Ex-Australia fast bowler Frank Misson dies

Former Australia and New South Wales fast bowler Frank Misson has passed away at the age of 85, reports espncricinfo.com.

Misson played five Tests across the famous 1960-61 home series against the West Indies and the 1961 Ashes tour to England but his Test career was cut short by an Achilles injury. He took 16 wickets at 38.50 including a career best 4 for 58 against West Indies in Melbourne.

He played 71 first-class matches, mostly for New South Wales, and finished with 177 first-class wickets at 31.13 in a short career that spanned from 1958 to 1964.

Misson was a stellar athlete in his youth, training with legendary Australian athletics middle distance coach Percy Cerutty who famously coached Australia's Herb Elliott to Olympic gold and a world record in the 1500m in Rome in 1960.

Misson carried that fitness and athletics background into his cricket career, bursting onto the scene to take six wickets as a 20-year-old for NSW on Sheffield Shield debut in the last match of the 1958-59 season. At the end of the 1959-60 Shield season Misson was selected in an Australian second XI that toured New Zealand and he took 17 wickets at 12.47.