James Wallace Burke (12 June 1930 – 2 February 1979) was an Australian cricketer who played in 24 Test matches from 1951 to 1959. Burke holds the record for the most innings in a complete career without scoring a duck, with 44.
Burke grew up in the Sydney north shore suburb of Mosman, where his parents had migrated to, from Bromley in Kent, England. His great-uncle Percy Burke had played for Kent as a wicket-keeper. His mother was a talented golfer. Burke was a talented golfer and cricketer in his childhood, but was refused membership of Balgowlah Golf Club at the age of 12 on the grounds that he was too young. He began his cricket training aged seven at Manly Oval. Burke attended Sydney Grammar School and aged 14 played in the First XI. At 15 he rose from Manly's Third XI to First XI in Sydney Grade Cricket. At 16 his batting average for Sydney Grammar was 94, a record for a school which has produced many first-class cricketers.
At the start of the 1948–49 season, Burke scored 134 and took a total of 2/8 for New South Wales Colts—a youth team—against their Queensland counterparts. At the age of 18, this propelled him into his debut for New South Wales in the 1948–49 Sheffield Shield season, even though there was no international touring team during the season and his state was thus at full strength with many Test players. In his first match, Burke scored 76 not out and bowled two wicketless maidens against Western Australia as his state took an innings victory. He then scored half-centuries in his only innings in the next two games, before his form petered out towards the end of the season, failing to pass 40 again and totalling only 46 runs in his last five innings. This included an opportunity in the Test trial match between the strongest players in Australia at the end of the season, as part of Hassett's XI. He scored only 11 and 19, and was not selected for the 1949–50 tour of South Africa. Burke ended his debut season with 336 runs at 37.33 in seven matches, and his occasional bowling yielded three wickets at 39.00, having delivered only 29 overs. His first wickets at first-class level were Victoria's Test batsmen Ken Meuleman and Sam Loxton as he took 2/38 in the second innings of his fifth match.
The following season, with the Test players in South Africa, Burke had more opportunities in the New South Wales team, but he failed to pass 20 in two early-season matches, and was dropped, spending six weeks out of the team before returning in mid-December. Aged 20, he scored 62 and took 3/54 upon his recall against South Australia, and then carried his bat to score for 162 not out against Victoria, whose bowling was headed by Jack Iverson, whose folded-finger spin took 6/27 in a Test the following year. In his five Shield matches for the season, Burke scored 292 runs at 41.71 and seven wickets at 33.42.
Burke was selected for an Australian Second XI that toured New Zealand under the leadership of Bill Brown at the end of the season, with the first-choice team still in South Africa. He started his career for Australia productively, scoring 101 in a non-first-class match against Hutt Valley on debut. Burke then scored 60 and 68 not out in the next match against Auckland—a first-class fixture—before taking 3/24 in the second innings as the hosts held on for a draw with two wickets in hand. He scored 89 in the next match against Waikato—another non-first-class match—but did little else on the tour. He failed to take another wicket and passed 20 only once in his five remaining first-class innings. He made nine in his only innings in the one-off match against New Zealand, which was drawn.
International debut in 1950–51
The following season, the Test players returned and Burke put in a series a consistent performances to cement his New South Wales position and push for national selection. In the third match of the season, he scored 80 and 60 for his state against the touring MCC team of Freddie Brown, ending unbeaten in both innings. He made a duck in the following match against Victoria, but claimed his maiden five-wicket innings haul, taking 5/38 in the second innings. He removed Test batsmen Meuleman and Loxton before returning to dismiss Test bowlers Ian Johnson and Bill Johnston. Burke then scored half-centuries in consecutive Shield matches and was selected for an Australian XI to play against England in a Test trial. He scored 128 in his only innings and took the wicket of Denis Compton but this was not enough for Test selection. He had another opportunity against England two weeks later in a match for New South Wales, but had to retire hurt in the first innings and then made 40 in the second innings. Burke also removed England's top-scorer Reg Simpson for 259.
He was selected for his Test debut against England at the Adelaide Oval, replacing the out-of-form Loxton for the Fourth Test. Burke made 12 before being bowled by Roy Tattersall in the first innings as Australia took a 99-run lead. He then scored 101 not out in the second innings as Australia made 8/403 and set England 503 for victory. His innings was marked by cutting and glancing. Australia went on to win by 274 runs. He was promoted to opening the batting in the following Test and struggled, making 11 and 1 and being dismissed by English seam spearhead Alec Bedser in each innings as the tourists ended Australia's run of 26 Test without defeat with an eight-wicket win. Burke bowled only three overs in the series, all of them in the second innings of his debut Test, without taking a wicket. He ended the season with 705 runs at 50.35 and took eight wickets at 37.12.
Burke did not have a high-scoring start to the 1951–52 season. After scoring 32 against Queensland, and 11 and 38 not out for New South Wales against the touring West Indies, Burke was made twelfth man for the first two Tests. A late injury to Australian captain Hassett and an Australian Board of Control veto on fellow New South Wales Test opener Sid Barnes for disciplinary reasons, meant that Burke was recalled for the Third Test on a wet Adelaide pitch. He scored only 3 and 15 as the tourists took a six-wicket win. When Hassett returned, Burke was duly dropped and missed the remaining two Tests. He returned to New South Wales and scored fifties in consecutive matches late in the summer; he ended the season with 319 runs at 29.00 and took five wickets at 45.60.
Burke then lost his Test position for two seasons. He had a poor campaign in 1952–53, he passed 40 only once in 13 innings in nine matches. This came in an innings victory over Victoria, in which he scored 78 before taking 4/11 in the second innings to help end the game, dismissing Loxton, Ian McDonald, Johnson and Johnston. He aggregated only 277 runs at 25.18 and 12 wickets at 20.75. Burke was overlooked for all five Tests against South Africa and not selected for the 1953 tour of England.
He declined further in the following season, which was purely domestic with the Test representatives available for the whole season. He lost his New South Wales place multiple times, playing in only five matches as his state won the 1953–54 Sheffield Shield, starting a run of nine successive titles. Early in the season, Burke took 6/60 in the second innings of a match against South Australia, removing Gavin Stevens and Phil Ridings before running through the tail, helping to set up an eight-wicket triumph. He scored an unbeaten 58 against Queensland, his only score above 35 for the season, which ended with 171 runs at 24.42 and 10 wickets at 29.30.
Burke made his come-back by combining business and cricket, moving to England for a season as Todmorden's professional in the Lancashire League in 1954. He failed to manage a century, but did score five half-centuries including two nineties in 23 matches. Burke made 97 not out and then took 8/14 in a win over East Lancashire, his best batting and bowling figures for the whole season. He took five or more wickets in an innings in 11 matches.
Burke started the new Australian season in 1954–55 with 137 against Queensland. He then scored 6 and 34 not out in his state's match against Len Hutton's touring Englishmen. This was not enough for him to gain selection in the First Test, which AUstralia won by an innings. The Australian selectors recalled him for two Tests in the 1954–55 series against England. The first came in the Second Test in Sydney when Keith Miller was injured. Burke scored 44 and 14 as England levelled the series in a low-scoring 38-run win.