Bill Lawry
Lawry was born in the Melbourne suburb of Thornbury. He was given the names William Morris after the early Prime Minister of Australia, William Morris Hughes. His father Alfred played amateur cricket until the age of 51. Bill never saw his father play, who was aged 47 when Bill was born. Aged nine, he played competitive cricket for the first time with the Thornbury Presbyterian Church team. He spent three years there, as well as playing for Preston Technical School. When he was twelve, he entered Melbourne's district competition playing for Northcote's fourth team, working his way up to the First XI by the age of sixteen. At the time, he was apprenticed as a plumber and attending Preston Technical College. Lawry was selected for Victoria's Second XI at the age of seventeen. He made a duck against the South Australians and did not see any further action for the Seconds for the rest of the summer of 1954–55. The following season, Lawry was recalled to the Seconds and scored 183 against South Australia.
Colin Cowdrey
Cowdrey was a prodigy who learned to bat as soon as he could walk thanks to his cricket-mad father. When he arrived at Tonbridge School he was placed immediately in the First XI even though he was only 13, and became the youngest cricketer to play at Lord's. He was a fine strokemaker who possessed a full array of stokes around the wicket "a masterly batsman with an excellent technique he... delighted crowds throughout the world with his style and elegance". His favourite stroke was the most pleasing – the cover drive, his son Chris Cowdrey was always asked "Why don't you caress the ball through extra cover like your father?" and replied "If I could, I would". Cowdrey also liked to experiment with new grips and unconventional strokes, to the annoyance of purists who thought his technique was already near perfect and Cowdrey himself noted that "I have not been a good player when the going is easy... unless the match provided a problem to solve, a theory to test, a hurdle to leap, a challenge worthy of battle, I have never been fully plugged in".