He is The King of the black and white years. He guzzled 44 cans of beer from Australia to London, a near lethal cocktail of beer, wine and whisky on the journey from the Caribbean to Sydney. He smoked "at least 70 cigarettes a day". And yet, from the moment he stepped on a Test pitch, spectators around the world were dazzled by his red-blooded strokes - authoritative cutting and pulling, his immaculate timing, and beyond all, his love for the game and his mates.


Doug Walters during his speech after becoming a Hall of Fame inductee
at the 2011 Allan Border Medal night in Melbourne last year. Pic/Getty
Images

"There's never been a bad word said of him," is how good friend and biographer Ashley Mallett describes him. "He is the coolest cricketer ever," is former teammate Dennis Lillee's description. Walters (66) continues to reside in Sydney with his wife Caroline.

The batting great spoke to MiD DAY yesterday in his typically ocker accent.

Excerpts from an interview:

Are you surprised at India's disastrous performance in the Test series?
I am very surprised with the lack of discipline from the Indians. Sure, the wickets here have some more in it than what you play at home. But, I would have lot to bat on these wickets. India is always known for its batting, and have a heck of a lot of good batsmen. We don't even have half the talented batsmen that India has, so it's a big disappointment. I wish we had the same sort of batting that India does. We have some good young bowlers coming up, but hardly any batsmen.