Graeme Ashley Hick, at time of writing about 35/6, is without doubt the finest player of cricket ever to have lived. It's that simple. The ex-Zimbabwaen is the
youngest player ever to
rack up 100 first-class (which here means professional) centuries, and to date has about 135, placing him, roughly, (I don't have a copy of Wisden to hand) in the top 15 of
all time, up the with Hutton and Zaheer Abass and
Don Bradman. Pretty much the
enfant terrible of English cricket, on the 1993 India tour, (along with the
World Cup '99 arguably his finest hour) he was the top
batsman from each side and the top English bowler (he's an
off spinner). He has almost always, however,
underperformed badly on the
international scene, and this season wasn't too good for him. I
mourn the passing of a true
giant of the game.
Update 13/6/02
Here follow Hick's 1st Class and International figures, from www.cricinfo.org:
TESTS
(including 07/03/2001)
M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 65 114 6 3383 178 31.32 48.88 6 18 90 0
O M R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 509.3 128 1306 23 56.78 4-126 0 0 132.9 2.56
ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS
(including 27/03/2001)
M I NO Runs HS Ave SR 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 120 118 15 3846 126* 37.33 74.08 5 27 64 0
O M R W Ave BBI 4w 5w SR Econ
Bowling 206 6 1026 30 34.20 5-33 0 1 41.2 4.98
FIRST-CLASS
(1983/84 - 2002; last updated 12/06/2002)
M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St
Batting & Fielding 428 705 65 34262 405* 53.53 118 130 534 0
O R W Ave BBI 5 10 SR Econ
Bowling 3439.3 10165 231 44.00 5-18 5 1 89.3 2.95