Former Australia cricket captain and coach Bob Simpson dies at 89
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India cricketer Debashish Mohanti with Bobby Simpson, the Australian coach working with the team, during practice at the Oval, London on June 3, 1999, before the Cricket World Cup match against Australia.
PHOTO: AFP
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SYDNEY - Former Australia Test captain Bob Simpson, who ushered in the country’s modern-day golden era of cricket as its coach, has died aged 89, Cricket Australia said on Aug 16.
He played 62 Tests between 1957 and 1978, scoring 4,869 runs, including 10 hundreds, and claimed 71 wickets with his leg spin following his debut on a tour of South Africa.
Simpson, one of the greatest slip fielders the game has ever seen, initially retired from the game in 1968 before returning as Test captain at the age of 41 after several front-line Australian players had joined the World Series Cricket in 1977.
“Bob Simpson was one of the greats of Australian cricket, and this is a sad day for anyone fortunate to have watched him play or who benefited from his wisdom,” said Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird.
“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.”
“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 generation for Australian cricket.”
As coach, Simpson is credited with instilling discipline in an Australia side led by Allan Border, which went on to win the 1987 World Cup and regained both the Ashes against England and the Frank Worrell Trophy against West Indies.
Leg-spin great Shane Warne called Simpson the best coach he played under and someone who helped his development.
Simpson also coached Lancashire and the Netherlands and worked as a consultant with the Indian team in the late 1990s.
“Bob Simpson’s extraordinary service to Australian cricket spanned generations,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on X.
“As a player, captain and then era-defining coach, he set the highest of standards for himself and the champions he led. He will be long remembered by the game he loved.”
Simpson’s death follows those earlier in 2025 of two of his 1960s teammates.
Bob Cowper, the first batter to score a Test triple-century on Australian soil, died at the age of 84 in May after a prolonged battle with illness, while former Test opener Keith Stackpole, a key member of the Australia teams in the 1960s-70s, died of a suspected heart attack in April at the same age.
Left-handed batter Cowper played 27 Tests between 1964 and 1968, scoring five centuries including a 12-hour 307 off 589 balls against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground during the Ashes series in 1966.
Stackpole played 43 Tests and scored seven centuries from 1966 to 1974, forming one of Australia’s top opening combinations with Victoria teammate Bill Lawry. REUTERS
