Bill Lawry, was one of Australia’s great cricketers. He made his debut in 1961 and scored over 2000 runs in his first tour of England. In his first Ashes series his captain was Richie Benaud who became a life-long friend. Bill Lawry enjoyed a stellar Ashes career, hitting 2,233 runs from his 29 appearance. His average of 48.54 was aided by seven centuries, and a defiant approach that made him one of the toughest openers to dislodge. In Bill Lawry’s first full series as captain he took a youthful side to England in 1968. Eight of the 17 players on tour would make their Ashes debut that year including Ian Chappell, Paul Sheahan and Doug Walters. As well as being Australia’s 32nd Test captain, he opened the batting line up and remains number 20 in the list of best opening batsmen of all time in terms of batting average, and No. 22 on the list of most runs scored as opener, that is out of the over 900 opening batsmen in Test cricket history. In recent decades he is most commonly recognised for his more than 30 years of commentary with the Channel 9 team.