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PRIME MINISTER
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER THE HON P J KEATING MP
LUNCH FOR THE PM'S XI v THE WEST INDIES, MANUKA OVAL,
CANBERRA, 5 DECEMBER 1995
E& OE PROOF COPY
Thanks very much indeed John ( Gallop). Can I just recognise Richie
Richardson and Michael Bevan, Denis Rogers, Wesley Hall, Andy Roberts,
Steve Bernard and ladies and gentlemen.
What a pity we are at this point in the day. I thought we would be going well
because my experience with these matches has been that we have mostly
had good weather. It is a pretty safe time of the year in Australia, but with the
weather patterns the way they are, nothing is safe any more it seems. At any
rate, the clouds have lifted somewhat and I am hoping against hope that we
might get five hours or something like that in. In which case, we would not
have seen the day go to waste.
I know this is an important day for the ACT Cricket Association because it is
one of its fund raising days amongst other things, but I know it wants to keep
up this tradition of the Prime Minister's Xl and so do I. Particularly for our
colleagues from the West Indies and this being their first match of the tour,
they pay us a great honour indeed in being part of the Prime Minister's Xl and
coming last evening and today to play our side and in doing that, of course,
they have done it quite a few times over the years. I was just looking through
the book " The Prime Minister's Xl" by Don Selth there on the table, we have
seen a number of them here in the past. Wes Hall, I think, back in the 1960s
and Richie, of course, was here in 1992. So, they are no strangers to this
place and we have kept the tradition going. Being the first fixture of the tour
for them, I hope that they can limber up in a sense this afternoon.
I would like to underline how important the West Indies are in the world of
Australian cricket of world cricket and, of course, a measure of their
greatness is the fact that only after two decades did Australia manage to win
back the Frank Worrell Shield. There is a great sense of euphoria here and,
I think, that they have set the standard in cricket by which other countries
judge themselves. That is, the measure of someones euphoria is really
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whether they can climb over th-e top of-you. When they know how hard that is
to do, they rate themselves by comparing themselves with you.
Australian cricket, of course, has been riding high over recent times.
Perhaps not yesterday, but mostly and our team has been performing very
well under Mark Taylor and we have got many and very talented cricketers
knocking on the door of the Test team. But we have got a long way to go
before we achieve that special status which the West Indies have had in
dominating international cricket so totally and for so long.
It has always been a great wonder to me that from the Caribbean, those
relatively small states and populations like Barbados with a population
roughly the size of Canberra or Antigua with a population roughly akin to
some of our provincial centres, yet it produces this huge number of
international ranked people and it really is quite exceptional. We were just
talking about my home town of Bankstown, how many cricketers we have
produced from there and how many swimmers and the rest, well, there is
Bankstown and the rest of Australia and I suppose there is Barbados and
Antigua and what have you. I know what it is like to produce all these stars..
Though we are very proud of our cricketing stars from that part of the world,
we have never turned out the number of fast bowlers that you have and your
success in the 1970s, 1 980s and 1 990s was founded on that magnificent fast
bowling. We have got Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh here today, of
course, to show us some of their form if we get an opportunity.
It Is a great pleasure for me to be here as Prime Minister with Wes Hall and
Andy Roberts in our company as Team Manager and Coach. Of course, they
were household names in Australia and great draw cards and they kept that
contact with cricket and, of course, the other thing I have in common with
Wes is he is a pollie, a politician. So, he knows about all of the other
undercurrents going on out there too. We were just talking a bit earlier about
how politicians immediately pick up the pulse of a crowd or a circumstance or
a place and no doubt, this has put him in good stead with instinct it has put
him in good stead in cricket and in public life. At any rate, it is great to have
them both here with us and again we appreciate very much their commitment.
Could I express my appreciation particularly to the Australian Cricket Board
and to the ACT Cricket Association in organising what has obviously been a
well organised event, other than the weather. If my predecessor was still
here, he would have been a better chance on that too and a couple before
that could But, I am only an ordinary politician and so I can only say thank
you for the organisation that you have obviously displayed here and just in
the year since the renovations and the extra facilities out the front, of course,
are going to make it a much better place to organise cricket into the future.
I would like to thank the players, Richie Richardson and his side and Michael
Bevan and our side with many substantial young people coming through
cricket and the great opportunity for them to be up against such a quality side
and I thank them both. Of course, this stand has been called after the great
Don Bradman and 1, as a former finance minister and Treasurer of this
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country, you get a bit of a penchant for statistics, but whenever the statistics
are brought out about Bradman, he distinguishes himself so obviously in
Cricket world history. It was nice we had a $ 5 commemorative coin in his
name punched and we were able to use it today. The Mint is still hanging on
to it though and they won't let them have it. They are very thingy about the
currency here. They make their money under a thing called seigniorage this
is a little trick they have about what it costs to produce the money and the
difference in its face value. So, given the fact that it never costs that much to
produce these coins, they could give a few away. But, I don't think we are
going to get hold of the Don Bradman coin today. We did ask Don to come
over on this occasion, given that the coin was struck in his honour. We all
take opportunities to remember his great life as a cricketer and his great life
as a world sportsman and as an Australian sportsman, but he wasn't able to
come for reasons, family reasons and others. It would have been nice to
have had him, but we understand.
So, can I just conclude by thanking you all the Australian Cricket Board and
the ACT Cricket Association particularly. I thank you for keeping up the
tradition of the PM's XI. I am glad also my parliamentary colleagues could be
with us, from the Opposition and also mine in the Government and we can
all of us Rwf e get some opportunity here, keep increasing the record book
that we have on the table and keep alive this very important tradition. I'd like
to propose a toast to our West Indies guests, if someone could pass over my
drink. To just say thank you and wish you all the best on this tour.
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