Cricket mourns England bowling great Sir Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Bedser, who was among the best pace bowlers to represent England, has died aged 91.
Paying tribute to a man who took 236 wickets in 51 Tests, ECB chairman Giles Clarke said: “Sir Alec Bedser deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest England bowlers of all time, a master of the craft of seam bowling and a true legend of the game.”
They are sentiments echoed throughout the cricketing world, including at his former county club, Surrey, where Bedser, together with his twin brother Eric, played a crucial role in the team winning consecutive County Championships between 1952 and 1958.
“Sir Alec was an iconic figure in world cricket. He upheld all the great traditions of the game and represented an era that has had a lasting impact on the history of Test and County cricket,” Paul Sheldon, Chief Executive of Surrey County Cricket Club said.
“In our sadness at the passing of one of the world’s greatest cricketers, we can also celebrate the end of an innings which brought pleasure to millions – and who was respected by all who were privileged to have known him,” Sheldon added.
Bedser’s cricket career, which began at Surrey in 1939, produced a total of 1,924 first-class wickets at an average of 20.41, including returns of 100 or more wickets in a county season on 11 occasions throughout his career.
The seamer’s cricket career was largely put on hold when he joined the RAF during World War II, but even during war-time cricket matches for the RAF his undeniable talent was on show with his six for 27, including a hat-trick, against a West Indies XI in 1943 regarded as one of the standout bowling performances of the war years.
Bedser played his first Test for England against India in 1946, where his accurate medium pace deliveries yielded a total of 14 wickets for the match.
His death sees the passing of the last living bowler to have claimed the wicket of the great Sir Donald Bradman, and the Reading-born player did that twice without allowing Bradman to trouble the scorers.
Bedser’s contribution of 39 Australian wickets at 17.48 during the 1953 Ashes was integral to England winning the coveted urn for the first time in 19 years. Two years later he bowed out of Test cricket as England’s leading wicket-taker, and 55 years later remains seventh on the list of the nation’s most prolific Test wicket-takers.
After bowling his last first-class ball for Surrey in 1960, Bedser was appointed as an England selector, and remained on the board of selectors for 23 years – 12 of those spent as chairman.
In 1996, Bedser received a knighthood for his services to cricket and at the time of his passing on April 5th, was England’s oldest surviving cricketer.
Paying tribute to Bedser, ICC President David Morgan said Sir Alec’s “contribution to cricket not only in England and Wales but also globally must never be underestimated. He was an outstanding practitioner of seam bowling and some of his contemporaries believed him to be the greatest bowler they ever faced.”
One of those contemporaries was Bradman himself, who rated the Bedser leg cutter that dismissed him for a duck in the Adelaide Test in 1946 as ““the best ball ever bowled to me”.
Compliments don’t get much better than that.
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