Alec Bedser

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Sir Alec Bedser
Player information
Surname Alec Victor Bedser
Born 4th July 1918
Reading , Berkshire , England
Died April 4th 2010 aged 91 in
Woking , Surrey , England
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right arm medium-fast
International games
National team England
Test debut (cap 311) June 22, 1946 v  India
Last test July 12, 1955 v  South Africa
National teams
Years team
1939-1960 Surrey
Career statistics
Game form Testing First class
Games 51 485
Runs (total) 714 5,735
Batting average 12.75 14.51
100s / 50s 0/1 1/13
Highscore 79 126
Balls 15,918 106,062
Wickets 236 1.924
Bowling Average 24.89 20.41
5 wickets in innings 15th 96
10 wickets in play 5 16
Best bowling performance 7/44 8/18
Catches / stumpings 26 / - 289 / -
Source: CricketArchive , April 12, 2015

Sir Alec Victor Bedser , CBE (born July 4, 1918 in Reading , † April 4, 2010 in Woking ), was an English cricketer . After the end of his active career he was among other things chairman of the English selection committee (chairman of selectors) and president of the Surrey County Cricket Club . His twin brother Eric Bedser was also a professional player for Surrey, but without ever having played for England.

Active career

Bedser was considered an excellent right-arm medium-fast bowler . His professional career for the Surrey CCC spanned the years from 1939 to 1960, interrupted by the Second World War. He made his debut for England in June 1946 against India , his last test match was against South Africa in July 1955 . He played a total of 485 first-class matches , including 51 test matches, in which he reached 236 wickets , with a bowling average of 24.89 runs / wicket. He was an important pillar for his Surrey club and made a decisive contribution to the eight championships between 1950 and 1958 .

Further career

After retiring from active sports in 1960, Bedser became a member of the national selectors committee , which traditionally sets up the players in the English selection. He was a member of this for 23 years, from 1969 to 1981 as chairman. During two foreign tours to Australia he was manager of the English team. He was a founding member of The Freedom Association , which supported the apartheid system in South Africa , and was one of the selectors who initially refused permission for the colored, native South African Basil D'Oliveira for the 1968-69 tour to South Africa. After allegedly saying never to watch one-day cricket "because you could just as easily watch baseball," he was disqualified from judging Benson & Hedges Cup games in 1976 . Shortly after Ian Botham resigned as captain in 1981, immediately after the second test of the later legendary Ashes series, Bedser declared that Botham would have been fired anyway. At the end of the season he was replaced by Peter May as chairman of selectors . In 1987 he became president of the Surrey County Cricket Club.

Honors

In 1947 Bedser was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year . In 1996 he was knighted for his services to the sport of cricket. In October 2004, the Wisden Cricketer voted Bedser into the selection of England's Greatest Post-War XI .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Alec Bedser . Cricinfo. Retrieved April 12, 2015.
  2. ^ Jon Gemmell: The Politics of South African Cricket . Routledge, London 2004, p. 203.