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July 8, 2012
Fred Spofforth, the first man to take a hat-trick of wickets in Test match cricket, inducted into ICC Cricket Hall of Fame
Photo: Relatives of fred Spoffoth receive a cap inducting him in to the ICC hall of fame during the 1st Natwest One Day International match between England and Australia at Lord’s Cricket Ground on June 29, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Tom Shaw/Getty Images. © 2012 Getty Images.)
Former Australia bowler Fred Spofforth was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame in front of a large and appreciative international crowd during the innings break at the first ODI between England and Australia at Lord’s on June 29, 2012.
The commemorative cap was received by relatives, Mark and Alex, of the late Australian international, from ICC Director Giles Clarke and the England and Wales Cricket Board Chairman Giles Clarke alongside ICC Director and Cricket Australia Chairman Wally Edwards and MCC President Phillip Hodson. It marks Spofforth’s induction into the Hall of Fame, a joint initiative between the ICC and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA).
Spofforth was born in 1853 and is recognised as Australia’s first fast bowler and was the first man to take a hat-trick of wickets in Test match cricket.
Born in Balmain, Sydney, Spofforth played for New South Wales and Victoria during his first class career between 1874 and 1888. In his 18 Test appearances for Australia, he took an impressive 94 wickets, claiming four 10-wicket hauls, with a career best of 14-90 against England in 1882.
In his first class career the right-armed bowler claimed 853 wickets at an average of 14.95 claiming 32 10-wicket hauls. He played his final Test in 1887.
The Spofforth family sporting tradition continues now in the UK with Gemma Spofforth, the current 100 metre backstroke world record holder in swimming, who will represent Great Britain in the London 2012 Olympics.
Training in the United States ahead of the London Olympics the swimmer said: “I’m so sorry that I can’t be there to celebrate the success of another athlete in the family, but with the Olympics so close my focus just has to remain on final preparations for the Games.”
• ICC Cricket Hall of Fame inductees:
Curtly Ambose, Sydney Barnes, Ken Barrington, Bishen Bedi, Alec Bedser, Richie Benaud, Allan Border, Ian Botham, Geoffrey Boycott, Donald Bradman, Greg Chappell, Ian Chappell, Belinda Clark, Denis Compton, Colin Cowdrey, Alan Davidson, Kapil Dev, Joel Garner, Sunil Gavaskar, Lance Gibbs, Graham Gooch, David Gower, WG Grace, Tom Graveney, Gordon Greenidge, Clarrie Grimmett, Richard Hadlee, Walter Hammond, Neil Harvey, George Headley, Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, Jack Hobbs, Michael Holding, Leonard Hutton, Rohan Kanhai, Imran Khan, Alan Knott, Jim Laker, Harold Larwood, Dennis Lillee, Ray Lindwall, Clive Lloyd, Hanif Mohammad, Rodney Marsh, Malcolm Marshall, Peter May, Javed Miandad, Keith Miller, Bill O’Reilly, Graeme Pollock, Wilfred Rhodes, Barry Richards, Vivian Richards, Andy Roberts, Garfield Sobers, Fred Spofforth, Brian Statham, Herbert Sutcliffe, Fred Trueman, Victor Trumper, Derek Underwood, Courtney Walsh, Steve Waugh, Wasim Akram, Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes, Frank Woolley, Frank Worrell.
Four new inductees will be announced in September ahead of the LG ICC Awards 2012.
• According to experts, however, the list does not include many important players, such as — Ranjitsinhji (the erstwhile Jamsaheb of Nawanagar, India, who invented the leg glance, scored close to 1000 runs for England and averaged marginally below 45 in 15 Tests. Ranji Trophy is named after him.), Duleepsinhji (nephew of Ranjitsinhji, who too played for England in pre-independence days and scored close to 1000 runs in only 12 Tests at a high average of 58-plus), C K Nayudu, Lala Amarnath, Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, Subash Gupte (all from India); Fazal Mehmood (Pakistan) (in the Oval Test on Pakistan’s very first tour in 1954, he took a haul of 12 wickets for 99 runs, 6 for 53 and 6 for 46. Later, he bowled his country to a famous victory over the mightly Australians in their very first encounter in the 1956-57 series at Karachi with a fabulous haul of 13 for 114 in 75 overs); Herbert Sutcliffe, Bill Edrich, Maurice Tate, Godfrey Evans, Hedley Verity, Douglas Jardine, Ted Dexter and Bob Willis (England); Victor Trumper, Stan McCabe, Clarrie Grimmett, Bill Ponsford, Arthur Morris, Lindsay Hassett, Bob Simpson, Doug Walters, Graham McEnzie and Alan Davidson (Australia); Sonny Ramadhin, Alf Valentine, Wesley Hall (West Indies); Jackie McGlew, Dudley Nourse, Hugh Tayfield, Eddie Barlow and Mike Procter (South Africa).
|GlobalGiants.Com|
Edited & Posted by the Editor | 8:51 AM | Link to this Post
