Wally Hammond: England’s greatest batsman of the Bradman era

In the 1930s, while Australia’s Don Bradman was piling up mountains of runs, England had only one batsman to answer him: Wally Hammond. He scored 7,249 runs and 22 centuries in 85 Test matches at an average of 58.45¹. According to ESPNcricinfo, he was England’s greatest batsman after Jack Hobbs, and his bowling and slip fielding made him invaluable to the side².

Early life and start in cricket

Walter Reginald Hammond was born on 19 June 1903 in Buckland, in the Dover area of the English county of Kent. Domestic cricket in England is played between “county” teams, that is, sides representing different regions. Hammond spent five years at Cirencester Grammar School in Gloucestershire and first played for Gloucestershire in 1920. According to Wisden, Lord Harris was unhappy that Hammond did not play for his native Kent and challenged his eligibility for Gloucestershire. As a result, he could not play county cricket in practice until 1923. He missed the whole of the 1926 season because of an illness contracted in the West Indies, but began the next season by scoring a thousand runs in May².

He batted right-handed and bowled right-arm medium-fast². His Test career began against South Africa in Johannesburg on 24 December 1927. In that first match he scored 51 and, in the second innings, took 5 wickets for 36 runs¹³.

1928-29: 905 runs in Australia

The Test series between England and Australia is known as the Ashes. When England toured Australia in 1928-29 under Percy Chapman, the 25-year-old Hammond had already worked out how he would score his runs. According to Wisden, he gave up the hook shot completely and the cut shot for the most part. He decided to play every ball except the loose ones between extra cover and mid-wicket².

The result was historic. He made 251 in Sydney, 200 in Melbourne, and 119 not out and 177 in the same Test in Adelaide¹. According to Wisden, he scored 905 runs in the series at an average of 113.12. It was a new record for runs in a series, and only Bradman later surpassed it².

336 in New Zealand and the captaincy

On the 1933 tour of New Zealand after Australia, Hammond scored 227 in Christchurch. On 31 March 1933 in Auckland he then made 336 not out in just 318 minutes, with 34 fours and 10 sixes. According to the ICC, it remained the highest individual score in Test cricket for five years³. The record was broken in 1938 by Len Hutton, who scored 364 playing under Hammond’s captaincy⁴. In three Tests in New Zealand, his average was 321¹.

Of interest to readers in the subcontinent, in the home series against India in 1936 he scored 167 in Manchester and 217 at The Oval. His 231 not out against Australia in Sydney later the same year is also a memorable innings¹.

In 1938 he became an amateur (non-professional) player and was appointed England captain². As captain, he scored 240 against Australia at Lord’s on 24 June 1938, with 32 fours. On the 1938-39 tour of South Africa he made 181 in Cape Town, and 120 and 140 in Durban. In all, he led England in 20 Test matches¹.

The Second World War took the seasons from 1940 to 1945 out of his career. After the war, in 1946, at the age of 43, he topped the first-class averages with 1,783 runs at 84.90. The 1946-47 tour of Australia proved difficult for him as captain. According to Wisden, he suffered from arthritis, failed to score runs in the Tests and England were heavily beaten². His last Test began in Christchurch on 21 March 1947, and he scored 79 in it¹.

Statistics

Source: ESPNcricinfo Statsguru¹; figures are for his international career.

Influence and legacy

According to Wisden, cricket history has regarded four batsmen as the greatest: W G Grace, Jack Hobbs, Wally Hammond and Don Bradman. Of the four, Hammond was physically the strongest and most powerful. His cover drive is especially remembered. As a bowler he was a fine medium-fast bowler. Wisden’s essay records Bradman’s remark that Hammond was so busy scoring runs that he did not worry about bowling. According to Wisden, he had no equal at slip².

In first-class cricket he scored 50,493 runs, with 167 centuries, 732 wickets and 820 catches. He died on 1 July 1965 in Kloof, a town in Natal, South Africa². In 2009 the ICC inducted him into the Cricket Hall of Fame³. Though he played in Bradman’s shadow, Wally Hammond made a separate and lofty place for himself.