Graeme Donald Watson (8 March 1945 – 24 April 2020) was an Australian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er who played in five Test matches and two One Day Internationals (ODIs) between 1966 and 1972.

Cricket career

Watson made his

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

debut for

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in 1964–65 before moving to

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

from 1971–72 to 1974–75, and then to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 1976–77, when he became the first man to play

Sheffield Shield The Sheffield Shield (currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Marsh Sheffield Shield) is the domestic first-class cricket competition of Australia. The tournament is contested between teams from the six states of Australia. Sheffield Shi ...

cricket for three states. He played minor matches in

World Series Cricket World Series Cricket (WSC) was a commercial professional cricket competition staged between 1977 and 1979 which was organised by Kerry Packer and his Australian television network, Nine Network. WSC ran in commercial competition to establish ...

in 1977–78 and 1978–79. Watson's highest first-class score came for the Australians against Hampshire County Cricket Club during Australia's tour of England in 1972. He and

Keith Stackpole Keith Raymond Stackpole Jr. (born 10 July 1940) is a former Victorian and Australian cricketer who played in 43 Test matches and six One Day Internationals between 1966 and 1974. He went on to become a cricket commentator on radio and TV in t ...

put on 301 for the first wicket, Watson scoring 176 in 234 minutes with 26 fours and five sixes, and taking the Australians to victory by nine wickets. In all first-class cricket he scored 4674 runs at 32.68, with seven centuries, and took 186 wickets at 25.31, with five wickets or more in an innings eight times and best figures of 6 for 61 against

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1965–66.

Football career

He also played 18 games of Australian rules football for

in the

Victorian Football League The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFL) in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

and 1965.

Personal life

Watson was a qualified architect and worked in sports stadium management, including the Sydney Olympic precinct. He had four marriages. He died on 24 April 2020 from cancer.

References

Sources

* Cashman, R. (ed.) (1996) ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket'', Oxford: Melbourne. .

External links

* *
Brydon Coverdale, "Australia's Winter Allrounders: XI Test Cricketers who played Australian rules football at the highest level", ''Cricinfo'', 28 May 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Graeme 1945 births 2020 deaths Australia Test cricketers Australia One Day International cricketers New South Wales cricketers Victoria cricketers Western Australia cricketers Melbourne Football Club players World Series Cricket players Melbourne Cricket Club cricketers International Cavaliers cricketers Australian cricketers Australian rules footballers from Melbourne People from Kew, Victoria 20th-century Australian architects Architects from Melbourne Cricketers from Melbourne