Raymond Russell Lindwall (3 October 1921 – 23 June 1996) was an Australian cricketer who played 61 Test matches for Australia between 1946 and 1960. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers in cricket history. In addition to his cricket career, he played top-flight rugby league for St. George, appearing in two grand finals for the club.
Lindwall made his first-class debut for New South Wales in 1941–42. At the same time, Lindwall played for St. George in the first-grade of the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership as a full back. His career was interrupted by World War II, in which he served in the Australian Army in New Guinea from 1943 to 1945. He made his Test debut against New Zealand in March 1946. During the early part of his career, he also played rugby league at first-grade level before retiring from the sport in 1946 to focus on cricket.
As a right-arm fast bowler, Lindwall was known for his smooth, rhythmic action and ability to generate pace and swing. Together with Keith Miller, he formed one of the most celebrated new-ball partnerships in Test cricket. He was a key member of Don Bradman’s Australian team that toured England in 1948, known as “The Invincibles”.
Lindwall was also a capable lower-order batsman, scoring two Test centuries. He was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame in 1996, named in the Australian Cricket Board’s Team of the Century in 2000, and inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009.
Lindwall was born in Mascot, in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, the fourth of five children. He had one younger sister, two older sisters, one of which was Eileen Lindwall who married Frank Weston and an older brother. Being the grandson of Swedish and Irish immigrants, Lindwall had a difficult childhood with his mother Catherine dying of pneumonia when he was seven. His father Arthur had a job at the Water and Sewerage Board, but the children were aware that their father could not financially support them beyond school-leaving age.
At the age of 11, Lindwall and his elder brother Jack were spectators at the Sydney Cricket Ground during the second day of the First Test of the 1932–33 Ashes series. The series saw the usage of the notorious Bodyline tactics by England's pace battery led by Harold Larwood under the captaincy of Douglas Jardine. Larwood, a man of relatively short stature like Lindwall, was less than six feet and intimidated opposition batsmen with express pace bowling, aiming short-pitched bouncers at their upper body. Larwood also had a smooth, rhythmic run-up and a classical side-on action, something for which Lindwall became famous. The match was also remembered for Stan McCabe's much-celebrated 187 not out, aggressively resisting the Bodyline tactics as Australia fell to a heavy ten wicket defeat.
The Lindwall brothers returned to their home in Hurstville, where Ray henceforth attempted to emulate Larwood. He wanted to replicate the physical threat posed by Larwood to batsmen, as well as the dynamic batting of McCabe. Lindwall attempted to copy Larwood's action in his routine street cricket matches, before terrorising his classmates at primary school. Lindwall said that "he was the most famous fast bowler in the world and I naturally wanted to copy him". Lindwall's formal cricket education began the following year when he commenced his secondary schooling at Marist Brothers Kogarah. The school had teachers that had a habit of scouting around for athletic boys who could bring sporting honour to the institution. The headmaster, Brother Aidan O'Keefe, was a competent player and invested time into training Lindwall. O'Keefe taught Lindwall batting repertoire while also encouraging him to remain aggressive. He taught Lindwall to add accuracy and variation to his raw speed. By the age of 13, Lindwall was leading the under-15 school team, opening both the batting and bowling. Aged 14, Lindwall played in two distinct Saturday competitions – in the morning against schoolboys and with adults in the afternoon in a B-grade competition with Carlton Waratahs. On one outing, he scored 219 and an unbeaten 110 in two different matches on the same day.
Lindwall's physique had matured by the time he was 15, and he was also successful at athletics and swimming. Aware that he needed a good education with his family in poverty during the Great Depression, Lindwall lifted himself for his final year of junior high school and won a half-scholarship to Marist Brothers Darlinghurst for 1937 and 1938. However, Lindwall's focus on rugby league and cricket saw him fail his Leaving Certificate in his final year.
During his secondary school years, Lindwall focused on his batting and gained a reputation as a dynamic shotmaker. In early October 1938, with his final school year drawing to a close, Lindwall was among a group of young cricketers who received an invitation to practise at the SCG with the state team. Lindwall was the first to volunteer to bowl to Jack Fingleton, who was one of Australia's first-choice opening batsmen, having just returned from the 1938 Ashes tour. Lindwall peppered Fingleton with a series of yorkers, bouncers and outswingers. In the space of 15 minutes, Lindwall bowled Fingleton four times and beat the bat on several other occasions. When questioned by his coach, Fingleton brushed off Lindwall's performance, noting "I'm just off the boat. I'm not seeing the ball." Lindwall was stung by the comments, noting that it taught him to hate all batsmen.
Lindwall was only in the Third XI of St. George at the time, but by December, he was in the First XI along with future Invincibles teammate Arthur Morris. The senior team was captained by Bill O'Reilly, a leg spin bowler who represented Australia in Tests and was regarded as the best bowler in the world. O'Reilly was a firm man and came to be a father figure for Lindwall. Lindwall came into the team seeing himself as an into-the-wind swing bowler. O'Reilly felt that pace bowlers were only useful for a few overs with new ball, so he instructed Lindwall to lengthen his run-up and bowl as fast as possible. O’Reilly also decided that the team needed more bowlers. He placed Lindwall low in the batting order, where he often did not get an opportunity to bat. Lindwall did not bother protesting, realising that dissent against the autocratic O’Reilly would be futile. O'Reilly also turned Morris from a bowler into a batsman. Both Morris and Lindwall became world-leading players in the fields that O’Reilly chose for them. By the end of the 1938–39 season, Lindwall had not yet established himself as a cricketer. Former Test batsman Charlie Macartney lamented what he perceived as a lack of talent and substance at St. George. Lindwall returned to school, attempting to obtain his Leaving Certificate while also playing third-grade rugby league. In July, Lindwall's father died, leaving him and his four siblings orphaned.
Juggling work, war and first-class rugby league and cricket
At the end of the year, Lindwall gained his Leaving Certificate. This made him eligible to study at university, but it clashed with his desire to play sport and earn money to help support his parentless family. He thus took an office job with Commercial Steel and Forge Company, which manufactured aeroplane parts and bomb fuses. During the 1939–40 season, Lindwall's bowling was only moderately successful, with 16 wickets at 34.93. A highlight of the season was an unbeaten 49 as St. George won the grade final.
In the winter of 1940 Lindwall made his first grade rugby league debut in the New South Wales Rugby Football League premiership for the St. George club alongside his older brother Jack, who had been with the club since 1938. He played at fullback and assumed goal-kicking responsibilities. Lindwall's cricketing improved during the 1940–41 season, taking 34 wickets at 16.45, approximately doubling his wickets while halving their cost. By this time, many of his colleagues had enlisted in the armed services and the competition was beginning to thin out during World War II. Lindwall missed the 1941 NSWRFL season due to illness, and in doing so missed out on the team that won the premiership that season. In October 1941, Lindwall was selected to make his first-class cricket debut against Queensland in Brisbane, just after turning 20. Playing along his childhood hero McCabe, Lindwall put in a wayward performance. He conceded an expensive 81 runs in 15 wicketless overs and made just one run with the bat. The Sheffield Shield season was cancelled a month later after the December 1941 Pearl Harbor attack, that signalled the widening of the war into the Pacific arena. The Sydney grade cricket competition continued, and Lindwall helped St. George to a hat-trick of premierships with 27 wickets at 22.19 and 405 runs at 27.00.