Graeme Hick
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Graeme Ashley Hick (born 23 May, 1966) is a former England cricketer.
Hick was born in Salisbury, Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe), and was included in that country's World Cup squad at the age of 17. Although he was not selected for any of those matches, he did play in several warm-up games against county sides, and also toured Sri Lanka with Zimbabwe the following winter.
In 1984, Hick came to England to play for Worcestershire. It is said that his off-spin bowling, rather than his batting, won him the nod over another player! In that first season, he played mostly for the Second XI - for whom he scored six hundreds - and for Kidderminster in the Birmingham League. His performances were impressive enough to lead Worcestershire to give him a first-team debut late in the season, and Hick repaid the county's faith in him by scoring 82 not out against Surrey.
In 1985, Hick played both for Zimbabwe (who were touring England) and for his county, and he enjoyed a successful season, ending with a batting average of over fifty, and scoring his first century: 230 for the Zimbabweans against Oxford University. In fact, for six English seasons, from 1985 to 1990 inclusive, Hick averaged more than fifty in first-class cricket every year.
In 1987, Hick was named as one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Year. The following summer, he became the first man since Glenn Turner, and only the eighth in history, to hit a thousand runs before the end of May, with 410 of those runs coming in April alone, a record for that month until beaten by Ian Bell in 2005. 1988 also saw Hick make his highest first-class score - 405 not out against Somerset.
Since Zimbabwe did not have Test status in the 1980s, Hick decided to qualify by residency to play for England. Originally this would have meant him waiting ten years before becoming eligible, but this period was eventually reduced to seven years, not least because New Zealand were also aware of Hick's talents; in the 1988/89 winter he played for Northern Districts, and in a game against Auckland scored a first-class record 173 runs between tea and close of play.
Hick made his England debut in 1991, in a One-Day International series against West Indies. He scored 86 not out in his third match, which raised expectations for his Test debut against the same opposition at Headingley, but could make only six in each innings. This poor form continued in the following matches, to the extent that he was dropped from the team before the end of the summer, although quickly recalled for the tour of New Zealand that followed.
This pattern - picked, dropped, recalled, dropped again - was to become a feature of Hick's international career. His best period for England came in the years between 1993 and 1996, when he averaged in the mid-forties, and showed flashes of his expected brilliance - his 141 on tour against a full-strength South African side is seen by some as his finest Test innings. But even then he was never quite accepted as a fixture in the side, and many believed that he was mentally fragile when confronted with truly hostile fast bowling; New Zealand coach John Bracewell called him a "flat-track bully" who could dominate county attacks but was intimidated by the intensity of Test cricket.
Hick played the last of his 65 Tests in 2001, and ended with a modest batting average of just 31.32, the lowest of any batsman to have played so many matches. His record in One-Day Internationals is considerably better, and for Worcestershire he has maintained throughout his career a very high standard, being the only batsman currently playing to have scored over 100 first-class centuries.
Hick is a highly-regarded slip fielder, and has more first-class catches to his name than any other current outfielder. His off-spin bowling has also occasionally been decisive, although Hick himself has often seemed reluctant to make use of it.
Career milestones
- 7 October 1983: First-class debut: Zimbabwe XI v Young West Indian XI at Harare
- 8 September 1984: First first-class match in England: Worcestershire v Surrey at The Oval, London
- 10 June 1985: Maiden first-class century: 230 for Zimbabwe v Oxford University at The Parks, Oxford
- 4 September 1985: Maiden first-class century for Worcestershire: 174 not out v Somerset at New Road, Worcester
- 1987: Named one of the Wisden Five Cricketers of the Year
- 6 May 1988: Highest first-class score: 405 not out for Worcs v Somerset, Taunton.
- 28 May 1988: Reaches 1000 first-class runs for the season before the end of May by making 172 v West Indians, New Road.
- 24 July 1990: Fiftieth first-class century: 100 for Worcs v Glamorgan at Abergavenny, Wales
- 23 May 1991: One Day International debut: v West Indies at Edgbaston, Birmingham
- 6 June 1991: Test debut: v West Indies at Headingley, Leeds
- 20 February 1993: Maiden Test century: 178 v India at Bombay, India
- 31 May 1998: Hundredth first-class century: 134 for Worcs v Sussex at New Road.
- 1 May 2005: Passes Kim Barnett's record aggregate of 9,002 National League runs.