Looking For Doug - Doug Walters

The book is 350 pages long and includes 20 pages of black-and-white high-quality photographs of Doug Walters and other important cricketers featured in the narrative. It tells the story of the author, a Sri Lankan-born cricket freak, and his journey in following the life and achievements of his boyhood hero and cricket idol, the Australian cricketer Kevin Doug Walters. The author has been a personal friend of his subject (Doug Walters) since 2009. Doug's input gained through innumerable meetings over many years, has enriched the narrative and its veracity. The book also features an important interview with Ian Chappell, the former Australian captain. With the author's extensive research, the book provides an interesting and accurate account of the era, the Test matches that featured Doug Walters, and the main details related to the series in which Doug played. With enthusiastic input from Ian Chappell, the author makes a reasonable effort to place Doug Walters as a crucially important batsman and match-winner for Australia at a time when Australia emerged as the most dominant team in the world (the 1970s decade). The narrative is sprinkled with the author's personal viewpoints as a cricket lover. Although some are personal opinions and perspectives on cricket, they are well discussed and justified with abundant notes, a bibliography, and cited references.

I wrote this book because of my admiration for Doug Walters, a genuinely unique Australian cricketer and my cricketing idol since 1965. When I chose the book's title, it was the literal truth: I had been 'Looking' for Doug since I arrived in Australia in July 1993. In early 1994, living in Sydney, one of our family's earliest journeys out of the city was to 'look' for the township - Dungog - in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales (NSW), where Doug was born and raised. It sounds a bit crazy! At Dungog's Tourist Information Centre, a lady advised me that Doug moved out of the town years ago but was a frequent visitor. She directed me to the local Returned & Services League of Australia (RSL) club, where I could admire a display dedicated to the great cricketer and town hero. Years later, I found Doug serendipitously in 2009. By a stroke of luck, in 2009, I ran into Brynley, Doug's eldest son, to whom I was introduced by a friend (Trish Chadwick) who worked on ecology and environmental science matters just like I did. She had heard that I was a cricket fanatic. Brynley was astounded by my knowledge of Doug and called his father immediately to introduce me. On invitation, I then visited Doug at home in Carlingford, NSW. Once we met, Doug and I quickly became friends, fulfilling my dream. A few years later, I indicated that I would like to write a book about him to better understand Doug's cricketing history, the social milieu in which he played, and his perspectives on cricket. I clarified that instead of being his biography, I would weave my personal experiences as a cricket fan into the book. It is the humanity of cricket as a whole, more than anything else, that my book will attempt to highlight. Doug is a truly enduring Australian cricketing legend, a fantastic cricketer and a warm human being. Doug epitomises the best 'spirit' of Australian cricket and the best elements of any sport: the passions, skills, joys and the highs and lows that affect sports people. As a 'team player' and 'match-winner', he was second to none, as his former captain - another Australian legend - Ian Chappell attests. Doug is well remembered by tens of thousands of cricket fans of the 1960s, '70s and '80s for his adventurous, competitive and inventive cricket, sportsmanship and fair play. These are the principal elements of any sport. Doug was always a brilliant 'performer' and an 'artist'. He both played and entertained at the same time. Thus, he commands respect and is much-admired in his community and cricket circles. Describing Doug as a Master of Cricket, Reg Edwards (1977) wrote that at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) if Doug did anything - even something as humble as fielding a slow-moving ball - a tremendous roar of approval rolled down from The Hill from his admirers in the unofficial 'Doug Walters Stand' near the scoreboard. It showed the incredible popularity of the Dungog Dasher (Gibbs 1979). But time is passing. We are also getting older by the day. Memories are beginning to fade. Time does not stop for anyone.Generations of fans born after the 1990s may not know much about Doug Walters' impact on cricket in the 1960s, 70s and into the early 80s. He was, undoubtedly, one of Australia's most loved cricketers. The mere mention of his name often brings a smile to the faces of his ardent fans. He has frequently been described as the 'best-of-the-best' of batters in his era by other cricketers like Ian Chappell and his teammates, including Ashley Mallett (2008: xvi): Doug Walters is a constant in Australia: a national treasure like the Opera House or the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Cricket fans embraced him as one of their own, for here was a national batting hero who did the sort of stuff they did: he drank, smoked, and had a bet and a laugh...