleton made his first-class debut in 1928–29, playing in two matches and having two innings. On debut against Victoria, Fingleton was allowed to bat no higher than No. 8 by captain Tommy Andrews, despite being a specialist batsman. More than 600 runs had been scored by the time the sixth wicket had fallen, bringing him to the wicket to join Don Bradman, who had already brought up his double century. The pair put on an unbroken stand of 111 before Andrews declared at 7/613, of which Fingleton made 25 not out. During the partnership, Bradman farmed most of the strike, much to Fingleton's chagrin. The pair's first meeting had been prickly and Bradman glared angrily at Fingleton after a mix-up almost ended in a run out. The match was drawn, The following summer, with no Test matches, New South Wales' international representatives were available for the entire season, and Fingleton missed selection for every match.
In 1930–31, aged 22, Fingleton regained his position at the start of the Sheffield Shield season for New South Wales, and first came to prominence when he withstood a ferocious opening spell against the express pace of Eddie Gilbert in Brisbane against Queensland. Fingleton scored 56 as a full strength team with Test players fell for 143. The visitors were set 392 for victory and played for a draw, with Fingleton adding 71 to prevent a collapse as the match was saved. He failed to pass single figures in his next four innings, and was dropped twice, before adding 32 not out and 26 as New South Wales lost to the touring West Indies.
Test debut
In the opening match of the 1931–32 season, which was against Queensland, New South Wales were in trouble. Gilbert famously knocked the bat out of Donald Bradman's hand, before removing him for a duck. Gilbert cut down the New South Wales top order with a spell of 3/12 and forced Alan Kippax to retire hurt after hitting him in the upper body. Fingleton was going to be twelfth man before Archie Jackson—who was to die of tuberculosis just over a year later—collapsed just before the start of the match. Undeterred, Stan McCabe came in and counterattacked; Starting with the Second Test, he was twelfth man for three consecutive Tests, and as a result, did not play any cricket for six weeks before he added a pair of 40s in a win over arch-rivals Victoria. In a low-scoring match, Opening with captain Bill Woodfull in the absence of Ponsford, Fingleton saw his skipper removed from the first ball of the innings. He was allowed to ease into his first innings when the first ball he faced, from Neville Quinn, was a deliberate full toss to give him an opportunity to score his initial runs easily. The pair became friends from this point onwards. Fingleton was second top-scorer with 40 as Australia made 153 recorded an innings victory. The cricketer-journalist Richard Whitington later wrote that "for courage and skill...[Fingleton's 51] was worth quadruple that number".
Bodyline turmoil
In the following summer came the Bodyline series, when England toured under Douglas Jardine and targeted the upper bodies of the Australian batsmen with short-pitched bowling, using a close leg side cordon to catch balls fended away from the body. In one of the tour matches before the Tests, Fingleton scored a defiant 119*, carrying his bat for New South Wales against the bumper barrage of Harold Larwood and Gubby Allen, ensuring his selection for the First Test. He then made a defiant four-hour innings to top-score with 83 in the first innings of Australia's only win of the series in the Second Test in Melbourne, although he did run out his batting partner Leo O'Brien in the process. This helped the Australians to reach 228 and they took a 59-run first innings lead before winning the match despite Fingleton making only one in the second innings. Fingleton was dropped for the remaining two Tests of the series.
The Bodyline season also marked the beginning of Fingleton's opening combination with Bill Brown, who made his New South Wales debut in the same season. Fingleton scored four half-centuries for the remainder of the first-class season and ended with 648 runs at 38.11 as New South Wales won the Sheffield Shield.
Fingleton had a prolific 1933–34 Australian season in which he scored 655 runs at 59.54 with two centuries and four fifties. He scored 105 in the Test trial for Richardson's XI and then struck 145 against arch-rivals Victoria in the last match of the season; New South Wales were unable to force a victory and thus ceded the Sheffield Shield to their southern neighbours. On the day that the team was selected, Bradman wrote in his newspaper column, criticising Fingleton's running between the wickets. When the pair next met, Fingleton's only words were to blame Bradman for his omission; Bradman claimed that as a result of the selection controversy, Fingleton relentlessly pursued a vendetta against him from there on.
Some incidents in Fingleton's century in the last match of the season were also believed to have reflected badly at the selection table. Having retired hurt on 78, he returned the next day and was then dropped on 86 in the slips. Fingleton had moved out of his crease to pat out the pitch before the ball had gone dead and Victorian wicket-keeper Ben Barnett broke the stumps. A displeased Fingleton was given out by umpire George Borwick and walked off the ground, only to be called back by captain Woodfull. Fingleton refused Woodfull's offer and did not return until Woodfull successfully asked Borwick to reverse his decision. The media reported that Fingleton had quarrelled with Woodfull and several teammates told him that his apparent rebuff of the national captain would prejudice his chances of selection, and the NSWCA made an inquiry into the matter; Fingleton failed to respond.
A disappointed Fingleton wrote to Woodfull, saying "You have chosen chaps who do not like fast bowling". He also questioned what he perceived to be Woodfull's coldness towards him since the Bodyline series and decried unnamed "fellow pressmen, naturally jealous". Wisden speculated that Fingleton's omission may have been due to cricket diplomacy reasons following the incident in Adelaide, Bromley scored only 312 runs in 20 innings in England.
Fingleton was selected for a second string Australian team to tour New Zealand for two months at the end of the season while the Test team departed for England. However, captain Victor Richardson and his deputy Keith Rigg withdrew, dissatisfied with the pay, leaving Fingleton as the most senior member of the team. The tour was then cancelled by New Zealand, who feared that the large number of absentees would result in a large financial loss. After Fingleton started the summer with a fifty in Woodfull's testimonial match, Fingleton made 134 in just over three hours. Fingleton reached 49 at least once in the remaining five matches, including a 108 against Queensland. Despite the form of the openers, New South Wales failed to win the Sheffield Shield after losing both of their matches against Victoria. Fingleton ended the season with consecutive centuries, 124 and 100, against Western Australia, and took the first of two first-class wickets in his career in the first of the two matches. For Fingleton, it was the happiest tour he had been on, in large part due to Bradman's absence.
Fingleton nearly failed to make the trip. His newspaper editor Eric Baume ordered him to write a column attacking the Australian Board of Control for vetoing players from going on a private tour of India, threatening to sack him if he refused—criticism of the board typically resulted in exclusion from selection. Fingleton was reluctant to comply, and was reprieved when the editor-in-chief overruled Baume.
Fingleton scored 66 for the Australians in an innings victory over Western Australia before sailing for South Africa. He followed this with 62—the innings top-score—and 40 in the Second Test at Johannesburg. Australia needed only 125 with half the day remaining and eight wickets in hand when poor visibility ended play. McCabe had flayed the attack and reached 189 not out when the South Africans had the match called off, claiming that the fieldsmen were endangered by the batsman's vigorous hitting.
Fingleton finished the series with centuries in each of the last three Tests, all in consecutive innings; 112 at Cape Town, 108 at Johannesburg and 118 in Durban. It was Australia's first double-century opening stand in Test cricket, and remains a national record for the first wicket against South Africa.
Before the Fourth Test, Fingleton added 52 against Border and 110 in an innings win over Transvaal. His 108 in the Fourth Test was more than South Africa's entire second innings of 98, In the Fifth Test, the pair combined for another century stand. Each of the three matches resulted in an innings victory for Australia as the series was taken 4–0.
Under the captaincy of Bradman
The following 1936–37 season in Australia, saw more success for Fingleton, although with the return of Bradman as captain, team harmony became strained. Gubby Allen's Englishmen toured Australia, He top-scored as Australia replied to England's 358 with 234. Fingleton's feats was later equalled by Alan Melville, (whose four centuries were scored on either side of World War II) and surpassed by the West Indian, Everton Weekes in 1948–49.
After scoring 12 in a total of 80 as Australia were caught on a sticky wicket, Fingleton then made 73 in the second innings of the Second Test in Sydney, one of few Australians to resist as the home side fell to an innings defeat after being forced to follow on. It turned the Test and saw Australia ended at 564. The hosts bowled England out for 323 to win the match by 365 runs and prevent England from taking an unassailable 3–0 lead. He saved his best for arch-rivals Victoria, scoring 59 and 160 to salvage a draw after New South Wales had conceded a first innings lead of 231. Wisden later criticised him, saying that he lost "all true sense of the situation...an extraordinary action on the part of a cricket in a Test match." he was concussed in the match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston. A long hop from Waite was pulled into his head at point-blank range, and Fingleton managed to duck enough that it glanced his forehead and went into the air, to the cries of "catch it" from Bradman. The ball did not go to hand and Fingleton was hospitalised.
Fingleton made 30 and 9 in a low-scoring Fourth Test at Headingley, which Australia won by five wickets to retain the Ashes. He remained unproductive in the lead-up to the final Test, scoring 51 in three first-class innings. before being sidelined at the end of December. He passed single figures only once in six innings and ended with a duck and three as New South Wales lost to arch-rivals Victoria by 82 runs. In May 1942, he went AWOL from his post at Double Bay on the shores of Sydney Harbour to visit his wife. As a result, he was missing when a Japanese midget submarine launched an attack in the harbour. Soon after, he was deployed to Townsville in northern Queensland in anticipation of a Japanese land invasion, which never materialised.
The military then made him the press secretary for former Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes. From his appointment onwards, he lived and worked in Canberra. The leader of the United Australia Party, Hughes had particularly worried Prime Minister John Curtin by frequently and publicly excoriating US General Douglas MacArthur, who was commanding the Allied forces in the Pacific. Curtin needed someone to quieten Hughes, as Macarthur had threatened to leave if the denouncements continued. Fingleton spent three months working for the temperamental Hughes and was not successful in curbing his aggressive oratory. He then worked in censorship, deciding which portions of Curtin's press briefings were reportable; he tried to take a liberal line on press freedom. He also worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio Australia while serving in the censorship department.
Post-war writing and journalism career
thumb|right|The Jack Fingleton Scoreboard at [[Manuka Oval in Canberra]]
After the end of the war, Fingleton divided his time between Canberra, where until his retirement in 1978 he was political correspondent for Radio Australia, and cricket journalism. He forged close relationships with several Prime Ministers. In particular, Sir Robert Menzies, Australia's longest-serving prime minister, provided him with a laudatory foreword in his book, Masters of Cricket. Fingleton's Test coverage resulted in a number of books that placed him at the forefront of Australian cricket writers. The books included Cricket Crisis (mainly an account of the 1932–33 Bodyline series), Brightly Fades the Don (the 1948 Invincibles tour), Brown & Company: The Tour in Australia (the English tour of Australia in 1950–51), The Ashes Crown the Year (the Australian tour of England in 1953), Masters of Cricket, Four Chukkas to Australia (the English tour of Australia in 1958–59), The Greatest Test of All (the Tied Test of 1960), Fingleton on Cricket and The Immortal Victor Trumper. His final book, the autobiographical Batting From Memory, was to have its Australian launch during the week in which he died of a heart attack. As Fingleton had worked for the government's censors, he was one of only a few who knew of the effect of the Bodyline controversy in politics, as he had been aware of the cables that had been sent by government officials. Fingleton received advice and encouragement from the eminent British cricket writer Neville Cardus, and suffered a setback when, after finishing half the book, he sent his manuscript to be reviewed. It was lost in the post, and he had forgotten to make a copy. Fingleton finished his book Cricket Crisis in 1946 but it was rejected by the publishers Collins, who had already published a book by Ray Robinson named Between Wickets on the same topic. They were also concerned about the marketability of a book that criticised Bradman—still the dominant player of the time and an idolised figure—strongly. Fingleton expressed his views forthrightly and interspersed the account with analyses and profiles of those involved in the Bodyline series, including Bradman, Jardine, Larwood, Warner and McCabe. He criticised Bradman's unorthodox approach in backing away from the bowling and questioned his aloof attitude towards his teammates. This angered Bradman, who wrote in his 1949 book Farewell to Cricket in reply to Fingleton, claiming that as Fingleton was an inferior batsman, his record gave him "scarcely...any authority to criticise my methods." The debate continued on, with replies in subsequent publications citing statistics.
As parliament is usually in recess during the summer months, Fingleton's political journalism did not often interfere with his cricket radio commentary for the ABC or his cricket writing, except during tours of England in the Australian winter. Fingleton mainly freelanced for overseas newspapers as he regarded Australian editors as being difficult to work with, and because the pay was lower. In 1946–47, England toured Australia for the first full Test series since the war. Fingleton criticised Bradman for not walking after hitting a disputed catch to Jack Ikin. Fingleton and most in the press box thought that the catch was clean but the umpire ruled in favour of Bradman. At the time Bradman had been making a comeback from ill health and had been struggling, and it was thought that he would retire if he could not discover his old form. After the disputed catch however, Bradman began timing the ball and went on to score 187. Fingleton openly criticised the decision to give Bradman not out in his writing. Later in the series, he decried Bradman's tactics of having his pacemen bowl frequent bouncers at the English batsmen, pointing out that it was hypocritical for the Australian captain to vociferously condemn Jardine's tactics years earlier. As Fingleton was one of the few who were forthright enough to question the actions of national hero Bradman, many sources within the Australian cricket community chose to confide in him, most notably all-rounder Keith Miller, whose cavalier attitude brought him into conflict with Bradman's ruthless approach to victory. The following season, during the Indian team's tour of Australia, Fingleton began his association with The Hindu.
After his death, a disused historic scoreboard from the MCG, dated to 1901, was taken out of storage and transported to Canberra, where it was installed on the top of hill at Manuka Oval, and renamed the Jack Fingleton Scoreboard. At the dedication ceremony, Governor-General of Australia Sir Ninian Stephen said that Fingleton was not merely a Test cricketer who became a parliamentary journalist in the national capital, but "an institution" in Canberra.
In addition to his writing, Fingleton was a witty, perceptive and occasionally sardonic commentator for the BBC and at various times a contributor to The Times, The Sunday Times, The Observer, and various newspapers in Australia, South Africa and elsewhere. In 1976, he was awarded an OBE for services "to journalism and to cricket". Jessie had taken her daughter with her to a meeting of the League of Nations and then for a long tour of Europe. At the time, Philippa was only 18, and Fingleton 30, She hoped that the young couple would drift apart, but Fingleton gave the family tickets to the Fifth Test in London, only to injure himself during the match and not be able to bat. Upon returning to Australia, the couple wanted to marry, but the Streets forbade their daughter from marrying until Philippa was 21 years old. Fingleton wanted Philippa to adopt Catholicism, something that concerned her mother, as she had clashed with Catholic leaders in her advocacy of birth control. The wedding went ahead in January 1942 after Philippa agreed to convert and Fingleton got along easily with his mother-in-law's left-wing orientation. They had five children, Belinda, James, Grey, Laurence, and Jacquelyn.
Conflict with Bradman
right|thumb|Fingleton (c) with Bradman (r)
Throughout his career as player and journalist, Fingleton persistently came into personal conflict with Don Bradman, one of the captains under whom Fingleton played, damaging the reputations of both. Bradman characteristically held his silence during Fingleton's lifetime.
Test statistics
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto" width="80%"
|-
!colspan=2|
!colspan=4| Batting
!colspan=4| Bowling
|-
! style="text-align:left;" | Opposition
!| Matches
!| Runs
!| Average
!| High score
!| 100 / 50
!| Runs
!| Wickets
!| Average
!| Best (Inns)
|- style="text-align:right;"
| style="text-align:left;" |
|| 12
|| 671
|| 31.95
|| 136
|| 2/2
|| –
|| –
|| –
|| –
|- style="text-align:right;"
| style="text-align:left;" |
|| 6
|| 518
|| 74.00
|| 118
|| 3/1
|| –
|| –
|| –
|| –
|- style="text-align:right; border-top:solid 2px grey;"
| style="text-align:left;" | Overall
|| 18
|| 1189
|| 42.46
|| 136
|| 5/3
|| –
|| –
|| –
|| –
|}