Norman Clifford Louis O'Neill (19 February 1937 – 3 March 2008) was a cricketer who played for New South Wales and Australia. A right-handed batsman known for his back foot strokeplay, O'Neill made his state debut aged 18, before progressing to Test selection aged 21 in late 1958. Early in his career, O'Neill was one of the foremost batsmen in the Australian team, scoring three Test centuries and topping the run-scoring aggregates on a 1959–60 tour of the Indian subcontinent which helped Australia win its last Test and series on Pakistani soil for 39 years, as well as another series in India. His career peaked in 1960–61 when he scored 181 in the tied Test against the West Indies, and at the end of the series, had a career average of 58.25.
O'Neill's performances on the 1961 tour of England saw him named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Thereafter his form was less formidable, characterised by nervousness and fidgeting at the start of his innings. Persistent knee problems, as well as a controversial media attack on the legality of West Indian bowler Charlie Griffith, saw him dropped from the Australian team after 1965. O'Neill also bowled occasional leg spin and was regarded as one of the finest fielders of his era. He later became a cricket commentator. His son Mark O'Neill also played cricket at state level.
He was inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame by Cricket Australia in 2018.
Early years
The son of a builder,
Under his uncle's guidance, O'Neill joined the St George Cricket Club, in the Sydney Grade competition. He steadily moved up through the grades and broke into the first grade side at the age of 16. Sensing his potential, the club's selectors informed him that regardless of form, he would play the full season, which allowed him to be uninhibited in his batting. He made 108 in seven innings. The next season, he was out 12 times leg before wicket in 15 innings, and run out in the other three. O'Neill attributed his failures to over-aggressiveness and resolved to improve his patience. O'Neill was recalled and made 60 and 63 not out against Queensland at the start of the season. before making his first ton (127) against South Australia. He made 102 not out in the only "Test" match that he played, helping to set up a ten-wicket win.
O'Neill responded during the 1957–58 Sheffield Shield season weakened by the absence of the Test players, aggregating 1,005 runs at 83.75 and taking 26 wickets at 20.42 with his leg spinners, thus topping the national bowling and batting averages.
These performances led former Test leg spinner Bill O'Reilly to compare him to Bradman
At the time, his employers refused to make allowances for him to play sport, forcing him to begin work at six in the morning. He agreed, but Irish dissuaded him less than a week before his scheduled departure. Prior to the match, O'Neill was hounded by the media.
He scored 85 against Western Australia and then made 84 not out for New South Wales against England. England captain Peter May described O'Neill's innings as "sparkling" and said that it made "everything which had gone before look even more wretched". Wisden opined that O'Neill had "saved a game that had been tortuous for days".
He struck 77 in the rain-affected drawn Third Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground and followed this with 56 in the Fourth Test in Adelaide. Despite making a duck in the Fifth Test, he ended the series as the second highest runscorer with 282 at 56.40 as Australia took the series 4–0. He then took his maiden Test wicket in Pakistan's second innings, that of Shujauddin. O'Neill failed to make double figures in the final Test, which was drawn, but ended the series with 218 runs at 72.66. In another tour match, against the President's XI, O'Neill scored an unbeaten 52 in a low-scoring match as Australia stumbled to their target of 116 with only three wickets in hand. He also made his highest first-class score of 284, against an Indian President's XI in Ahmedabad.
He returned to Australia and played in one match for New South Wales at the end of the 1959–60 season, scoring 175 as his state defeated Western Australia and won a seventh Shield in a row. the match ended in the first Tied Test in history.
He then struck 114 as his state defeated the tourists by an innings, and he made 40 and a duck as the Australians took the series lead in the Second Test. top-scoring in the first innings and second top-scoring in the second innings. He then made 65 in the second innings in the Fourth Test at Adelaide, where Australia held on by one wicket for a draw. He contributed 48 in the second innings of the Fifth Test as Australia appeared headed for a series victory. However, a late collapse ensued, and Australia scraped home by two wickets to take the series 2–1. O'Neill ended the series with 522 runs at 52.20.
However, he recovered to be selected for the First Test at Edgbaston, just five days later. O'Neill made one and a duck as an Australia scraped home by five wickets in a low-scoring match. He scored 324 runs at 40.50 in the Tests and was subsequently named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1962. O'Neill was required to bowl substantially, conceding 49 runs in what was his most expensive performance to date. O'Neill returned and scored half centuries in each of the next two Tests. He also took two wickets to end the series with 285 runs at 40.71 and three wickets at 32.33. the only non-draw of the series, which Australia won. injury as Australia ceded their series lead. He missed the remainder of the series, the Third Test in Calcutta and a one-off Test in Pakistan. During the Second Test, it was the turn of Charlie Griffith to send O'Neill to hospital, after hitting him on the forearm and causing a large bruise. He managed a healthy return with the ball, taking nine of his 17 Test wickets in the series with an average of 25.55. This included his Test best of 4/41 with his leg-spin in the Second Test in Port of Spain, Trinidad. When the Daily Mirror syndicated the columns, London's Daily Mail ignored an embargo and printed the pieces while the Australians were on their homeward flight, putting O'Neill in breach of his tour contract, which forbade players from commenting in the media during tours.
On 3 March 2008, O'Neill died in Erina, New South Wales, due to the effects of throat cancer. He was 71.
Style
Standing six feet tall, O'Neill was compared to Don Bradman upon his entry into Test cricket.
He was regarded as an excellent fieldsman at cover, with a powerful and accurate throw, described by Wisden as a "dream throw" honed from a junior career as a baseballer. Before the retirement of Neil Harvey, he and O'Neill fielded in tandem in the covers and the pair were regarded as the finest fielding combination of the time.
Test match performance
{| 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;" |
|| 19
|| 1,072
|| 39.70
|| 117
|| 2/7
|| 176
|| 2
|| 88.00
|| 1/7
|- style="text-align:right;"
| style="text-align:left;" |
|| 7
|| 416
|| 52.00
|| 163
|| 2/0
|| 111
|| 1
|| 111.00
|| 1/41
|- style="text-align:right;"
| style="text-align:left;" |
|| 3
|| 218
|| 72.66
|| 134
|| 1/0
|| 41
|| 1
|| 41.00
|| 1/37
|- style="text-align:right;"
| style="text-align:left;" |
|| 4
|| 285
|| 40.71
|| 88
|| 0/3
|| 97
|| 3
|| 32.33
|| 1/2
|- style="text-align:right;"
| style="text-align:left;" |
|| 9
|| 788
|| 49.25
|| 181
|| 1/5
|| 242
|| 10
|| 24.00
|| 4/41
|- style="text-align:right; border-top:solid 2px gray;"
| style="text-align:left;" | Overall
|| 42
|| 2,779
|| 45.55
|| 181
|| 6/15
|| 667
|| 17
|| 39.23
|| 4/41
|}