Jim Burke

James Wallace Burke (12 June 1930 – 2 February 1979) was an Australian cricketer who played in 24 Test matches from 1951 to 1959. Burke holds the record for the most innings in a complete career without scoring a duck, with 44.

Early years Burke grew up in the Sydney north shore suburb of Mosman, where his parents had migrated to, from Bromley in Kent, England. His great-uncle Percy Burke had played for Kent as a wicket-keeper. His mother was a talented golfer.

The following season, with the Test players in South Africa,

Burke was selected for an Australian Second XI that toured New Zealand under the leadership of Bill Brown at the end of the season, with the first-choice team still in South Africa.

He declined further in the following season, which was purely domestic with the Test representatives available for the whole season. Early in the season, Burke took 6/60 in the second innings of a match against South Australia, removing Gavin Stevens and Phil Ridings before running through the tail,

Burke ended the season with 444 runs at 55.50 and three wickets at 39.00 as New South Wales took a fourth consecutive title.

International swansong

Burke started the 1958–59 season strongly. He scored 113 and took 3/23 in the opening Shield match of the season against Queensland. After adding a half-century in the following match against Western Australia, he compiled 104 against the touring England team for New South Wales ahead of the Tests.

In the First Test against the England team at Brisbane, he scored 20 in the first innings of a low-scoring and slow match. After Australia had made 186 to take a 52-run lead,

Australia required 147 on the final day to win, and Burke gave a display similar to Bailey, taking 250 minutes to score 28 not out and anchoring the hosts to an eight-wicket win, scoring less than 20% of the runs added while he was at the crease.

He played in the two Shield matches after the Tests, scoring 103 and 65 in the penultimate match, a 174-run win over South Australia. He then made five in his final match against Western Australia, which New South Wales won by an innings and completed their sixth consecutive Sheffield Shield title. At the height of the "throwing" controversy in 1958–59 he was not risked in Test matches. He was often effective on uncovered wickets in grade cricket, often skittling opposition batting lineups.

Outside the pressure of Test cricket, Burke was an entertaining and attacking batsman, characterised by a clean line, quick movement back or forward and good balance, notably in playing the on-drive. Standing a little under six feet, Burke played with a low grip on his bat with little backlift. He played square-on while on the back foot, with chest facing the bowler, preferring to have his body behind swinging balls rather than the textbook side-on stance. Lantern jawed and poker faced, Burke showed little overt reaction to crowd sentiment over his batting approach, tugging his cap lower before every delivery. He was known for his sense of humour, often enlivening the team with his piano playing and jokes.

Personal life and death

He married Barbara Phyllis Hogbin on 1 May 1952 at St Andrew's Anglican Church, Wahroonga. They had two daughters and two sons. Divorced in August 1967, he married 26-year-old Judith Anne Cameron on 4 September at the registrar general's office, Sydney.

A popular and humorous figure and an honorary life member of the Marylebone Cricket Club, Burke hid personal and financial worries while a member of the regular ABC commentary team for The Ashes Tests. In February 1979, depressed by marital problems, ill health and by the loss of some $153,000 in a 'disastrous gamble on the gold futures market', he purchased a shotgun from a Sydney sporting goods store and killed himself with it.