To keep things simple, we've whittled down a selection of the best into six categories: Openers, middle order batsmen, wicketkeepers, all-rounders, fast bowlers, and of course, spinners.
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The first Hindu to play Test cricket for Pakistan, Anil Dalpat was one of several wicketkeepers given a chance after the retirement of Wasim Bari.
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Thomas Box (7 February 1808 – 12 July 1876) was a famous English cricketer who is remembered as one of the most outstanding wicketkeepers of the 19th century.
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He admitted attempting to change his batting style to something similar to former Australian wicketkeepers Adam Gilchrist and Brad Haddin before his international debut. However, he has since reverted to his former more patient game.
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17 Germon is one of the few wicketkeepers who have played over ten tests and effected more dismissal than conceded byes. He effected 29 dismissals in test cricket and conceded 24 byes.Rajesh, S. (30 September 2005) The unsung heroes behind the stumps. ESPN Cricinfo.
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England's batsmen failed to take the initiative in the second innings, and the match petered out to a draw. The catch that Wally Hammond took to dismiss Headley in West Indies' second innings was his 100th in Tests: the first player to achieve this apart from wicketkeepers.
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Jenner was an all-rounder who was right-handed as both batsman and bowler. He was an underarm bowler but his pace is unknown. He kept wicket when not bowling and is said to have been one of the "finest amateur wicketkeepers".Altham, p.68-69.
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In all cricket, Taylor made 1,294 dismissals, which puts him seventh on the all- time list of wicketkeepers. He also made more than 19,000 runs in a total of 572 first-class matches. He was selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1972. He was a Test selector for England from 1973.
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After 22 seasons with Kent, Knott announced his retirement from cricket at the end of the 1985 County Championship season aged 39. He was still regarded as one of the finest wicketkeepers in the country, and his reasons for retirement included concern over an ankle injury as well as concentrating on his sports shop in Herne Bay, Kent and gymnasium business.
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The other batsmen were Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Denis Compton, Bill Edrich, James Langridge, Laurie Fishlock and Joe Hardstaff junior. Jack Ikin and Norman Yardley were essentially all- rounders. Godfrey Evans and Paul Gibb were the wicketkeepers and the bowlers were Alec Bedser, Doug Wright, Dick Pollard, Peter Smith and Bill Voce. Gibb, Hardstaff, Hutton and Langridge did not play in New Zealand.
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After being released by Lancashire, Cross signed to play for 2013 Minor Counties Championship winners Cheshire. As well as playing for Nantwich at the same time, Cross had a trial with Derbyshire in April 2014. Consequently, when the club's contracted wicketkeepers – Tom Poynton and Richard Johnson – became unavailable to play Cross was signed to from May until the end of the season.
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He was dropped from the Indian team after that. With Syed Kirmani and Bharath Reddy firmly entrenched as the two leading wicketkeepers in the country, Khanna's career seemed over. But he continued to do well for Delhi and his natural style of play suited the ODI game. He was recalled back to the Indian team for the 1984 Asia Cup held at Sharjah.
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Binks' County Championship career is unique. Coming into the Yorkshire team in June 1955, he then played in every single Championship game played by Yorkshire until he retired at the end of the 1969 season. Yorkshire won the Championship seven times in this period and the Gillette Cup twice. Binks stands 19th on the all-time list of wicketkeepers with 1,071 first-class dismissals.
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Although his cricket career was disrupted by the war, Sismey played 35 first-class matches between 1938 and 1952, mostly for New South Wales (NSW). He took 88 catches, made 18 stumpings and was a right-hand batsman with a first-class average of 17.68. According to an obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald, Sismey was unusual amongst wicketkeepers in that he did not break any of his fingers during his 25-year career.
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Haydn George Davies (23 April 1912 – 4 September 1993) was a Welsh-born cricketer for Glamorgan County Cricket Club. Davies is regarded as being one of the best wicketkeepers to have played for Glamorgan, taking 789 dismissals from his 423 first class games between 1935 and 1958. With 82 victims in 1955, he set a new record for the county. He took eight dismissals in a match against the South African touring team in 1955.
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In the 1820s, Jenner did not wear gloves or pads while keeping wicket.Birley, p.78. These protections were gradually introduced in response to the development of roundarm bowling from 1827. Until then, the role of the wicketkeeper had been "offensive" rather than "defensive" in that he was primarily concerned with looking for stumping chances, but the increased pace of roundarm forced wicketkeepers to improve their ability to stop the ball and so prevent byes.
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Leonard Alfred Walter Kent (26 December 1924 - 17 December 2014) was a New Zealand cricketer. He played 32 first-class matches for Auckland between 1943 and 1952. Playing for Auckland against Wellington in 1944-45 he made six stumpings, all off the leg-spin bowling of Ces Burke, and also took two catches, one off Burke. He was considered one of New Zealand's best young wicketkeepers in 1948, but never achieved national selection.
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Typically, modern flannels will have trousers made with a high elastic content, to prevent damage while fielding. Shirts and jumpers can be short or long-sleeved, the former being particularly favoured by bowlers. Wicketkeepers mostly wear long-sleeved shirts, in order to avoid abrasions from the grass when diving for the ball, which is also true for some players while batting due to a similar risk. Jumpers are traditionally made with a cable-knit design.
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Woolmer was known for his progressive coaching techniques. He is credited with having made the reverse sweep a more popular shot for batsmen in the 1990s, as well as being one of the first to use computer analysis, and trying to adapt the knowledge of goalkeepers to wicketkeepers in cricket. He later attracted attention at the 1999 World Cup by communicating with his captain Hansie Cronje with an earpiece during matches. The practice was later banned.
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Nasir Ahmed (born January 1, 1964, Dacca) is a Bangladeshi former cricketer who played in 7 ODIs from 1988 to 1990. He is one of the three best wicketkeepers to play for Bangladesh, Shafiq-ul-Haq and Khaled Mashud being the other two. After the retirement of Haque, the selectors tried a number of young keepers, and Nasir (commonly known as Nasu) emerged as the most competent one. After cementing his place in 1986, he was a regular in the national side until 1993.
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The team badly lacked pace bowlers and included only two medium-fast seamers, Jack Plimsoll and Lindsay Tuckett, the majority of bowlers being spinners: Rowan, Tufty Mann, Ian Smith and Leslie Payn. South Africa had three wicketkeepers in the party: Johnny Lindsay, Douglas Ovenstone and George Fullerton. Ossie Dawson was an all-rounder and the remaining batsmen were Denis Begbie, Dennis Dyer and Tony Harris. South Africa used fourteen players in the Test series: the ones who missed out were Begbie, Ovenstone and Payn.
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Blackham was right to be so concerned: on a horrific "sticky dog", his side eventually collapsed to 166 all out, losing the match by ten runs. At the close, with the Englishmen celebrating, "Blackham walked up and down the balcony like a caged tiger, muttering 'Cruel luck – cruel luck'.... In short, the team were thoroughly cut up seeing victory thus snatched away.... 'The rain beat us,' said some of them." "No!" retorted the Prince of Wicketkeepers. "The sun beat us" – which was probably closer to the mark.
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He played in 5 One day international matches and a single test match for Pakistan due to the presence of wicketkeepers like Moin Khan and Rashid Latif he could not really cement his place in the national colours. In the year 2007 he participated in the unofficial Indian cricket league (ICL) representing Lahore Badshah. The participation in ICL meant that he was banned from the Pakistan team for life plus with the emergence of Kamran Akmal his section for the national side was already a question mark.
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Edward Gower "Ned" Wenman (18 August 1803 – 28 December 1879) was an English first-class cricketer whose career spanned the 1825 to 1854 seasons. A specialist wicket-keeper, he was a prominent member of the great Kent team of the 1840s which also featured Nicholas Felix, William Hillyer, Alfred Mynn and Fuller Pilch. Wenman is generally remembered as one of the greatest wicketkeepers of the 19th century. He came from a cricketing family, other first-class players being his cousins George and John, his son William and his brother Charles.
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He also played football for the Trinidad team around this time, but his time for sport was restricted by his career in the civil service. From batting in the middle-order, Ganteaume was eventually promoted to open the batting as a theory at the time suggested that wicketkeepers might make good openers as they became accustomed to the conditions while keeping wicket; Ganteaume neither believed this theory nor enjoyed being an opener. He scored his maiden first-class century in 1946; a second followed later in the year.
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Jacobs played 83 matches scoring 1707 runs at an average of 25.86 with eight half- century.Ingram named Warriors captainThree wicketkeepers for SA's 'A' sideDavy Jacobs to retire In October 2018, he was named at the captain of Canada's squad for the 2018–19 Regional Super50 tournament in the West Indies. In April 2019, he was named as the captain of Canada's squad for the 2019 ICC World Cricket League Division Two tournament in Namibia. In June 2019, he was selected to play for the Edmonton Royals franchise team in the 2019 Global T20 Canada tournament.
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Alan Wilson (24 April 1920 – 6 April 2015) played first-class cricket for Lancashire as a tail-end batsman and wicketkeeper between 1948 and 1962. He was born at Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, England. Wilson played 171 first- class matches for Lancashire over 15 seasons, but was intermittently throughout his career superseded by other wicketkeepers who were generally better batsmen: Alfred Barlow in 1950, Frank Parr in 1953 and John Jordan in 1956. He was finally supplanted by Geoff Clayton in 1959 but returned for a single game in 1962 when he was granted a benefit to reward his loyalty.
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Starc and Healy are only the third married couple to both play Test cricket, after Roger and Ruth Prideaux, who represented England in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as Guy and Rasanjali de Alwis, who represented Sri Lanka in the 1980s and 1990s. They met when they were 9, when both were wicketkeepers for Northern Districts. In March 2020, Starc flew home ahead of the final ODI match against South Africa, so he could watch Healy play in the final of the 2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup. Starc supports the Greater Western Sydney Giants in the Australian Football League.
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Geoffrey Clayton (3 February 1938 – 19 September 2018) was an English professional first-class and List A cricketer for Lancashire and Somerset between 1959 and 1967. He was a lower-order batsman and a wicketkeeper. Clayton was a regular first-team player in every season in which he played first-class cricket and he was at or near to the top of the wicketkeepers' lists for most dismissals each year. But his abrasive personality did not endear him to county committees – or to his county captain at Somerset – and he left first-class cricket at the age of 29.
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Apart from the single Gentlemen v Players appearance, Hill's only taste of representative cricket came on an arduous tour of India made by the Marylebone Cricket Club from October 1926 to February 1927. The tour was billed as a visit to India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), but matches were also played in the territories now inside the borders of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Burma). The team was led by the former England captain Arthur Gilligan and contained a mixture of Test and county standard players, both amateur and professional. Hill was one of two wicketkeepers: the other was George Brown of Hampshire.
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He played first-class cricket from 1954 to 1973, for Delhi and Saurashtra. He was one of the first wicketkeepers to pass 100 dismissals (caught or stumped) in the Ranji Trophy, and set a record by taking 23 dismissals in the competition in one year in the 1960–61 season. Although an accomplished wicketkeeper in Indian domestic cricket, he was kept out of the India national cricket team by Farokh Engineer and Budhi Kunderan. He played in only four Test matches: the three-match series against Australia in 1964–65, and one Test against New Zealand at Hyderabad in 1969–70 when Engineer was injured.
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His place in the side came under threat, however, with the emergence of Mushfiqur Rahim, combined with his own failure to score a half century in 24 Test innings. He was subsequently dropped from the Bangladesh squad for the 2007 Cricket World Cup and after a brief return against Sri Lanka did not feature, with Rahim and Dhiman Ghosh being preferred as wicketkeepers. He announced his retirement from international cricket in 2008 but continues to play domestic cricket in Bangladesh as captain of the Rajshahi Division team. Mashud announced his retirement from domestic cricket after captaining his team to win the title in 2011.
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Julian was a right-handed lower-order batsman and a wicketkeeper. He made his first- class debut for Leicestershire as a 16-year-old in a single match against Gloucestershire in May 1953. There were a few more games, plus a period of National Service, over the next few years, but he did not displace Jack Firth as Leicestershire's first choice wicketkeeper until Firth retired at the end of the 1958 season. From 1959 to 1965, Julian was Leicestershire's main wicketkeeper, though his indifferent batting and Leicestershire's perennially long tail in this period meant that other wicketkeepers such as John Mitten and Geoffrey Burch were tried, though not usually for long.
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As of 2017, the ICC has refused to pass laws requiring the wearing of helmets, rather leaving the decision to each test nation to decide for themselves. However, although it is not obligatory for a batsman to wear a helmet, should he chose to do so, the helmet must comply with specific safety requirements, a rule all the test playing nations have agreed to. In first class cricket, as of 2016, the England and Wales Cricket Board requires all batsmen, wicketkeepers and fielders closer than 8 yards from the wicket to wear helmets. This is mandatory even when facing medium-pace and spin bowling.
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Denis Thomson Lindsay (4 September 1939 – 30 November 2005) played 19 Tests for South Africa between 1963 and 1970. His outstanding series was against Australia in 1966–67, when he scored 606 runs in seven innings, including three centuries, took 24 catches as wicketkeeper and conceded only six byes. Of all wicketkeepers in Test history with a career of 10 Tests or more, he has the lowest number of byes per Test, with 20 byes conceded in the 15 Tests in which he kept wicket; the best keepers generally average around 3 or 4 byes per Test."The unsung heroes behind the stumps" He later became an international cricket referee.
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He was one of a succession of New Zealand Test wicketkeepers of modest batting ability in the mid to late 1960s, and was first choice for only one Test series, the three matches in New Zealand against the West Indies in 1968-69 when, like his predecessor Roy Harford he batted at number 11. Milburn also toured England in 1969 and India in 1969–70, but Ken Wadsworth, a much better bat, was seen as the principal keeper on both tours, though an injury in the later stages of the England tour did not help Milburn's cause at a time when Wadsworth was also struggling for runs.
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He is also third on the list of Derbyshire wicketkeepers, behind his successor, Bob Taylor and Harry Elliott, for catches, stumpings and overall dismissals. Dawkes was awarded his Derbyshire county cap in 1948, and also increased his own personal highest score in the match against Nottinghamshire at Ilkeston that season, scoring 95 in a partnership of 149 for the sixth wicket with George Pope which took control of what had been until then an even game. That remained his highest score for six seasons, and his batting went through something of a trough from 1949 to 1953, in a couple of years averaging only 12 runs per innings.
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He was awarded his cricket 'blue', in 1839 and was described as one of the best amateur wicketkeepers of his day. He also played for teams including Cambridge Town Club, England, Gentlemen, Gentlemen of England, Gentlemen of the South, Oxford and Cambridge Universities and Slow Bowlers. His highest score of 72 not out came when playing for Marylebone Cricket Club in a match against Oxford University in 1841. In the same year Anson rowed for the Cambridge Subscription Rooms crew that won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta. Anson was ordained deacon (London) on 18 December 1842 and priest (Norwich) on 13 August 1843.
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When Ratra made an innings of 115 not out in 2002 against the West Indies, he was the youngest wicketkeeper to make a century in Tests, and first Indian wicketkeeper to make an overseas century. After he was injured in 2002, he was replaced by Parthiv Patel, the youngest ever Test wicketkeeper. Ratra then fell behind Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik and Patel in the pecking order. Ratra was part of the Indian Under-19 squad which won the Youth World Cup in 2000, and following training sessions with the National Cricket Academy he became one of six wicketkeepers that India would attempt to integrate into the squad in the space of 12 months.
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From the time he replaced Dave Richardson until his retirement, Boucher was South Africa's first-choice wicketkeeper, and is widely regarded as one of, if not the, greatest wicketkeepers South Africa has ever had. He holds the record for the most dismissals (catches and stumpings) in Test cricket. He reached the record originally when he overtook the former Australian wicketkeeper Ian Healy in the first test of the Bank Alfalah Test Series versus Pakistan in Karachi on 3 October 2007 when he stumped Umar Gul off the bowling of Paul Harris. He then lost the record to Adam Gilchrist before regaining it when he caught Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh in February 2008.
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England ranked seventh in the ODI rankings had had mixed performances winning the 2006–07 Commonwealth Bank Series and the recent ODI series against India but lost to the West Indies and performed poorly in the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The team had a new look with new captain Paul Collingwood going on his first away tour while James Anderson and Stuart Broad formed a new front line attack. Other relative newcomers to the squad were all-rounders Dimitri Mascarenhas and Ravi Bopara. England had still not resolved their keeping problem with Matt Prior not being offered a central contract and had selected five wicketkeepers in the past 12 months; Chris Read, Geraint Jones, Paul Nixon, Prior and Phil Mustard.
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Del, however, agrees to talk with Ram while Rodney drives Vimmal home. At an Indian restaurant which Ram claims to be one of eighteen he owns, Ram explains to Del and Rodney (who arrived looking for Del) that he and Malik are from rival families, each of whom makes claim to an ancient statue of the Hindu God Kubera (who Del originally believed to be "one of India's premier wicketkeepers"), a statue of great sentimental and financial value. Malik has the statue but Ram wants it back and informs Del that he is prepared to pay £4,000 for it. He is unable to make such an offer directly however, due to the caste system preventing him from speaking to Malik directly.
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Both wicketkeepers fell ill on the tour, and Hill played no matches for six weeks in the middle of the tour. Arthur Dolphin of Yorkshire who was coaching in India for the Maharaja of Patiala, was co-opted for some matches when neither Hill nor Brown was fit (as was Maurice Leyland, also working for the Maharaja, to cover other illnesses). Hill played in little more than a third of the 26 first-class matches on the tour – some of them were of only two-days duration but only the single-innings games were not considered first- class – but stayed for the whole tour, which was rated a success by the MCC and was a factor that led to the entry of India into Test cricket.
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The lower order is defined as the batsmen batting at positions 8, 9, 10 and 11. It is usually made up of players who have average or poor batting skills, commonly known as tailenders (tail ender or tail-ender). These players are the team's specialist bowlers and sometimes the wicketkeeper, or even players on debut if their batting abilities are unproven because bowlers with better batting abilities, aspiring all-rounders or wicketkeepers do have a chance to move up the order over the course of their careers (notably Steve Smith moved from 8 to 3–5, and Ashton Agar moved from 11 to 7 in first-class cricket). However, some bowlers do establish themselves as competent lower order batters, especially at no.
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Shortly after Chappell retired from cricket he was appointed selector for the Australian team and also became a member of the Australian Cricket Board. This was a time of rebuilding for the national side, with many players lost through retirement and the South African rebel tours. He resigned from both positions in mid-1988, before the Australian team revived but by which time many key players in that revival had been selected, including David Boon, Geoff Marsh, Merv Hughes and Steve Waugh. Among the decisions made by the panel when Chappell was a selector included encouraging Kim Hughes to resign, not selecting Hughes on the 1985 Ashes, trying Wayne Phillips, Greg Dyer and Tim Zoehrer as wicketkeepers, and fast-tracking Craig McDermott and Ian Healy to the national side.
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Somerset used a variety of amateur and professional wicketkeepers in Luckes' absence, including Seymour Clark, the ultimate non-batsman, and Frank Lee, the opening batsman who later became a Test umpire. And Luckes was able to return for the second half of the 1932 season. He then remained as the regular wicketkeeper for the county up to and beyond the Second World War, standing up at the wicket to all but the fastest deliveries from Arthur Wellard and Bill Andrews and even in his last match, at the age of 48, managing a stumping off the quick bowler Jim Redman. Luckes was a useful batsman, but after his illness Somerset appear to have decided that he should not be subjected to the stress of batting high in the order, despite an at-times lack of depth to the county's batting.
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As a result of Hughes' death, calls were made for improvements to the cricket helmet, and this has resulted in new designs which have additional guards fitted to the rear of the helmet. However, an independent review released by Cricket Australia states that "The now mandated British Standard helmet would have offered no protection where he was struck. There is limited scientific evidence that current neck guards will prevent a similar tragedy and they must be properly evaluated before they are mandated." After the review was completed in 2016, it was concluded that the incident was purely accidental, and any changes made to improve safety during the review period, such as mandatory helmets for wicketkeepers, close-in fielders, and batsmen facing fast or medium pace bowling (even during net sessions) would not have prevented the accident.
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At its conclusion New Zealand broadcater Murray Deaker commented that the only good thing you could say about it from the New Zealand cricket point of view was that it only came once every hundred years. Marred by substandard performances, disciplinary problems and a cannabis smoking scandal, the season proved a watershed in New Zealand cricket and Glenn Turner was introduced as new coach in 1995, as New Zealand cricket sought about changing the culture within the New Zealand cricket team. Turner, upon deciding that Ken Rutherford would be replaced as captain, appointed Germon New Zealand wicketkeeper and captain, recognising that Germon had the best captaincy record in New Zealand domestic cricket at the time. Prior to making Germon captain, Turner assessed Germon's wicket keeping abilities consulting with former New Zealand wicketkeepers Barry Milburn and Ian Smith, who both considered Germon to be the best the wicketkeeper in New Zealand at that time.
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The Test was a disaster for England: captain Len Hutton put the Australians in to bat and they proceeded to make 601 before declaring and winning the match by an innings and 154 runs. A lacklustre fielding performance contributed to the defeat, and Andrew was not innocent: he dropped Arthur Morris off Alec Bedser before he had scored, and Morris went on to make 153. Evans recovered in time for the second Test, and had one of his best series, so Andrew did not get another chance as England recovered to retain the Ashes. Evans then remained as first-choice wicketkeeper for England in both home and away series for the next four years and when he did finally retire, he was succeeded not by Andrew but by a succession of wicketkeepers with better batting credentials – Roy Swetman, Geoff Millman, John Murray and Jim Parks. Andrew's only other Test came in the first match of the 1963 series against West Indies, when England again fielded out to a big total, this time of more than 500, a follow-on and a heavy defeat.
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