Former Australian cricketer, captain and coach Bob Simpson dies at age 89

SYDNEY (AP) – Bob Simpson, a former player, captain and coach and one of the most influential figures in Australian cricket, has died at the age of 89.

Cricket Australia on Saturday confirmed the death of Simpson, who represented Australia in 62 tests and two one-day internationals between 1957 and 1978.

Simpson scored 4,869 test runs, including 10 centuries and 27 half-centuries, and took 71 wickets, while captaining Australia in 39 tests.

Born in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Marrickville, the third son of immigrant parents from Scotland, Simpson was just 16 when he made his first-class debut for New South Wales state against Victoria.

“I was a naturally ambitious person anyway and never had any doubts I could go further,” Simpson said. “It sounds cocky but I always believed in my own talents.”

He coached Australia from 1986 to 1996 and under his firm and steady guidance, Australia won the 1987 World Cup, four Ashes campaigns and in 1995 the Frank Worrell Trophy, ending a 17-year drought against the West Indies.

Cricket Australia said the Australian team will pay tribute to Simpson with a moment’s silence before Saturday night’s one-day international against South Africa at Cairns in northern Australia and will also wear black armbands.

Simpson made his test debut against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1957, and his first century came in an Ashes test at Old Trafford in Manchester in 1964, when Simpson went on to score 311. He is one of only seven Australians to make a triple-century.

He was also one of the greatest slip-fielders, taking 110 catches.

Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was among the first to pay tribute to Simpson.

“Bob Simpson’s extraordinary service to Australian cricket spanned generations. As a player, captain and then era-defining coach, he set the highest standards for himself and the champions he led,” Albanese wrote on X. “He will be long remembered by the game he loved. May he rest in peace.”

Simpson was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2013.

“As a brilliant opening batter, incredible slips fielder and handy spin bowler, Bob was a mainstay of a very strong Australian team in the 1960s, and he became a leader across the game as Australian and New South Wales captain and as a coach,” Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird said in a statement.

“Bob’s decision to come out of retirement to successfully lead the Australian team during the advent of World Series cricket in 1977 was a wonderful service to the game, and his coaching set the foundation for a golden era for Australian cricket.”