An Invincible immortalised

One of two surviving members of Don Bradman’s Invincibles, Neil Harvey now takes his place among the immortals with the unveiling of his statue in the ‘Avenue of Legends’ at his beloved Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Harvey, the 19-year-old batting prodigy of that famous team that toured England undefeated in 1948 and who went on to play 79 Tests and score more than 6,000 runs for his country, described the honour as the “finale for my cricketing career.”

“This is a huge unexpected honour,” the 85-year-old said as he joined fellow Victorian cricketer Shane Warne and Australian rules footballers Norm Smith and John Coleman as residents of  the ‘Avenue’.

“It’s a little bit hard to comprehend.

“I’m so thankful to the Melbourne Cricket Club for selecting me for this great honour.

“It will be forever remembered by all my family here today.”

His more-than-life-sized likeness also resides alongside other Australian Test players Bradman, Bill Ponsford, Keith Miller and Dennis Lillee whose statues ring the forecourt outside the historic venue.

Harvey was joined at today’s unveiling by family and friends, as well as former teammates including Lindsay Kline, Colin McDonald Ian Meckiff and Bill Lawry.

Lawry, who began his career under Harvey’s leadership at Victoria and helped with today’s unveiling, said: “Neil Harvey was the best captain I ever played under.

“He was such a natural talent.

“He was a phenomenal fielder with a great arm and, as a batsman, he was something different.

“He was so quick on his feet and so neat.

“That’s the way he played his cricket (and) it was an honour to play with him.”

Harvey, who announced his arrival as a Test star on that 1948 tour and scored six centuries in his first 13 Test innings, went on to compile 21 hundreds during his 15-year Test career.

He remains the youngest player to score a Test century for Australia, having achieved the feat against India at the MCG aged 19 years and four months.

In addition to playing 306 first-class matches for Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, Harvey served as a national selector for 12 years following his retirement from cricket in 1963, and in 2000 was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame.

Along with Bradman and opener Arthur Morris, who is the other surviving member of the 1948 Invincibles, Harvey was named in Cricket Australia’s Team of the 20^th Century.