Test Profile (Part 1) 1988 - 1991.
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When Bobby Simpson was appointed Australia's first full-time coach he
surprised Australian cricket by plucking Ian Healy from obscurity and
putting him in the Test team instead of the established Tim Zoehrer and
his understudy Greg Dyer. In fact it was Healy's brother, Ken, who had
seemed destined for stardom, as wicket-keeper for Australian youth sides
and then for Queensland. Simpson, though, had seen early signs of the
toughness and durability which were to become Ian's trademark. He made
his debut on Australia's tour of Pakistan in 1988, with Rameez Raja his
first victim, caught off Bruce Reid. He was second top scorer with 26.
In his second Test he got his first stumping when Shoaib Mohammad
strayed out of his ground. When West Indies came to Australia in
1988-89, with an attack of Marshall, Patterson, Walsh and Ambrose, he
showed his fighting qualities with 52 in the second Test at Perth. On
the 1989 tour of England, when Australia turned into the winning side of
the '90s, he made 44 at the Oval as well as contributing a
near-faultless display of wicket keeping. Against Pakistan in 1989-90
Healy scored 48 in Melbourne and took 5 catches in an innings in
Adelaide. Against England in the next Australian season he twice took
five catches in an innings, four of them off Bruce Reid in the Adelaide
Test. In the third Test in Sydney Ian's 69 as night-watchman prevented
Phil Tufnell and Eddie Hemmings from spinning England to victory, while
42 in the last Test in Perth gave his side a first innings lead which
lead to victory. (Bob Harragan).
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Ian Healey is pictured above on Friday May 21st. 1993 playing for Australia.
Photo George Herringshaw. ©
Test Profile (Part 2) 1992 - 1995.
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Ian Healy came of age as a batsman during the England tour of 1993 when
Australia powered to an unstoppable Ashes victory. On the few occasions
when the incredibly strong Aussie batting faltered and England made a
tentative comeback Healy was there to hold the bridge. At Edgbaston he
made 80, and at the Oval 83, as well as showing impeccable glovework
throughout a series which saw him having to master the many varieties of
Shane Warne. He showed his batting was no fluke when New Zealand came
out to Australia, scoring 113 not out in the Test in Perth. He again had
five catches in an innings at Brisbane; a feat at one time thought
remarkable, but over the next few seasons this equally remarkable
wicket-keeper repeated it time and again. At Rawalpindi on the 1994 tour
of Pakistan he did it again, and repeated himself at Brisbane in the
first Test of the Ashes series, pouching four more in the second innings
and also scoring 45 not out. There were another five in an innings in
Melbourne, and scores of 74 and 51 not out at Adelaide where his batting
colleagues let him down and England won. He also made 74 not out in
Bridgetown on Mark Taylor's tour of the Caribbean. In Adelaide the
following season Healy scored 70 against Sri Lanka, again in Adelaide.
Ian carried an injury for much of Australia's World Cup campaign in
1992, in one match having to hand the gloves to David Boon. He took the
first catch of the tournament when he clung on to an edge from the bat
of New Zealand's Rod Latham. (Bob Harragan)
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The image of Ian Healey playing for Australia was taken on 22nd. May 1997.
Photo Nigel French. ©
Test Profile (Part 3) 1996-99.
| Ian Healy was given an official interview as potential Australian
captain on the departure of Mark Taylor, even though the job seemed
destined for Steve Waugh. By then he had become a fixture behind the
stumps in the Australian test team, giving way just once through injury
when his post was taken over by New South Wales' Phil Emery. When West
Indies visited Australia in 1996-97 he made the highest score seen from
an Aussie wicket-keeper when he scored 161 not out in the first Test in
Brisbane, batting just under six hours and hitting 20 fours, mainly with
savage cuts and to continued acclaim from his home crowd. Later that
season he scored 97 against South Africa in Johannesburg, and got the
winning runs as Australia chased 271 in Port Elizabeth. In England in
1997 he took six catches in the first innings at Edgbaston, four of them
off Michael Kasprowicz. He made 63 at Trent Bridge, then 85 against New
Zealand in Perth and 82 against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 1998. In a
1998-99 Ashes series, his last against the auld enemy, he scored 134 in
the first Test, again at Brisbane, and performed the unusual feat of
stumping both opening batsmen in the Sydney Test. By now he had been
superseeded by Adam Gilchrist in the Australian ODI team, and his form
began to slip in the West Indies in 1999. He played in Sri Lanka later
that year, but was replaced by Gilchrist in the home season. Healy
captained Australia in a number of ODI tournaments, and was a World Cup
finalist in India in 1996, when he scored 31 against the West Indies in
the semi-final in Chandigarh. (Bob Harragan) |