5 Ashes heroes who became renowned cricket writers

#2 Bill O'Reilly

'Tiger' O'Reilly in actionO'Reilly was one of the greatest spinners in the history of the game. Even Donald Bradman thought he was the best leg-break bowler ever. In the 1930s, he played 19 Test matches against England and took 102 wickets at a very impressive average of 25.

O'Reilly, despite being a spinner, had a temperament that matched the fast bowlers. In his classic book 'Between Wickets', Ray Robinson narrated an incident which supported this view.

"Before entering the field in one Test he said to Hele, Australia's leading umpire, 'How's your sight today, George?' Hele said his eyes were good. 'Hearing all right too?', asked O'Reilly. Hele said there was nothing wrong with his hearing. 'Good,' said O'Reilly. 'You'll need 'em today because I'm going to get among these so-and-sos.'"

O'Reilly was a teacher and made sure his students learnt the game in the right way. They, in turn, were proud of their teacher. In 1938, after he skittled England twice to win the Headingley Test, his students sent him a cable which read: "Satisfactory - a trier."

O'Reilly had strong opinions on everything related to cricket. He was a staunch protester of limited-overs cricket. He wrote two Ashes tour books - one on the 1948 Ashes series and the other one on the 1950-51 Ashes series.