Born in 1928, Neil Harvey played for his birth State Victoria and when he got the chance to play for New South Wales he moved interstate. His debut came in 1947 and continued to play for his National side until 1963, playing more Tests than any other Australian, and scored more runs than everyone bar Sir Donald Bradman in averages and runs. He was a short and stocky character who always played without a cap, he was also one of the finest left-arm batsman of all times. His favourite shot was the drive or cut shot, and was a very attacking player, more often than not dancing down the pitch to a spin bowler most people would have played to safety. He had incredibly fast footwork which enabled him not only to react to changes in balls, but to field in his favourite position in the covers.

He scored a century in his second Test match against India in 1947, and 112 in his first appearance against England at Headingley a year later. Harvey made 4 tours to England, his best tours came in 1948 scoring 1,129 runs, and 1953 where he scored 2, 040 runs. He enjoyed playing against the South Africans, hitting 4 centuries on his tour to South Africa and 4 when they toured Australia in 1952/3. It was during this tour that he scored his highest Test score of 205 at Melbourne, beating Bradman's record set in the 1931/2 season.

In all Ashes Test matches, he played in 37 (from 1948 to 1961) averaging 38.34 and scored 2,416 runs. He toured all the other major Test playing nations and during a tour to the West Indies, he scored 204 at Kingston.

He captained Australia once, replacing Richie Benaud at Lord's in 1961 when the first choice captain was unable to play. Australia won the match and went on to win the Ashes that year. Harvey went on to work in cricket after retiring becoming a selector for his National side. He was another player to receive an MBE for services to cricket.