Former Australia captain and coach Bob Simpson has died aged 89.

Cricket Australia confirmed his death in Sydney in a statement on Saturday.

Simpson played 62 Tests, captaining Australia in 39, scoring 4,869 runs at an average of 46.81 and taking 71 wickets.

He grew up in Sydney and first toured with Australia in 1957, becoming one of the best all-round cricketers to play for the country.

It took until his 30th Test for Simpson to score his first century – 311 at Old Trafford in 1964.

He retired after the 1967 series, but made a comeback a decade later, aged 41, during the World Series Cricket era.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday that Simpson’s “extraordinary service to Australian cricket spanned generations”.

“As a player, captain and then era-defining coach, he set the highest of standards for himself and the champions he led He will be long remembered by the game he loved.”

Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird said Simpson was a “mainstay of a very strong Australian team in the 1960s, and he became a leader across the game as Australian and New South Wales captain and as a coach”.

“Bob’s decision to come out of retirement to successfully lead the Australian team during the advent of World Series Cricket in 1977 was a wonderful service to the game, and his coaching set the foundation for a golden generation for Australian cricket,” Baird said in a statement.

Simpson became Australia’s first full-time coach in the 1980s, leading the team’s re-emergence and overseeing several top players, including Shane Warne.

Simpson was inducted in the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985.

He achieved 21,029 runs at an average of 56.22 in first-class cricket, hit 60 centuries and took 349 wickets at an average of 38.07.

© Agence France-Presse

Photo: Hamish Blair/Getty Images