Cricket may have lost some of the sheen from its mantle as the gentleman’s game in recent times, but for Ian Gibson the niceties have always been overrated.
“I’m not looking to be a gentleman too much, I’m strongly of the view that you should be trying to win and play very hard,” Gibson said.
“But not at all costs, that’s not how cricket works and that’s not the spirit of the game.”
With some six decades of nous under his belt, Gibson has played at the top tier of cricket throughout Gippsland and has not lost much of the touch that helped him to four flags with Jeeralang in the 1970s and 80s.
A founding member of Jeeralang, now known as Jeeralang-Boolarra, Gibson also played in the Gippsland Cricket League.
“I played top tier cricket until my mid-50s, but then I gave it away thinking that was the end of my cricket because I was too old and decrepit,” he said.
A sturdy opening bat and whip-sharp wicket keeper, he has been selected to represent Australia when the national over-70 team tours England in August.
Aptly named, Gibson and the 18-man Australian squad will vie for the Silver Ashes – urn and all.
“Make no mistake, we’re still very competitive and we play extremely hard to win,” he said.
“But at the end of the day we still have a beer with the opposition, which has been lost in a lot of today’s cricket I think.”
The touring Australian side will play 10 games against English counties and four One Day Internationals against England’s national side.
The Jeeralang Junction local, who hails from Terang, is the fifth member of the Gippsland Goannas to represent Australia in as many years.
“I reckon that’s fantastic, not many clubs would have five representatives in an Australian side and we’re probably the strongest club in Victoria,” Gibson said.
The second coming of his cricket career was forged in 2011/2012 when a group of like-minded Gippslanders banded together to form an over-60’s side.
Since then, the Goannas have gone on to become one of the most competitive over-60’s sides in Victoria.
“Cricket has given me thousands and thousands and thousands of good times,” Gibson said.
“But one of the best would have to be the time I was captain of the Vic Country representative side that won the national championships in 2014.
“We were considerably better than the Vic Metro team, too … and that’s always nice, to be better than the metro sides.”
A veritable rookie of the over-70’s side, Gibson is 69 but turns 70 in June, and just scraped into selection for the touring over-70s side.
With no signs of slowing down any time soon, he said a shift in social consciousness meant older Australians were more active than ever.
“Old people no longer want to sit around and do nothing and watch Neighbours,” he said.
“I do the Churchill Park run, which is five kilometres every Saturday morning.
“It’s about keeping active and keeping the mind and body busy … I could say clean living and all that sort of stuff, but probably not if I’m honest.”
