Oh, what a ripper! Adam Dale, a dynasty, and an iconic catch

Adam Dale would like to make a confession. Twenty-five years on from taking one of the greatest outfield catches in the history of Australian cricket, there's a minor detail he feels compelled to address.

"Truth be told, I was probably out of position," Dale grins to cricket.com.au. "So it's lucky I caught it, or I would've been told off."

"Oh he's admitting that now is he?" laughs Scott Prestwidge, who was the bowler that day when his Queensland teammate Dale went sprinting across the turf from wide long-on, then soaring through the Gabba air to take an outrageous one-handed grab.

"Well, I suppose it's about time."

* * *

A couple of months ago, for the second time in his life, Adam Dale packed up his things – including his family – and made the move from Melbourne to Brisbane for a job opportunity.

First time around, his path led him via Wynnum Manly to Queensland Cricket, where across eight summers as an unerringly accurate right-arm swing bowler, he became part of a dynastic era.

This time around, Queensland Cricket is where it began.

With three Sheffield Shields and a one-day title for the Bulls, as well as 248 wickets across the two formats (and a startling first-class average of 21.76), the 53-year-old is a bona fide Queensland legend, and his return to Allan Border Field, this time in the capacity of 'general manager – sales and partnerships', was received with mutual enthusiasm.

"I'm very grateful to be back here," Dale says. "I was lucky enough to play through a period when Queensland Cricket was very strong, and coming back into it now, I see a lot of similarities – it's a terrific environment."

While Queensland were indeed a powerhouse of that period, appearing in 11 finals in those eight seasons between 1995-96 and 2002-03 and winning six, it was also a time when the domestic one-day competition more broadly was at its zenith.

The tournament had rebranded itself as the Mercantile Mutual Cup in the summer of 1992-93, and with a strong marketing campaign that included the now iconic 'hit the sign' competition and other gimmicks such as players walking out to bat to a song of their choice, it had surged in popularity. A generation before the Big Bash, it was the domestic drawcard demanded by the masses.

Queensland had ridden the wave with vigour, adding the 'Bulls' moniker and logo to their branding as they looked to best align themselves with domestic cricket's bold new approach.

"Having a cricket shirt with your name on your back, and a number – that was big time," Dale smiles. "All of a sudden, playing on TV and playing against those guys you saw on television, it was a highlight.

"And the Mercantile Mutual Cup had great presence and relevance in the market – it was a much watched and sought-after competition."

It had also benefited greatly from the presence of high-calibre players. While the Australian contingent was only sporadically available, a rung down existed a group of elite domestic players capable of selling tickets in their respective state markets, even if they couldn't regularly crack the national one-day side: Damien Martyn, Tom Moody and Ryan Campbell in the west; Darren Lehmann and Greg Blewett in South Australia; Dean Jones, Matthew Elliott and Brad Hodge with Victoria; Ricky Ponting (initially), Michael Di Venuto and Jamie Cox in Tasmania; Michael Slater, Brad Haddin and Stuart MacGill in New South Wales; and Matthew Hayden, Jimmy Maher, Stuart Law and Andrew Symonds at Queensland.

For their opening match of the 1997-98 season, the Bulls had available a full-strength line-up, and so too did New South Wales. Between them, they fielded no fewer than 19 players who had played for Australia, or would go on to do so.

Though not quite bearing the box-office status of some of his teammates and opponents, Dale was one of those national reps, having made his ODI debut five-and-a-half months earlier in a seven-match series in South Africa.

His international bow had come relatively quickly; although he was 28, he had played just 14 List A matches for Queensland. Consequently, a Mercantile Mutual Cup season opener at the Gabba, with two stacked sides, remained for him a thrilling prospect.

"It was a big game, and it was really built up," Dale recalls. "They were at full strength, and we were at full strength.

"Michael Bevan was at the height of his game, 'Heals' (Ian Healy) was playing, (Glenn) McGrath, the Waughs – it was wonderful.

"And in those days, we only played five Mercantile Mutual Cup games, so there was a real sense of finals about every game – every game was big, it was on television, and it was, you know, wow!"

And so on Sunday, October 12, 1997 a national television audience and another 7,987 viewers at the Gabba fixed their sights on this highly-anticipated 50-over contest.

Of course, no-one at the time knew it would be a match most remembered for a classic catch – one that would become emblematic of the period.

* * *

"Phil Emery's batting, and Ian Healy's 'keeping – he's our captain," recalls Prestwidge. "It's a close game, and I'm about to bowl."

Queensland had recovered from 6-130 to post 230, with Prestwidge (35) an unlikely top scorer after Blues trio McGrath, Anthony Stuart and Greg Matthews each collected a couple of wickets.

In reply, Mark Taylor's 70 had anchored the NSW chase to 4-133, before the brilliant Bevan took over in the back half of the innings.

Dale meanwhile, collected the wickets of Michael Slater, Shane Lee and Corey Richards, but with fewer than three overs remaining, the visitors needed 12 to win, with three wickets in hand and the left-handed Emery on strike.

"I'm about to bowl the ball and Heals waves to me, calls me down to meet him in the middle of the pitch, mid-over," Prestwidge continues.

"He says, 'What are you are gonna bowl here?'

"I'll probably go a slower ball', and he says, 'Yeah, good idea – which one?'

"I had two slower balls, so I say, 'I'll probably go the one that slides on, we'll get Adam (Dale) to come straight (at long-on), we'll move mid-on around squarer, and we'll try to create a bit of a trap for Phil'.

"So Ian sings out to Adam, and puts him right in position.

"I go back to the top of my mark, and I can see Adam talking to the crowd – he loves talking to the crowd, and he'd just wander.

"Anyway, I turn around, and then Heals holds me up, trying to get the rest of the field sorted, but unbeknownst to us, Adam's like the cow in the paddock, wandering around, just drifting.

"I bowl the ball, land it just where I want to and get Emery to play straight, and I turn around thinking: this is straight down his throat. But I hear Ian sing out, 'What's he doing there!?'"

Dale has trained for this catch. It's too much to suggest he has prepared specifically for this moment, but Queensland's coaching brains trust of John Buchanan, Bennett King and Dave Gilbert have ensured fielding is a major focus at any training session.

"We used to practice those catches in the outfield," Dale says. "Ones where you'd have to dive.

"And this catch, I can remember it. Phil Emery hit the ball, I remember seeing it, and running."

Prestwidge again takes up the story.

"You can see Adam just racing for this catch," he says. "We're all standing there, watching, and then he makes this dive, and he hangs onto it with one hand.

"I'll never forget, we're all running toward him like we won the grand final, 'Doomy' (Dale) is there with his fists in the air, we're clapping him and patting him on the head, and then Ian's spraying him: 'If you were in the right position mate, that would've been down your throat'.

"Actually, Ian said to him after the game, 'We're gonna buy you a cowbell', because he was so sick of him drifting in the field all the time."

 

Dale grins at the memory – all of it: the run, the dive, the catch, the celebration, the standing ovation, and even the mouthful and the wisecrack from his skipper.

"I remember diving, and I still remember the stick (of the ball)," he says, thumping his left hand into his right. "It was a nice moment, but I do think I was out of position (laughs)."

Fittingly for such a moment, it was Bill Lawry in the commentary box, and the legendary caller ramped up the decibels accordingly.

"Ohhhhhhhhh, what a ripper!" Lawry screamed. "That could turn the whole game. Adam Dale, he's got three wickets with the ball and that's one of the best catches you will ever see!"

As it unfolded, NSW went on to win the match by one wicket courtesy of Bevan's 65no, with the silky-smooth left-hander whipping the winning boundary off his pads off Prestwidge in the final over.

For Queensland, it was a sour note to end on after the elation of the catch, but for Dale, there was worse to come.

* * *

In the years that followed, there were two contrasting legacies to Dale's catch. The first is obvious; it has taken its place alongside the likes of John Dyson's epic goalkeeping grab at the SCG in 1981, Steve Waugh's stunning behind-the-sightscreen effort at the MCG in 1989, and Glenn McGrath's diving classic at Adelaide during the 2002-03 Ashes as iconic outfield efforts in Australian cricket history.

The second was largely hidden by Dale, who for years afterward valiantly put up with the shoulder injury that had been one outcome of his spectacular dive.

"I tried to manage it for probably a 12-month period, and I did lose a little bit of pace, but I didn't have a lot anyway," he smiles.

"But certainly I got injured and then ultimately, a few years after, I had a reconstruction of my shoulder as a result of the catch.

"Initially I played through it, and then your body adapts and you get used to it.

"I wasn't an out-and-out fast bowler, but with the speedometer, whether it was 125, 126kph, I could tell I'd probably lost a little bit of zip out of my bouncer – not that I had a fast one.

"I got myself fit, got through that, but then in 2000 I was playing for the Australian side, we played in Brisbane and then went to Melbourne, and my shoulder was really sore.

"I saw (then Australia physio) Errol Alcott, I remember having some injections in it, but it was just, no (good). I missed some games, missed some tours ... monitored it for a bit, and then had the operation 12 months later."

The ODI in Brisbane was Dale's last, bringing an end to his near four-year, 32-match international career. Through that time he had been part of a rare Test match win in India in 1998, a decisive fourth-Test triumph in the Caribbean in '99, and Australia's World Cup-winning squad in 1999.

In 2000 and 2001 he played in the Shield finals that became wins number two and three of Queensland's historic threepeat, and two years later he bowed out in another Shield decider, in which the Bulls fell to New South Wales.

Returning all these years later to Queensland Cricket headquarters, he is not only delighted to be back, but honoured to have helped his adopted state create history through that glorious era. He recalls his first Shield and one-day domestic wickets (Jamie Cox and Dene Hills respectively), but there are other memories that induce more sentimentality.

"The one thing that's the most important is the camaraderie and the friendships, and they're life-lasting," he says. "And then when you think about the cricket, it's the success we had. It was a wonderful time."

As for the catch, Dale hasn't seen it for a little while, though every so often when it inevitably pops up on social media, a friend will send it through.

And despite the many accomplishments upon which he can hang his cricketing caps, it remains the moment from his career that he is most often asked about.

"And I don't mind that – it's great," he says. "It's a compliment to be remembered, so I never have a problem having a yarn about it, although my kids are probably sick of seeing it by now, I've shown them that many times."