Wisden overview
Quiet, gangling, short-sighted, Ashley Mallett looked like a book-keeper at a bikers' convention in the Australian XIs of the 1970s, but his teasing finger-spin and superlative gully fielding were an important element of their success. He moved from his native Perth to Adelaide in 1967 to partake of the wisdom of Clarrie Grimmett, made the first of three tours of England the following year, then found Indian conditions to his liking. No finger-spinner has done better in Australia than his Test-best 8 for 59 against Pakistan at Adelaide in December 1972. A journalist by trade, he wrote two volumes of reminiscences, and has published biographies of Victor Trumper and his paterfamilias Grimmett. Gideon Haigh

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