IN A career spanning more than 60 years, Wavell McPherson has done a lot on the cricket field – and he is still breaking new ground.
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The veteran of 53 country week carnivals was selected to represent Australia after he was part of the Victorian over-70s side which won a national carnival in November.
It is something McPherson is understandably excited about.
“I’m very pleased to have been selected and I can’t wait until we play in March,” he said.
McPherson played his first game of A Grade cricket for Brim when he was just 15.
“The first match I played, I fielded at fine leg and was running from one end to the other,” he said.
“The next week they said I could have a go at the wicket keeping.”
It was role that he relished and he has continued to work hard behind the stumps ever since.
He would even return from holidays on a Saturday to make sure he would keep his place in the A Grade side.
“If I didn’t let anyone else have a go, then nobody ever knew how good they were which meant I was never kicked out,” he said.
“I still do the whole lot so nobody else gets a go.”
He takes pride in the fact that he has always stood a bit closer than other keepers.
One day while keeping for his school side, he was told he would have to stand back a bit further to a particularly fast bowler.
“I stood back too far and I couldn’t even get to them,” he said.
“He would bowl one a bit wide and I knew that there was no way I could stand so far back.
“It just felt natural for me to stand that little bit closer. I don’t stand back to any bowlers now – there isn’t any over-60 or over-70 bowlers that can push me back unless they’re erratic.”
While keeping always ensured him a place in the side, he was always very handy with the bat.
To this day he still holds the record for the highest unbeaten score on the Brim Cricket Ground – a mammoth innings of 163.
As well as representing Brim, during his career he has captained the Wimmera zone against the Mallee zone and played at Mildura, Ballarat, Bendigo and Melbourne country week carnivals.
“That’s just in A Grade,” he said.
“That doesn’t count any of the over-60s or over-70s carnivals I’ve played in because they are only a four-day week.”
The list of good cricketers that McPherson has played with and against would make for long reading just by itself.
“I can’t even begin to remember all the great ones that I’ve crossed paths with,” he said.
“It’s one of those games where the camaraderie is so strong between teammates and even the opposition.
There isn’t any over-60 or over-70 bowlers that can push me back unless they’re erratic.
- Wavell McPherson
McPherson has also embraced changes in cricket over the years, such is his love the game.
“It’s wonderful because it just means we play even more,” he said.
“There is that much more cricket that you can play now.
I still love watching the tests and the one-dayers and I’ll watch the Twenty20 every night as well; I probably get some bad habits from it when I slog too much, though.”
His long cricket career could have resulted in giving away football early on.
“I was only ever a little fella and they used to go right through me,” he said.
“That hurt too much and that’s probably helped me play cricket for longer because I’ve never had any football injuries.”
There hasn’t been a season since he started playing that he has not gotten on the field for at least a game or two – even once he retired from regularly playing for Brim.
“I played an A Grade game when I was 69 and I was still keeping then,” he said.
“There was very special game a couple of years ago when I got to play with my two boys and my two grandsons as well.”