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Ian William Geddes Johnson CBE (8 December 1917 – 9 October 1998) was an Australian cricketer who played 45 Test matches as a slow off-break bowler between 1946 and 1956. Johnson captured 109 Test wickets at an average of 29.19 runs per wicket and as a lower order batsman made 1,000 runs at an average of 22.92 runs per dismissal. He captained the Australian team in 17 Tests, winning seven and losing five, with a further five drawn. Despite this record, he is better known as the captain who lost consecutive Ashes series against England. Urbane, well-spoken and popular with his opponents and the public, he was seen by his team mates as a disciplinarian and his natural optimism was often seen as naive. Aged 17, Johnson made his first-class cricket debut for Victoria in the 1935–36 season but did not establish a permanent place in the team until 1939–40. His career was interrupted by the Second World War; he served with the Royal Australian Air Force as a pilot and later as a flight instructor. He returned to cricket after his discharge and was selected to tour New Zealand with the Australian team, making his Test debut. Johnson was part of Don Bradman's ''Invincibles'' team; undefeated on tour in England in 1948. He was a regular member of the national side until poor form saw him left out of the Australian squad for the 1953 tour of England. Johnson was appointed Australian captain following Lindsay Hassett's retirement. The appointment was not universally popular; some team mates and supporters felt Keith Miller had a better claim to the position. In his first series as captain, Australia was defeated by a strong English team on home soil. The tour of the West Indies that followed was a cricketing and diplomatic triumph for Johnson. Australia won the Test series comfortably and Johnson's astute public relations skills helped avoid a repeat of the crowd disturbances that had marred England's visit to the islands 12 months before. However, his Australian team then went on to lose the 1956 Ashes series in England. Johnson's Test career ended with Australia's first Test tour of the Indian subcontinent, which occurred during the voyage back to Australia. Australia lost the one-off Test against Pakistan, the first between the two nations, before claiming the series against India. On his return to Australia, he retired from all forms of cricket at age 39. After retirement, Johnson worked for a time as a sports commentator, including covering the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. In 1957 he was appointed Secretary of the Melbourne Cricket Club, one of the most prestigious positions in Australian sport. He would remain in the role for 26 years, overseeing the development of the Melbourne Cricket Ground and playing a key role in the organisation of the Centenary Test in 1977. In 1957 he was also honoured with an MBE for services to cricket; this was twice upgraded: to OBE in 1977 and to CBE in 1982. ==Early years== Johnson was born in North Melbourne, an inner suburb of Melbourne, on 8 December 1918.〔Robinson (1996), pp. 241–247.〕 His father, William Johnson—a wine and spirit grocer—was a keen cricketer who played one first-class match for Victoria in 1924–25 before serving as a selector for the Australian Test team.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】 William Johnson )〕 As a schoolboy, Ian Johnson excelled at a variety of sports. He participated in athletics and Australian rules football, as well as playing as a wicket-keeper for Middle Park State School. In 1936, he became the Victorian amateur squash champion.〔Derriman (1987), pp. 150–153.〕 However, he found his vocation in cricket. In 1934–35, aged only 16, and still a schoolboy at Wesley College, Johnson played his first match for the South Melbourne Cricket Club First XI.〔 He was given the opportunity to play first-class cricket the following season, playing Tasmania—not then involved in the Sheffield Shield competition—just 23 days past his seventeenth birthday.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Tasmania v Victoria: Other First-Class matches 1935/36 )〕 He scored 34 and 26 and took two wickets in each innings as Tasmania won by six wickets.〔 He was retained for the next game, scoring 15 runs in his only innings and taking 3 wickets for 40 runs (3/40) in the Tasmanian first innings and 1/27 in the second.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Tasmania v Victoria: Other First-Class matches 1935/36 )〕 He did not play first-class cricket again for three years, finally returning to the Victorian side to play another two games against Tasmania in 1938–39, making his highest first-class score to date, 88 runs, in the second game.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Tasmania v Victoria: Other First-Class matches 1938/39 )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Tasmania v Victoria: Other First-Class matches 1938/39 )〕 He secured his place in the Victorian team in the 1939–40 season, making his Sheffield Shield debut against South Australia in Adelaide in November 1939.〔 Batting at number five, Johnson scored 33 runs in the first innings and 41 in the second, but was unable to take a wicket.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 South Australia v Victoria: Sheffield Shield 1939/40 )〕 That season, Johnson scored 313 runs at an average of 26.08 and took 13 wickets at an average of 39.92.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 First-class Batting and Fielding in Each Season by Ian Johnson )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 First-class Bowling in Each Season by Ian Johnson )〕 In a season truncated because of the Second World War, Johnson played five matches in 1940–41, scoring 292 runs at an average of 32.44 and taking 25 wickets at 27.60.〔〔 Johnson's cricket career was interrupted by the war and he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in March 1941. He flew Bristol Beaufighters with No. 22 Squadron RAAF and, by 1944, was serving as a Flight Lieutenant in the South West Pacific theatre.〔Perry (2000), pp. 192–199.〕 In June 1945, Johnson was awarded the Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air for his work as a flight instructor with No. 11 Elementary Flying Training School, based at Benalla in rural Victoria.〔(【引用サイトリンク】Elementary Flying Training Schools )〕 He was discharged in December 1945 and resumed his first-class cricket career in the 1945–46 season.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ian Johnson (cricketer)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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