Former Australia Spinner Ashley Mallett Dies At 76 After Battling Cancer

Former Australia off-spinner Ashley Mallett passed away on Friday in Adelaide, The Age reported. The 76-year-old had been battling cancer. Ashley Mallett took 132 Test wickets in 38 Tests at 29.84 apiece between 1968 and 1980; he accounted for 11 ODI scalps in 9 matches.

Ashley Mallett, born in 1945 in Sydney, “earned universal respect as an off-spin bowler of the highest quality”. He was also a gun fielder and was nicknamed “Rowdy” for his looks and expression.

“In 1967, Mallett and his fellow West Australian spinner Terry Jenner took the train from Perth to Adelaide and rolled into the Strathmore Hotel on North Terrace to be greeted by the South Australian batter and later journalist Alan Shiell. Their move to more spin-friendly climes would reap Test caps for both, but it was Mallett who shone brightest.

“He won selection for the 1968 Ashes tour after just one Sheffield Shield season, and thereafter was the most constant slow-bowling ally to a period defined by the captaincy of Ian Chappell and the pace of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson,” The Age stated about the legendary bowler.

He played a crucial role in Test series wins in India in 1969, before storming in the 1974-75 Ashes.

Ashley Mallett’s last match was the 1980 Centenary Test at Lord’s, where he picked two wickets.

After retirement, he wrote heavily for newspapers and publishers, including biographies of his forebear Clarrie Grimmett and his captain Ian Chappell.

This year, though fighting the latter stages of his illness, Ashley Mallett completed an entertaining and at times revelatory biography of Neil Harvey.

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