This Week in History: June 30 - July 6 30 June 2014, 12:25 This is a week for fast bowlers, as we celebrate the birth of three speedsters - two of them South Africans - across 60-odd years. June 29 1941 - Peter Pollock is born in Pietermaritzburg. * Pollock is a retired South African cricketer. He has played a continuing role in the South Africa cricket team as a player and selector. * He was voted a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1966. He was primarily a fast bowler, but was also a useful late-order batsman. * Peters brother, Graeme Pollock, an acclaimed left hand batsman, was a regular player for the South Africa cricket team at the same time as Peter. * On his debut, Peter took six wickets in the second innings against New Zealand in Durban in 1961. He was South Africas leading bowler in the 1960s, playing every test between 1962 and 1970. * Perhaps the highlight of his career came alongside that of his brother when they were both playing in a test match at Trent Bridge in 1965. Peter took ten wickets in the match with innings figures of 5 for 53 and 5 for 34, while his brother Graeme, batting, made 125 and 59. South Africa won the match, and with it the three-test series. * His son, Shaun Pollock, played 108 tests and over 300 ODIs for South Africa and is widely regarded as one of the finest all-rounders to ever play the game. 1969 - Sanath Jayasuriya is born in Matara, Sri Lanka. * Jayasuriya is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a current member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka. * Jayasuriya was an all-rounder, who had an international cricket career that spread over two decades. He is the only player to score over 12,000 runs and capture more than 300 wickets in One Day Internationals, and hence regarded as one of the best all rounders in the history of limited-overs cricket. * He was named the Most Valuable Player of 1996 Cricket World Cup and Wisden Cricketers Almanack broke an age old tradition by naming him one of Five Cricketers’ of the Year 1997 despite not playing the previous season in England. Jayasuriya was also the captain of the Sri Lankan cricket team from 1999 to 2003. * He retired from test cricket in December 2007 and from limited overs cricket in June 2011. July 1 1994 - Darren Gough, on the second day of his debut test match versus New Zealand at Old Trafford, scores 65 runs. He also takes 4/47 in the first innings. 1996 - In a tour match against India, Hampshires Kevan James takes four wickets in four balls followed by a century, the only time the feat has been done in first-class cricket. July 2 1935 - South Africa win a test match in England for the first time, beating England by 157 runs in the second match of the series at Lords. The match is the 18th game between the two sides in England, and the South Africans have lost nine of the preceding 17. July 3 1980 - Harbhajan Singh is born in Jalandhar, Punjab, India. * Harbhajan is a former Indian cricketer. A specialist bowler, he has the second-highest number of test wickets by an off spinner, behind Sri Lankas Muttiah Muralidaran. * Harbhajan made his test and One Day International (ODI) debuts in early 1998. His career was initially affected by investigations into the legality of his bowling action, as well as several disciplinary incidents. * However in 2001, with leading leg spinner Anil Kumble injured, Harbhajans career was resuscitated after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly called for his inclusion in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy team. In that series victory over Australia, Harbhajan established himself as the teams leading spinner by taking 32 wickets, becoming the first Indian bowler to take a hat trick in test cricket. * A finger injury in mid-2003 sidelined him for much of the following year, allowing Kumble to regain his position as the first choice spinner. Harbhajan reclaimed a regular position in the team upon his return in late 2004, but often found himself watching from the sidelines in test matches outside the Indian subcontinent with typically only one spinner, Kumble, being used. * Throughout 2006 and into early 2007, Harbhajans accumulation of wickets fell and his bowling average increased, and he was increasingly criticised for bowling defensively with less loop. Following Indias first-round elimination from the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Harbhajan was replaced by other spinners in the national squad for both formats. He regained a regular position in the team in late 2007, but became the subject of more controversy. * In early 2008, he was given a ban by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for racially vilifying Andrew Symonds. The ban was revoked upon appeal, but in April, Harbhajan was banned from the 2008 Indian Premier League and suspended from the ODI team by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for slapping Sreesanth after a match. * He appeared in Total Nonstop Action Wrestlings Indian promotion, Ring Ka King. * He was conferred the Padma Shri, Indias fourth highest civilian honour, in 2009. July 4 1918 - Surrey and England bowler Alec Bedser and his elder twin Eric are born in Reading, Berkshire. * Alec was a professional English cricketer, primarily a medium-fast bowler. He is widely regarded as one of the best English cricketers of the 20th century. * Bedser played first-class cricket for Surrey from 1939 to 1960 alongside his identical twin brother Eric. He took 1924 first-class wickets in 485 matches. * He played test cricket for England from 1946 to 1955, taking 236 wickets in 51 test matches. He passed Clarrie Grimmetts world record for test wickets in 1953. He held the record until his final tally was passed by Brian Statham in 1963. * After retirement as an active cricketer, Alec became the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and was the president of Surrey County Cricket Club. He was knighted in 1996. * Eric was an all-rounder, a useful right-handed batsman and right-arm off-spin bowler. * The twins were regarded as inseparable throughout their lives, and they often dressed identically. Their father served in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War, later becoming a bricklayer. He also played cricket and football. * The Bedser brothers began playing cricket together at age seven for local school sides and Woking Cricket Club. Both twins also played football for Surrey Boys, and considered a professional career in that sport. From the age of 14, the twins worked as clerks at a solicitors office in Lincolns Inn Fields. They were spotted by Surrey coach Alan Peach in 1938 and joined the Surrey county squad staff at the Oval, making their first-class debuts in the same match the in June 1939. * There is a famous story that when Eric and Alec were first selected for Surrey, they agreed they couldnt both be fast bowlers, as at that time they were. A flip of the coin saw Alec win the toss, and Eric consequently took up off-spin bowling, for which he became very adept in a Surrey county team that was dominated by famous spinners such as Jim Laker and Tony Lock, and concentrated on his batting. * The pair were called up for duty with the Royal Air Force in 1939, serving in France and being evacuated from Dunkirk. They later served variously together throughout the war, in North Africa and Italy. Eric was promoted to Warrant Officer (and Alec refused a similar promotion, staying a flight sergeant so they could stay together), and both being demobilised in 1946, and returned to cricket at Surrey. * Eric enjoyed a successful first-class career, a member of the successful Surrey team that won seven successive County Championships from 1952 to 1958, despite many of the sides best players being away playing for England. Despite being called to a test trial in 1950, in which Laker took 8 wickets for 2 runs, one of which was scored by Eric, he was never called to play in a test himself; he played for England only once, in a first-class tour match in Tasmania. * As a result, Erics record will always be lacking when compared with Alecs, who played in 51 test matches, although Eric often accompanied Alec on overseas tours. * In a first-class career that lasted twenty-three years, Bedser played in 457 matches for Surrey, scoring 14,716 runs at the useful batting average of 24.00, and taking 833 wickets at the good bowling average of 24.95. He passed 1,000 runs in six seasons. * After retiring from playing cricket he went into business with his brother. Among other business interests, they co-operated with Ronald Straker in a successful stationery firm, Straker-Bedser, which was later taken over by Ryman in 1977. While Alec became a selector for England, Eric served on various committees at Surrey. He was president of Surrey County Cricket Club in 1990. * Neither twin married, living together in a house that they built with their father in 1953 in Woking, until Eric died aged 87 in Woking. July 5 1954 - John Wright is born at Darfield, New Zealand. * Wright is a former international left-hand batsman, representing - and captaining - New Zealand, and, following his retirement in 1993, coaching the Indian national cricket team from 2000 to 2005. * He made his international debut in 1978 against England. During his career, he scored over 5,000 test runs at an average of 37.82 runs per dismissal with 12 test centuries, 10 of them in New Zealand. He also played for Derbyshire in England. In first-class cricket he scored over 25,000 runs, having scored over 50 first-class centuries. He has also scored over 10,000 runs in List A limited overs cricket. * He typically opened for New Zealand, and was noted as a tenacious, rather than spectacular, batsman. His team nickname was Shake; reputedly a reflection on his packing technique. Together with Bruce Edgar of Wellington, he formed what was arguably New Zealands most successful and reliable opening partnership. * During a match against Australia in 1980, he became the second player in history to score an eight off one ball in a test, running four and collecting four overthrows. * Toward the end of his career he used an unorthodox batting stance; whereas most batsman face the bowler with the bat in line with their legs, and perpendicular to the ground, Wright would stand with his bat raised in parallel to it. * After taking up coaching for Kent County Cricket Club, Wright enjoyed a successful coaching career with India, from 2000 to 2005, during which time the team improved immensely, winning a home test-series 2-1 against Australia (which included the historic Kolkata test which India won coming back from a follow-on with Indian batsman VVS Laxman making 281*), drawing a test series against Australia in Australia 1-1 in a four-match test series in 2003-04 (Steve Waughs farewell test series), winning a series against arch-rivals, Pakistan, and reaching the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Kenya. * The following months saw the team lose form, and series to Australia and Pakistan. In May 2005, former Australian skipper, Greg Chappell took over from Wright. * In the 1988 Queens Birthday Honours, Wright was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to cricket. * On 20 December 2010, Wright was named as NZ Cricket Coach, replacing Mark Greatbatch. He resigned that role in 2012, following New Zealands tour of the West Indies. July 6 1977 - Makhaya Ntini is born at Mdingi, Eastern Cape Province. * Ntini is a former South African cricketer who was the first ethnically black player to play for the South African team. A fast bowler, he tends to bowl from wide of the crease with brisk, although not express, pace. He became only the third South African to take 300 test wickets after Shaun Pollock and Allan Donald, and reached second place in the ICC test match bowling ratings. * He was discovered by a Boland Cricket Board development officer who was setting up a mini-cricket programme. Although Ntini was both too old and too big to participate in the programme, the officer, Raymond Bool noticed the bare-footed cowherds enthusiasm and talent for bowling. He lent the 15 year old Ntini a pair of plimsolls and arranged for him to participate in a net session in King Williams Town. * Ntini impressed Bool, who contacted the head of the development programme, Greg Hayes, and the pair placed Ntini in a junior cricket festival in Queenstown. For the festival, Hayes purchased Ntini his first pair of boots – but later had to give the young bowler instructions not to wear them indoors, or when herding cattle. * In 2003 he became the first South African to take 10 wickets at Lords Cricket Ground. Arguably his best performance, however, came on 12 April 2005, when Ntini took 13 wickets for 132 runs against the West Indies at Port of Spain. This remains the most wickets taken by a South African cricketer in a test match. * On 3 March 2006, Ntini also achieved the best bowling figures by a South African in an ODI, demolishing Australia with 6 wickets for 22 runs. * A popular figure in South African sport, Ntini was voted their favourite sportsman in a research poll conducted by the South African Press Association. * Ntini went on to establish himself as South Africas premier fast bowler and one of the leading fast bowlers in the world. In February 2009 he was ranked as the worlds fifth-best test bowler behind Muttiah Muralidaran, Dale Steyn, Stuart Clark and Mitchell Johnson, but had dropped to being 25th-best ODI bowler, according to the ICC rankings. * On 20 January 2007 Ntini dislodged Mohammed Sami to take his 300th test wicket, in his 74th test. * On 1 August 2008 he removed England opener Alastair Cook to claim his 350th test wicket in his 90th test. * On 17 December 2009 he played his 100th test, becoming the only black South African cricketer to reach that mark. However, after already having lost his place in the ODI side, he was dropped from the test side after poor performances against England. * Ntini retired from all forms of international cricket on 9 January 2011, in a T20 against India.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Jun 2014 14:18:51 +0000
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