Australian fast bowler-turned-lawyer recalls good old PM’s XI tradition and how he took Sachin’s wicket in 1991 | Cricket News

“Sachin Tendulkar wasn’t such a big name then; Ravi Shastri was,” says the one-time Aussie first-class pace bowler Greg Rowley with a laugh. A successful lawyer and Cricket Australia official in his mid-50s now, he is talking about the 1991 Prime Miner’s XI game at Manuka Oval, where the current India team is set to play the warm-up game from Saturday.Rowley, 23 then, and looking to break into the Australian team, finished the game with flattering figures of 7 for 27, including the wickets of Tendulkar and Shastri. Like now, India had played just one Test before that PM’s X1 game then and the 18-year old Tendulkar hadn’t yet scored much. But soon, hundreds at Perth and Sydney Tests would follow. “Oh, the end of the series though, I would know who Tendulkar really was,” he says.
The Prime Miner’s XI games were a big deal then in Australian cricket, with talented youngsters rubbing shoulders with seniors and having a crack at the national scene. “It was televised nationally, and for us first-class players, it was a game where the country saw and judged you,” Rowley recalls.
In that game, apart from young Rowley, there was Shane Warne, Damien Martin, Matthew Hayden, Michael Bevan, Damien Fleming with his mullet hair style, Greg Blewett, Jamie Siddons and Tim Zoehrer. Rowley grew up in Canberra but played his cricket in Sydney as Canberra cricket wasn’t big then.

Big challenge ahead for the PM’s XI at Manuka Oval this week against an amazing Indian side. ⁰⁰
But as I said to PM @narendramodi, I’m backing the Aussies to get the job done. pic.twitter.com/zEHdnjQDLS
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) November 28, 2024
The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team, too, met with Australian PM Anthony Albanese ahead of their pink-ball practice game in the capital against PM’s XI. When the PM told Virat Kohli in jest that his Perth century kept adding to the grief of Baggy Greens, Kohli is reported to have retorted cheekily, “Always gotta add some spice”.
But Albanese was only following a long-held tradition.
The touring team playing PM’s XI dates back to the time when Australia had the cricket-tragic prime miner, Robert Menzies. That was 1951, when the vastly popular West Indies team was in the country and Menzies spotted a gap in the schedule when the visitors weren’t playing a game. So he called up the Australian cricket board head and said he would like to throw a game at Canberra, Australia’s capital and home of its parliament and politicians.
“I added that it was a personal proposition, not a government matter; that I would personally guarantee the expenses, including transport of players and if any profit resulted, it would go to the Canberra Legacy Club, devoted to helping widows and children of fallen comrades,” he is supposed to have said.
The cricket chairman’s request was not to reveal any “secret weapons” in terms of players and the PM assured him that it would be a few retired players, a couple of members of parliament, three local players. “He agreed, I thought a little reluctantly. But his fears were not as great as mine; for if the match was washed out rain, or public attendance small, I would be up for a sizable sum of money,” Menzies wrote in his book, “The Measure of Years”.
In 1963, even Don Bradman played for PM’s XI, years after his retirement. Incidentally, he scored four runs, the exact number he needed in his last international game to get the average of 100; back then, he would, of course, fall for a duck. On getting out in 1963, Bradman reportedly told Menzies, “It wouldn’t happen in a thousand years! Anyway, that’s my final appearance at the wicket.”
These games stopped after Menzies’s tenure, but another popular prime miner, Bob Hawke, revived the fixture in 1983. “In that game, David Boon, a young talented opener at the time, hit a hundred against the famous West Indies team, and months later he represented Australia. That fixture gained such a reputation from then in the Australian cricketing fraternity,” recalls Rowell.
Incidentally, Rowell was part of the crowd that day when Boon sparkled. “I was just a kid and went with my brother. I remember the ground was packed. West Indies were a big box-office those days in Australia; Viv Richards, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, probably Andy Roberts — every big name played that game, and the Canberra crowd, who don’t get to see much big cricket, was thrilled,” he says. Even Dennis Lillee, who had just retired from international cricket a few weeks ago, and Geoff Thomson played that game.
Rowley soon returns to the 1991 game. “I remember Shastri spoke warmly at the end of the game. And Prime Miner Hawke, back from those days when politicians were popular, came to the dressing room to have a chat. That was a thrill.”
A few years later, Rowley found himself playing for Australia A against the main Australian team in the world series game, needing to restrict Steve Waugh and Ian Healy from getting just three runs in the last over. He nearly did, yorking Waugh to dot balls.
“I decided to go for a yorker again and I probably shouldn’t have bowled that to Healy. A rapid fast ball might have done the trick. And I also remember a fully packed crowd’s screams as I approached the crease- and that threw me off a bit. It ended as a full toss, and Healy’s shot sliced off the outer edge over backward point.” Video footage reveals Rowley, walking off grim.
Rowley, who couldn’t make it to the Australian team, pursued his education, became a lawyer, has a law firm, and is now on the board of Cricket Australia. “I also toured India a few times as a lawyer-cricketer; the world might not know but we do have a lawyers’ World Cup,” he says.

Posh Lawyer, cricket board member, fast bowler, and the man who took out Tendulkar. “The Prime Miner’s XI doesn’t quite have that kind of standing in Australian cricket. It was a different world then,” he says.