WILDERMUTH’S UNCLE HAD SEASON IN ONE DAY
JACK Wildermuth and his great uncle Tom Veivers epitomise the long and short of Australian cricket tours to England.
Wildermuth’s Twenty20 tour of England next month will feature just one game – potentially he will bowl just four overs – before the squad moves on to Zimbabwe.
Veivers’ stint was at the opposite end of the scale.
The genial allrounder tossed down an extraordinary 95.1 overs of offspin in one innings in the drawn Test against England at Manchester in 1964, the second-longest one-innings bowling stint of all time.
“My tour there in 1964 lasted six months and we played every county and some twice – things have changed a bit,’’ Veivers said.
Wildermuth would have to bowl his full four-over allocation in 24 T20 games for Australia before he matched his great uncle’s workload from that day of eternal toil in Manchester.
Wildermuth’s grandfather, Queensland batsman Graham Bizzell, married Veivers’ sister Mary and while both have passed away, Wildermuth is not lacking for extended family.
“He is a hell of a nice lad and is very sensible and I have been suggesting to him that even though he started off as a bowler, I have been wanting him to concentrate on his batting,” Veivers said. “That is the thing that will hold him in good stead, as it did with me.”