Herbert Sutcliffe

Herbert Sutcliffe (born November 24, 1894, Summerbridge, Harrogate, Yorkshire, England; died January 22 1978, Cross Hills, Yorkshire, England) was arguably the greatest opening batsman in cricket history and undoubtedly one of the greatest players of any type the game has known. His Test batting average of 60.73 is the fourth highest of any player, and only Don Bradman's is more than a fraction higher. Uniquely, his average never dropped below 60 throughout his entire Test career — Javed Miandad is the only other man whose average never dropped below 50 in a career of at least 20 innings. Sutcliffe's first-class career batting average of 51.95 (according to Wisden, though Cricinfo claim 52.02) is bettered among batsmen who finished their careers with over 30,000 runs only by Hammond.

Partnership with Jack Hobbs

The following year, though, in county cricket Sutcliffe did not do quite as well as in 1922, his superb batting with Jack Hobbs on an extremely treacherous wicket in the 1923 Test Trial saw Sutcliffe become a certainty for the following year's Tests against South Africa. He did not disappoint: scoring 64 in his first innings, 122 in his second, he averaged 75.75 for five innings. That winter, Sutcliffe established himself as England's leading batsman with an amazing aggregate of 734 runs in five Tests against Australia. In the second Test at the MCG he was on the field for all but an hour of a seven-day match.

Related Topics:
Jack Hobbs - MCG

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During 1925 and 1926, Sutcliffe's skill was a primary factor in Yorkshire having the longest unbeaten run in county cricket: am amazing seventy matches without loss until early 1927 — and, after three defeats in 1927, a further fifty-eight games without loss until 1929. The first four Tests of the 1926 Ashes series were all ruined by appalling weather, but at the Oval Hobbs' and Sutcliffe's amazing defence against vigorously kicking off-spin placed England in an impregnable position. The following year, Sutcliffe was (remarkably for a professional) offered the captaincy of Yorkshire, but in characteristic fashion he refused it and said "he would play under any captain" — which he did.

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