Is Graeme Hick the greatest unfulfilled talent of the past 20 years?

Question

Let's face it: this is a man that had everything. The appetite for huge scores. The technique against all types of bowling (perhaps a weakness against the short pitched stuff, but he generally coped well enough). Yet he appears never really fulfilled his abilities.

Look at his stats:

In Test cricket, he scored 3,383 runs at an average of 31.32. In first class cricket, he has so far scored 40,534 runs at an average of 52.36, including a mammoth 135 centuries. Add to this his ODI record of 3,846 runs at an average of 37.33, and in List A matches he has scored 21,881 runs at 41.67, and the impression is that he has not fulfilled his undoubted talent.

Would he have thrived more if better care had been taken of him by England?

Answer 1

Agree about Hick and as Sarah said Ramrakash. Both players had tons of potential and scored a lot of runs in FC cricket. It just seemed that both didn't have the bottle for the big situation. It's a well known fact that the England selectors added to the pressures of Hick and Ramps by constantly dropping them and then recalling them. Anyway both players have no excuses because they were given over 100 test matches combined!!. England had a huge chance of producing a fearfull batting line-up, with the likes of Atherton, Hussain, Hick, Ramprakash, Stewart etc. BUT some players just can't handle the pressures of test cricket.

Here is a name that i would like to throw in

Andy Caddick, yeah he played over 60 matches, and had an average of under 30, but Caddick had a the potential to become one of the greats of the English game. BUT instead he seemed to go missing in tough situations (especially once the Aussies started to get on top of him).

Answer 2

Hick,  Ramprakash. Say no more. Is it England's fault? I'm not sure.

Answer 3

I totally agree, Hicky was, and still is ,a world class player. I think though that some players just cant take the next step, and there is little you can do about that, I don't know how many stop/start international careers he had, but you can only give any player a certain amount of rope, then you have to think of the team.

Sarah is right about Ramps too, he is the first name that sprung to my mind, seemingly not capable on the bigger stage.

I think the next in line maybe Owais Shah, who at 29, is no longer the rising star. In all fairness too him though, he has not had the chances that the other two had, so there's still time.

Answer 4

65 tests!!!! i think there is only 1 person can be blamed for a test average of 31 that is graham hick, sorry but if that isn't enough chances then i don't know what is.

he is a flat track county bully who couldn't step up to the next level.

Answer 5

Yeah, you're right. He never the got the international career his talent deserved. It's a shame really that the selectors chose to drop him after a few bad games because he could have easily been a great, high achieving, world class player (under the right circumstances of course).

I guess it's the same, to a certain extent, with Mark Ramprakash (though he probably had more chances than Hick even though he played fewer tests) who is another player who hasn't fulfilled his immense talent. And still can't get back in the England team despite averaging over 100 for the past few seasons.

There are other great players who haven't been able to transfer their county success into any kind of international success. Perhaps it's down to the ECB (or whoever) not looking after players properly, perhaps there is a different reason. It would be interesting to find out why this happens sometimes.

Answer 6

Well said. He has an enormous talent which I have always admired and yet for some reason he was dropped after a bad spell ( which they all have ) and never got back into contention with the selectors.