Rick Darling

Warrick Maxwell Darling (born 1 May 1957), known as Rick Darling, is a former Australian Test cricketer.

His tendency to play the cut and hook shots provided much entertainment, but also meant that he was inconsistent and error-prone.

It has been said that the introduction of the batting helmet saved Darling's life several times, but also gave him extra confidence to play his favoured shots.

Darling's early Test career was also characterised by his opening partnerships with Graeme Wood, the pair christened the "Kamikaze Kids" due to their often disastrous running between the wickets, which saw one of the pair dismissed run out in one innings of each of their four Tests together.

Darling is the great-nephew of Joe Darling, and learnt to play cricket at his family's home at Ramco on the Murray River.

He started playing for the Salisbury Cricket Club in the Adelaide district competition in 1970–71.

He was picked for South Australia Colts in 1974–75, scoring 67 against Victoria, 105 against Victoria, 48 against the West Indies and 45 against WA.

Darling started his first-class career in 1975–76 with South Australia.

He made his debut against Queensland, batting at number 6, being run out for 5.

(Darling would later become notorious for being involved in run outs throughout his career.) He then made 26 and 48 against Victoria, helping South Australia win the game.

He scored 2 against the touring West Indians.

A second innings of 29 helped guide South Australia to victory against Western Australia.

He also made 2 and 32 against WA, 1 and 41 against Victoria and 12 against NSW.

South Australia won the Sheffield Shield that year.

Darling's Sheffield Shield scores for the 1976–77 season were 2 and 14, 0 and 25, 3 and 64.

He made his initial first class century with 107 against Victoria.

Then made 1 and 39, 22 and 4 and 7.

Darling made his one-day debut in the Gillette Cup quarter finals but only scored one.

Darling was given his chance in the Australian Test team through the defection of several players to World Series Cricket in 1977.

At the beginning of the 1977–78 season he was 12th man for South Australia against the Indian team.

He got back into the team and scored runs, playing particularly well against Western Australia, making 45 and 100.

He made 101 against Tasmania in a one-day game, which saw him come into discussions about possibly opening for Australia.

His other knocks were 0 and 43 against Victoria and 39 and 15 against WA.

Australia had struggled to find a consistent opening partner during the first four tests.

Darling was selected for the fifth test and subsequent tour of the West Indies.

Also selected was Graeme Wood and it was thought these two could make an ideal combination, although Wood was only 21 and Darling just 20.

Australia's gamble on Wood and Darling made dividends with the two of them putting on 89 for the first wicket, Australia's best opening partnership of the series.

Darling made 65.

He followed his up with 56 in the second innings, helping Australia win the game.

Darling began the West Indies tour well, scoring 26 and 35 against Leeward Islands then 105 and 43 against Trinidad and Tobago.

He missed the first test due to injury, but recovered and made 62 against Barbados.

He made 8 in the first ODI but 21 in the second.

Darling was picked for the second test but failed twice, making 4 and 8.

A knock of 123 against Guyana restored his confidence but he failed twice again in the third test, making 15 and 0.

Darling made 12 and 36 against the Windward Islands (doubling as wicketkeeper) and failed again in the fourth test, making 10 and 6.

According to one report "Darling has developed an unfortunate habit of committing himself to the front foot, always looking to work the ball on the leg side. Yesterday he was bowled when he moved too far inside the line to glance and left his leg stump exposed."

Darling had made 43 runs in six test innings.

He was dropped from the team for the fifth test, being replaced by David Ogilvie.

Bob Simpson said he would have preferred a specialist opener "but we couldn't really persevere with Rick."

Australia came close to winning the game before the crowd rioted and the match ended in a draw.