by Hondo » Sat Nov 27, 2010 11:18 pm
Like Wayne Phillips, I recall that Graeme Wood, Murray Bennett and Dirk Wellham also agreed to join the rebel tour but pulled out at the last minute.
In the DVD "Cricket in the 80s" Kim Hughes claimed that these players accepted payments from the ACB to not tour RSA (the linked article also makes this claim). Hughes claimed he had intended to go back to the Sheffield Shield and fight his way back into the Australian team despite missing the 1985 tour of England but became disenchanted with the ACB after finding out about these payments. He said this was the catalyst for him agreeing to join the rebel tour on which he became captain.
When you look at the Rebel squad and compare it to the team that beat the West Indies in the last test of the 1984-85 series you see that most had either lost their place in the Australian side or were unlikely to make regular Australian players. So in theory it shouldn't have impacted our test performances however the loss of these players to the depth of quality in the Sheffield Shield made worse what was already going to be a dip in our performances following the retirements of Lillee, Chappell and Marsh.
The only rebel players to come back (as I recall) and play for Australia after serving their 3 year suspension were Terry Alderman, Trevor Hohns and Carl Rackemann.
For some reason this rebel tour held a fascinaion for me so I am hoping this thread unveils some more facts and trivia.
In between signatures .....
