Australian batsman-bowler best all-round cricketer

MELBOURNE -- Keith Miller, Australia's most prolific all-rounder in international test cricket, has died at a nursing home near here.

Mr. Miller, who played 55 tests for Australia between 1946 and 1956, was an aggressive middle-order batsman and strike bowler. In test play, he scored 2,958 runs at an average of 36.97 and took 170 wickets at 22.97. He also played 50 matches for Australian rules football team St. Kilda and was a bomber pilot in the Second World War.

"Keith Miller was a genuine legend, a man whose dashing approach helped cricket regain its place in the public affection after the dark years of World War Two," said Bob Merriman, chairman of Cricket Australia.

"He was one of those rare athletes who could turn a game with bat, ball or with an impossible catch."

His best performance with the ball was 7-60 against England at Brisbane in 1946, although Mr. Miller would often say he hated bowling. With the bat, he got seven Test hundreds with a highest score of 147 against West Indies in Kingston in 1955. He also scored 181 in his first-class debut for Victoria. He later moved to Sydney and represented New South Wales.

Statistics meant little to Mr. Miller. He gave up his wicket playing against English county Essex on Australia's 1948 tour of England, when Sir Donald Bradman led the so-called unbeaten "Invincibles."

"He was a man who understood that the game, great as it is, is just a game, and he played it that way," Mr. Merriman said.

On his final tour in 1956, Mr. Miller recorded his highest first-class score of 281 against Leicestershire. He came out of retirement in 1959 to play one match for Nottinghamshire against Cambridge University, scoring an unbeaten 102. He continued to visit England every year, staying with his cricketing-fanatic friend, the late billionaire John Paul Getty II.

Mr. Miller became a journalist after his sport career, wrote six books and was awarded the title of Member of the Order of the British Empire for his services to cricket. He died Oct. 10 at age 84.