Four great Australian cricketers will be in London in a few weeks to help celebrate the birthday of Sir Alec Bedser.

The great Surrey bowler turns 90 on 4 July and Arthur Morris, Ken Archer, Neil Harvey and Alan Davidson are making the long trip to join their old friend. All four players have played Test cricket for Australia against English sides which have included Sir Alec. Not only that, but the Surrey man has picked up their wicket at least once in these Test Matches and despite this, the four men have remained close friends with Sir Alec and are looking forward to their time in England.

"Alec was a great bowler and a champion bloke," said Arthur Morris. "As an opening batsman, I know just how good he was. But he always played the game in the right spirit and he has always had my utmost respect."

He added: "We have been close friends for more than 50 years now and I hope there are many more to go."

Morris is now 86 years of age and played 46 Tests. He finished his Test career with a batting average of 46.5. Archer, a Queenslander is now 80 and he played five Tests. Harvey was born in Victoria and burst on to the international scene as an 18 year old. He is now 79 and played in 79 Tests for Australia. Like Morris and Davidson, Harvey was a left handed batsman. He scored 6,149 Test runs at an average of 48.4.

Davidson is the youngest of the foursome and was the first cricketer to score a hundred runs and take 10 wickets in the same Test Match. He did this in the famous 1960 tied Test for the Aussies against the West Indies in Brisbane. In this game, he totaled 124 runs in his two innings and picked up 11 wickets for 222 runs. Only three men have ever achieved this feat, the others being Ian Botham and Imran Khan, both in the 1980s.

Davidson, now 79 was one of the games great all rounders. A fast left arm swing bowler, in his 44 tests, he took 186 wickets at 20.5 runs each and finished with a Test batting average of around 25. Morris and Harvey are two of only four players remaining from Sir Donald Bradman's 1948 Invincibles touring team to England. The other two are Sam Loxton (87 and 12 Tests) and Ron Hamence (92 and three Tests).

The four Australians leave at the end of this month and will be in London for around 12 days. As well as Sir Alec's celebrations, they hope to take in some of the England-South Africa Test at Lords and hopefully a Twenty20 match at the Brit Oval. Surrey are pleased to provide accommodation for the Australians while they are in London.

Sir Alec in his 51 Tests, took 236 wickets at 24.9 runs each. For Surrey he played 370 games, taking 1,459 wickets at just 19.1 runs each. His best was eight wickets for 18 against Warwickshire in a total of just 45 in May, 1953 at the Brit Oval. He took five wickets in an innings 72 times and 10 or more, on 11 occasions. He scored his only first class century against Somerset in August 1947.

Sir Alec commented, "It will be really nice to see them again. Richie Benaud will make up a fifth Australian Test player who will be there on the day. The interesting thing about the five is that I played in all of their debut Test Matches against England, which I suppose is an unusual feat."

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