Obituary: From Test recall at 41 to coaching Aussies, the man who never said no

The storied history of Australian cricket has never been short of legends — but then, Bobby Simpson was different. It’s not every day that one gets a hero as fiercely proud as him to have come out of retirement as captain at the age of 41, nine years after he had retired from international cricket, just because his country was struggling to field a decent team after being ravaged by Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket (WSC) defections in 1977-78.

 As ‘Simmo’ passed away at 89 in Sydney on Saturday, the overriding talk among old-timers was his role as a 'Renaissance Man' of sorts for their cricket. After his retirement, Simpson became Australia’s first fulltime coach between 1986 and 1996, guiding the country to its first-ever ICC World Cup triumph in 1987 under captain Allan Border, and the same combination building from scratch to shape the modern-day ‘Invincibles.’

Here is a look at the men who prospered in the Simpson-Border era: David Boon, Dean Jones, Steve Waugh, Craig McDermott and Merv Hughes. In 1987, he was added to the selection panel chaired by Laurie Sawle, which oversaw the start of Australia's next golden generation with Mark Taylor, Ian Healy, Mark Waugh, Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath and Ricky Ponting among a host of players selected and coached by Simpson until he stood down in 1996.

In late 2004, he accepted a three-year contract as cricket advisor to Rajasthan in the Ranji Trophy, building upon his role as consultant to the Indian cricket team in the late 1990s.

No wonder, then, that it was the ushering in of the golden era of Australian cricket during which, apart from the World Cup, the Baggy Greens regained the Ashes in 1989, which they would hold until 2005. They also regained the Frank Worrell Trophy in 1995, which they had not held since 1976, having not beaten West Indies in a series anywhere during that time. That win in the Caribbean gave them the unofficial mantle of the world's no. 1 Test side.

Tributes flowed as Border, who called Simpson his sergeant-major and a disciplinarian, told News Corp: ‘’Simmo was the perfect man for the time. He was not everyone’s best mate, but that was not his role. Everyone who played under him, whether they liked him or not, would accept that they were better players for his influence. He was as good as any coach we have ever had. He had a fantastic cricket brain.’’

It was actually a watershed moment in May 1977 when news broke that media mogul Packer, frustrated by his inability to secure cricket rights for his fledgling Channel Nine, had decided to organise games of his own. Thus was born 'Pajama Cricket', as the hardnosed businessman signed up more than 50 marquee players from all over the world — which left Cricket Australia staring at the bottom of the barrel to field a team against the visiting Indians.

Almost two dozen of their more likely choices, including the Chappell brothers, were unavailable, and it became quite a headache to select a team, let alone leading it. Desperate times call for desperate measures, they say, and hence there was actually a collective sigh of relief when Simpson was pulled out of retirement and led the hosts to a 3-2 series win. ‘’He has a wonderful batting technique,’’ the legendary Keith Miller said. ‘’And is fitter at the moment than he has been for years.’’

Simpson played 10 more Tests, scoring two hundreds during that phase to average 52.83 in 1977 and 32.38 the following year. In all, he played 62 Tests and two ODIs between 1957 and 1978, amassing 4,869 Test runs alongside 71 wickets. In the 39 Tests he captained, Australia won 12.

Known for his immense endurance, Simpson broke multiple records as he ended his seven-year drought to record a maiden Test century in 1964 at The Oval. Batting for over 13 hours, Simpson converted his first ton into a mammoth Test triple hundred (311), still ranked as one of only three batters to ever achieve the feat. His record as the youngest skipper to smash 300 in Tests stood for more than 61 years until South Africa’s Wiaan Mulder edged past him in July this year with his record-breaking triple century on Test captaincy debut in Zimbabwe.

‘’Never having shirked confrontation, he was prepared to die with his boots on, as he might well have had to,’’ said John Woodcock, the celebrated cricket writer, at the end of one of Australia’s Test series against the then mighty West Indies.

Pardon the cliché, but they don’t make men like Simpson any more!