Sam Loxton, a member of Don Bradman’s 1948 “Invincibles,” has died aged 90, Cricket Australia (CA) said yesterday.
Loxton, who became Australia’s oldest living Test player when Ron Hamence died last year, passed away overnight in Queensland, CA said.
Allrounder Loxton played 12 Tests from 1948 to 1951 and is best remembered as being part of Bradman’s “Invincibles” team, who went through the 1948 tour of England undefeated.
MUSIC MAKER
Bradman described the Loxton’s play as “the very essence of belligerence” and said that “his whole attitude suggests defiance and when he hits the ball it is the music of a sledgehammer.”
Loxton scored 101 against South Africa in Johannesburg in 1949 for his only Test hundred among his 554 Test runs at 36.93.
Loxton’s Test career finished after the 1950-1951 Ashes series, but he continued to play first-class cricket with Victoria until 1958.
He served as an Australian selector between 1972 and 1981, and was also a board member of the former Australian Cricket Board.
POLITICAL LIFE
Outside cricket, Loxton spent 24 years as a Liberal Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly and up to 1946 he played in the Victorian Football League, a forerunner to the modern-day Australian Football League, for St Kilda as a forward.
Loxton was in headlines in December 2000 when he suffered a double family tragedy on the same day, losing his wife, Joan, 75, to a heart attack and a son from a previous marriage, who was taken by a shark in Fiji.
IN MEMORIAM
Australian and New Zealand players stood and observed a minute’s silence for the passing of Loxton before the start of yesterday’s third day’s play in the first Test at Brisbane’s Gabba ground.
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