Graeme Hick

Graeme Hick

Personal information
Full name	Graeme Ashley Hick
Born	(1966-05-23) 23 May 1966 (age 58) Salisbury, Rhodesia
Nickname	Hicky, Ash
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off break
Role	Batsman
International information
National sides	Zimbabwe (1983–1986) England (1991–2001)
Test debut (cap 548)	6 June 1991  England v West Indies
Last Test	7 March 2001  England v Sri Lanka
ODI debut (cap 112)	23 May 1991  England v West Indies
Last ODI	27 March 2001  England v Sri Lanka
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1984–2008	Worcestershire
1987/88–1988/89	Northern Districts
1988–1991	MCC
1990/91	Queensland
1997/98	Auckland
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 65 120 526 651 Runs scored 3,383 3,846 41,112 22,059 Batting average 31.32 37.33 52.23 41.30 100s/50s 6/18 5/27 136/158 40/139 Top score 178 126* 405* 172* Balls bowled 3,057 1,236 20,889 8,604 Wickets 23 30 232 225 Bowling average 56.78 34.20 44.43 29.55 5 wickets in innings 0 1 5 4 10 wickets in match 0 0 1 0 Best bowling 4/126 5/33 5/18 5/19 Catches/stumpings 90/– 64/– 709/– 289/–
Medal record Men's Cricket Representing  England ICC Cricket World Cup Runner-up 1992 Australia and New Zealand
Source: CricInfo, 14 September 2016

Graeme Ashley Hick MBE (born 23 May 1966) is a Zimbabwean-born former England cricketer who played 65 Test matches and 120 One Day Internationals for England. He was born in Rhodesia, and as a young man played international cricket for Zimbabwe. He played English county cricket for Worcestershire for his entire English domestic career, a period of well over twenty years, and in 2008 surpassed Graham Gooch's record for the most matches in all forms of the game combined.^[1] He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.

He scored more than 40,000 first-class runs,^[2] mostly from number three in the order, and he is one of only three players to have passed 20,000 runs in List A cricket (Graham Gooch and Sachin Tendulkar are the others) and is one of only twenty-five players to have scored 100 centuries in first-class cricket.^[3] He is the only cricketer who scored first-class triple hundreds in three different decades (1988, 1997 and 2002).^[4] He is the second highest run scorer of all time after Graham Gooch,^[5] and the second highest century scorer after Jack Hobbs.^[6] Despite these achievements, he is commonly held to have underachieved in international cricket, a view based on comparison of Hick's overall first-class batting average of 52.23 vis-à-vis his Test average of 31.32.

At one time Hick's bowling was a significant force, and his off-spin claimed more than 200 first-class wickets. However, after 2001 he rarely bowled, and took only one first-class and two List A wickets; indeed, after the 2004 season he did not bowl a single ball in either form of the game. Throughout his career he was an outstanding slip fielder: Gooch wrote in his autobiography that his ideal slip cordon would comprise Mark Taylor, Ian Botham and Hick.^[7]

Hick was granted a benefit season by Worcestershire in 1999, which raised over £345,000;^[8] he was also awarded a testimonial in 2006.^[9] Hick retired from county cricket at the end of the 2008 season,^[10] to take up a coaching post at Malvern College. For the remaining part of the season, he joined Chandigarh Lions of the Indian Cricket League.^[11]