Graeme Pollock

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = South African
country = South Africa
country abbrev = SAF
name = Graeme Pollock
picture = Graeme_Pollock.jpg
batting style = Left-hand bat
bowling style = Left-arm legbreak
tests = 23
test runs = 2256
test bat avg = 60.97
test 100s/50s = 7/11
test top score = 274
test balls = 414
test wickets = 4
test bowl avg = 51.00
test 5s = 0
test 10s = 0
test best bowling = 2/50
test catches/stumpings = 17/-
FCs = 262
FC runs = 20940
FC bat avg = 54.67
FC 100s/50s = 64/99
FC top score = 274
FC balls = 3743
FC wickets = 43
FC bowl avg = 47.95
FC 5s = 0
FC 10s = 0
FC best bowling = 3/46
FC catches/stumpings = 248/-
debut date = 6 December
debut year = 1963
last date = 10 March
last year = 1970
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/46772.html Cricinfo

Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944 in Durban, Natal) was a South African cricketer. He represented South Africa at international level, and Transvaal and Eastern Province at domestic level.

Pollock is widely regarded as South Africa's greatest cricketer and as one of the finest left-handed batsmen to have played Test cricket. He has won numerous awards and accolades, including being voted in 1999 as South Africa's Cricketer of the 20th Century [ [http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/87716.html Pollock earns SA player of the Century Award] ] , and being selected as the Wisden Leading Cricketer in the World in 1967 and 1969, and one of Wisden's Cricketers of the Year in 1967.

Although his international career was cut short at the age of 26 by the sports boycott of South Africa, Pollock broke a number of records in the 23 test matches he played. His test match average of 60.97 remains the highest average by a South African cricketer to have played in at least 20 innings, and at his retiremement was second only to Sir Donald Bradman amongst all test batsmen, far exceeding that of any other post-war player. Currently, Pollock lies 3rd on the all time test batting averages after Bradman and Michael Hussey among batsman to have played more that 20 innings. The average is even more impressive considering that Pollock was only 26 years old at the time of his final test match, an age when most batsmen are not yet into their prime, and that all but one of his test matches were played against leading cricket nations of the day, England and Australia, with a solitary test against New Zealand. Bradman himself described Pollock, along with Sir Gary Sobers, as the best left-handed batsman he had ever seen play cricket.

Youth and early career

Born in Durban on the 27th of February 1944, Graeme Pollock was earmarked as a prodigious talent from the time he first appeared on a cricket field. A tall man at 6ft 2 inches, Pollock used his height well to get to the pitch of the ball. He was also a useful leg-spinner. At the age of sixteen, while still at school at Grey High School in Port Elizabeth, Pollock was chosen to appear for Eastern Province and soon made his mark by breaking the record for the youngest player to score a first class century while still at school.At the age of nineteen, he broke the record for the youngest South African to score a double-century.

Test career

Pollock was just nineteen when he was selected for the 1963/64 tour to Australia. Failures in the first two tests of the series led some commentators to doubt his ability at the top level. These doubts were firmly dispelled in the final two tests. In the third test in Sydney, Pollock made 122 in South Africa’s first innings, a knock of such quality that Sir Donald Bradman commented: “Next time you decide to play like that, send me a telegram”. In Adelaide in the fourth and final test, he and Eddie Barlow shared a South African third-wicket record partnership of 341, with Pollock hitting 175 and Barlow 201. South Africa won the test by 10 wickets to even the series 1-1. Not yet out of his teens, he had finished the series with 399 runs to his name at an average of 57.00.

During the 1965 tour to England, in arguably Pollock's finest innings at international level , Pollock made 125 in gloomy conditions at Trent Bridge against an England attack that included accomplished bowlers like John Snow, Tom Cartwright and Ken Higgs, in an innings described as sublime by no less an authority than Sir Donald Bradman. In the second innings, Pollock scored 59 and with brother Peter taking 10 wickets in the match, the Trent Bridge test acquired the tag of "Pollock's Match". South Africa won the match and the three test series 1-0.

Pollock's prolific run scoring continued in his final two test series in 1966-67 and 1969-70, both against Australia, helping South Africa win both series by very convincing margins of 3-1 and 4-0 respectively. In the 1966-67 five-test series against Bobby Simpson's side, Pollock hit two centuries, including 209 in Cape Town, and two half-centuries at an average of 76.71.

In the 1970 series against Bill Lawry's side, in what was to be South Africa's last test series before expulsion from the world stage due to apartheid, Pollock was a key member of one of the finest South African test team ever produced. The team that whitewashed the Australians in the four-test series also included South African greats such as Barry Richards, Mike Procter, Eddie Barlow, Peter Pollock, Trevor Goddard, Lee Irvine and Ali Bacher. Pollock's magnificent form continued into the series and he averaged 73.85, including breaking Jackie McGlew's South African test record of 255 when he scored 274 in the 2nd test in Durban. He held this record for nearly thirty years until Darryl Cullinan scored 275 not out against New Zealand in 1999.

Pollock was just 26 years of age when his test career was brought to a premature end. During South Africa's international isolation, he also played in a number of unofficial test matches against breakaway teams from England, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Australia, including ending his international career at the age of 42 with a memorable 144 against the rebel Australian team that toured South Africa in 1987.

Post test career

Pollock continued playing first-class cricket for Eastern Province and Transvaal until his retirement from the first-class game in the 1986/87 season at the age of 43. Throughout his career, he made 20 940 runs in first-class cricket, including 64 centuries and 99 fifties, at an average of 54.67. Limited overs matches were introduced some time after his career began, and he played only 112 innings in the shorter form of the game. Nonetheless, he tallied 4 656 runs at an average of over 50.

Personal life

Pollock's father, Andrew Pollock, a Scottish immigrant, played cricket for Orange Free State, while his brother, Peter Pollock, was a leading fast bowler who played 28 test matches for South Africa . Both his sons, Anthony Pollock and Andrew, played cricket for Transvaal and Gauteng, while his nephew, Shaun Pollock, who in 2008 retired from the South African Test team, played in 108 test matches and is South Africa's leading wicket-taker.

Notes

External links

* [http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/46772.html Graeme Pollock] at CricInfo