Yardley passes away at 71

SYDNEY: Bruce Yardley, the former Australia spin bowler, passed away in Western Australia after a lengthy battle with cancer at the age of 71. Yardley, born in Midland, started his career as a medium-pacer and occasionally also bowled offspin.It was only at the age of around 27 that Yardley switched completely to bowling off-spin. The Western Australia, who used his middle finger to bowl spin, made his first-class debut in December 1966 against Queensland. He snared the lone wicket of the opener, John Loxton, in that game.Yardley had to wait nearly four more years for his next first-class game against Victoria. Initially, he found success hard to come by, evidenced by the fact that he had scored only 246 runs and picked up six scalps in his first 14 first-class games.Eventually, during the 1976-77 season, Yardley took his game to an elevated level, ending up with 19 wickets at a shade under 26. The highlight of his breakthrough season was the six-for he took against New South Wales at the SCG. He also cracked a vital hand of 97 in WA’s second essay.With a slew of Australia’s main players joining the World Series Cricket - Karry Packer’s breakaway tournament - Yardley was included in Australia’s Test side for the series against India in 1977-78.He had a good time in the West Indies in 1977-78 when he took 15 wickets at 25.13. He also showed his worth with the bat by composing aggressive hands of 74 and 43 against the likes of Andy Roberts, Colin Croft and Joel Garner in Barbados. The Wisden called it as “unorthodox but effective aggression”. One of Yardley’s signature shots was a chip over the slip cordon and the stroke came to be known as “Yardley Yahoo”.He forced opposition sides to employ the fly slip to counter particular shot. Yardley was at his peak during the 1981-82 season when he finished with 18, 20 and 13 scalps against Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand respectively. During that period, he also snared his only 10-wicket haul in a Test match against the West Indies at the SCG.

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