Australia’s Jason Gillespie, right, bats as Bangladeshi wicketkeeper looks on during the third day of the first cricket test match in Fatullah, Bangladesh, Tuesday, April 11, 2006. AP Photo/Mir Farid.
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who was the most unfortunate cricketer of them all? The list is long but I’ll restrict to the freakily unfortunate ones.
Let me start with the cricketer who is in the news, Jason Gillespie, or rather his father Neil, who last week condemned the choice of John Howard as the future ICC President.
In the April 2006 Chittagong Test against Bangladesh, Australia’s fast bowler Jason Gillespie, age 35, scored an unbeaten 201, the highest score for a night watchman. As Bangladesh had scored 197 in the first innings, he had outscored 11 Bangladeshis and Mr Extras.
Australia won this Test by an innings and Gillespie was made Man of the Match and Man of the Series.
Amazingly, this proved to be his last Test match.
The West Indies opening batsman Andy Ganteaume was another unfortunate cricketer. In the February 1948 Port-of-Spain Test against England, he opened the innings, scored 112 and did not bat in the second innings.
Incredibly he was never again selected in Test cricket and retired a decade later with a batting average of 112.00, higher than Don Bradman’s of 99.94. The 89-year-old is still puzzled at his exclusion after his impressive Test debut and, as it turned out, his Test farewell as well!
Similarly, New Zealand opener Rodney Redmond, scored 107 and 56 in his only Test, versus Pakistan at Auckland in February 1973, and was discarded unceremoniously. He boasts of a healthy Test average of 81.50. Move over, Lara, Tendulkar and Ponting!
England’s Charles “Father” Marriott captured 11-96 (5-37 and 6-59) in his only Test appearance, vs. West Indies at The Oval in 1933, and was discarded forever. He had a fantastic Test bowling average of 8.72 but died a sad man.
“Why, why, why were we dumped after such stupendous success,” they may well lament.
There are instances of freaky injuries to cricketers which had nothing to do with playing cricket. Australian wicket-keeper Gil Langley missed a match when he injured his hand by lying on it while sleeping, according to Jonathan Rice in Curiosities of Cricket (1993).
Australian all-rounder Gary Gilmour was practicing bowling in his motel room in Sydney in November 1972 before a Sheffield Shield match when his hand was caught in a ceiling fan.
Ian Greig, brother of Tony, fractured his right ankle in a Sussex vs. Kent match in June 1983 when he fell 18 feet trying to climb into his unit after he had broken his key in the lock. Four years later he was hit on the finger when captaining Surrey against Pakistan. He went to a hospital to have his finger X-rayed and a fracture was detected. As he rose to leave, he cracked his head on the X-ray machine and needed two stitches.
But no one can surpass Bruce French, the English wicket-keeper, in weird injuries.
When touring West Indies in 1985-86, he was bitten by a dog while jogging. He played only three first-class innings and made two ducks.
What else could go wrong? He was net-practicing in Lahore in November 1987 when a throw from a spectator hit him on the left eye which required four stitches. On arrival at the hospital, a car hit him on the leg. After the stitches were removed, he banged his head on a light-fitting as he rose to leave.
I nominate French for an Oscar in clumsiness!
sanjay deshmukh
Guest
Micthhael Clarke unfortunately followed the footsteps of Lara Bingle instead of following the footsteps of Brian Lara
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Where would one place Michael Clarke, among the fortunate few or unfortunate many? What a conflict, what a dilemma; to follow the footsteps of which Lara -- Brian or Bingle?
sheek
Guest
MikeM, Ackerman did very well when he appeared for the World XI against Australia in 1971/72. But in the overall context of his career he fell short, I would suggest.
MikeM
Guest
Sheek And Hylton Ackerman?
sheek
Guest
Hi Kersi, Point taken. I simply didn't mention Peter Pollock as I saw him as mostly a 60s player. Yeah, the Pollocks are a great human as well as sporting family.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Guest
Thank you all for your positive comments and interesting additions. Sheek, I agree with your SAf XI from 1970s and 80s, except for the omission of fast-medium Peter Pollock, brother of Graeme and father of Shaun. I was fortunate to interview Peter Pollock during the Rest of the World XI in 1971-72 and exchanged letters with him in 1970s. Peter had tried his hardest to introduce multiracial cricket in early 1970s. He was among few Springbok cricketers who staged a walkout in 1971 to record protest against apartheid in sports in SAf. His plea to include two non-whites in the South African team to tour Australia in 1971-72 was not considered by the government and the tour was cancelled.
sheek
Guest
FOS, Yeah, there's a composite SA XI from the 70s & 80s that contained some awesome players. I'll have a crack, with actual tests in brackets: B.Richards(4), J.Cook(3), P.Kirsten(12), G.Pollock(23), L.Irvine(4), C.Rice(nil), M.Procter(7), A.Kourie(nil) or D.Hobson(nil), R.Jennings(wk-nil), G.le Roux(nil), V.van der Bijl(nil). There are some truly awesome players here. Pollock is the only one to have had a reasonable crack at test matches. On his retirement in 1987, Bradman named him the greatest left-hander in history, just ahead of Sobers. Richards is as good as any opener to play the game., & far better than most. Cook, Kirsten & Irvine would all have averaged over 40 in tests given a normal career. Procter & Rice were two potentially great all-rounders, especially Procter. Kourie was a slow left-armer, plus a useful (if slow scoring) lower order bat & brilliant slipper. Hobson was for a short time an outstanding leggie. Jennings was considered the best ever keeper in SA history, in pure keeping terms. Although he wasn't a great bat. Le Roux wowed Aussie crowds during his WSC stint in 1978/79, while the giant van der Bijl was sometimes known as the "white Joel Garner". During his career, he broke all SA domestic 1st class bowling records. From this XI, Pollock, Richards, Procter & van der Bijl would be SA all-time candidates, with all the others bar perhaps the two spinners, competing for SA alltime 2nd & 3rd XIs. Some lost talent indeed..........
formeropenside
Guest
I do feel for many of the South Africans from the late 60's onwards, who never went on to have a Test career (or a horribly foreshortened one) due to Apartheid. Barry Richards, Clive Rice, Vincent van der Bijl, Garth le Roux, Denis Hobson...not to mention the various black and coloured players unable to represent their country.
sheek
Guest
Kersi, I believe I have two candidates. 1. Australian RJA (Jack) Massie (1890-1966). Son of test batsman Hugh (1854-1938). Massie was on the verge of being selected for Australia after a brilliant 1912/13 season but unfortunately, the next tour/series wasn't until 1914/15, which was cancelled by war. Massie was a tall, very fast left-armer who captured 99 wickets in only 16 first class matches at 18.42 runs each. At Gallipoli in 1915 he wore a scrlet band on his right arm hoping to protect his bowling left arm. It made no difference, grenade fragments in his left should er rendering his left arm no longer fully operational. His cricket career was over. Not to be confused with RAL (Bob) Massie (b.1947), another Aussie left-arm swing bowler who captured 29 wickets in 6 tests plus another 11 in 3 matches against a World X!, all in the early 70s. 2. FR (Frank) Foster (1889-1958). A leftarm fast bowler & talented lefthanded batsman, who had a wonderful test debut series in Australia 1911/12. In 11 tests averaged 23.57 with the bat & captured 45 wickets at 23.57. A motorcycle accident in 1916 saw his bowling leftarm amputated, ending his further cricket career aspirations. Two other names come to mind. The great Vijay Merchant (b.1911) only played 10 official tests for India either side of WW2, averaging 47-odd. The best years of his sporting life (1939-45 when he would have been 28-34) were taken up by war. How much better might he have been? He captained India in unofficial tests, but never in an official test. Kepler Wessels (b.1957) must have had the most interestingly varied career. He played for South African President's XI against the International Wanderers in 1975/76 as an 18 year old, scoring an unbeaten 88. He then played 4 matches for the Australian WSC side in 1978/79 before playing in 24 official tests for Australia 1982-85. he then played for the rebel Australians against South SAfrica in 1986/87 before returning to the South African team against the rebel Englishmen in 1989/90! He ended up captaining South Africa in 16 tests on their return to the official international arena 1992-94.
JohnB
Guest
Kersi - this is a tough one! To illustrate that toughness, set out below is what barely scratching the surface of the scorecard for the last test before WWII (Eng v WI) turned up. I didn't know anything about this game, or about most of the players mentioned - it just struck me as a possible source of a hard luck story. Incidentally, a book on cricketers who committed suicide was written a few years ago - David Frith "Silence of the Heart". I've not read it, but there'd have to be some candidates there (Australian test cricketers Sid Barnes and Jack Iverson for example). Back to England v West Indies, 1939 - there were 3 debutantes in the game, and for each one this was his only test. Each one at least contributed. For West Indies, Tyrell Johnson a left arm fast bowler, started things off by taking a wicket with his first ball in the test (he later dismissed Len Hutton in that first innings, for a solid 2-53 against a pretty strong looking England lineup). That first wicket brought in Norman "Buddy" Oldfield at number 3 for England - he scored 80 and 19 in the match. When WI batted, Vic Stollmeyer (brother of Jeff Stollmeyer, who played in that game but played tests into the 1950's) made 96 in his only test innings, at number 4. In making that 96, Stollmeyer shared a big partnership with Kenneth "Bam Bam" Weekes (a cousin of Everton Weekes of 3W's fame, and a contender in any best cricketer's nickname survey) - who made a handy 137 in his second, and last, test. So was Johnson, Oldfield, Vic Stollmeyer or Weekes the more unfortunate? Or maybe it was Jeff Stollmeyer who got to play 32 tests - but years later was bludgeoned to death in a home invasion in Trinidad?