Bob Simpson, who has died at the age of 89, was the archetypal granite-jawed comic-book Australian cricketer who opened the batting, bowled leg-spin and is still cited as the greatest slip catcher the game has seen.

Across four decades, in different roles, he was a key figure in Australian cricket. Picked for the first time on the 1957-58 tour of South Africa, Simpson, nicknamed ‘Simmo,’ took 30 Tests before scoring his first hundred against England at Manchester in 1964, by which time he was also skipper. 

He made sure to cash in, going on to post 311 in that Old Trafford innings, the first of his Test centuries — at that time the second highest individual score by an Australian after Don Bradman’s 334 against England in 1930.