WG Grace: the doctor who made cricket the people’s game

In 19th-century England, cricket had one face: a long, thick beard, a heavy frame and a bat in hand. This was W.G. Grace. According to ESPNcricinfo, his personality changed the way batting was played, took cricket to ordinary people and made it the biggest spectator sport of the English summer. Test cricket began late in his career, yet in 22 Tests he scored 1,098 runs, including 2 centuries¹. His real greatness lies in first-class cricket, where his career spanned 44 seasons².

Early life and start in cricket

William Gilbert Grace was born on 18 July 1848 at Downend, near Bristol, England. He was known as “WG” and “the Doctor”. His family was devoted to cricket: his brothers EM Grace and GF Grace were also cricketers, and several cousins, sons and nephews were also involved in the game².

In England, domestic cricket is played between “county” teams, that is, teams representing different regions. Grace played mostly for Gloucestershire. He also represented the Gentlemen, the MCC and London County. His first-class career ran from 1865 to 1908².

Alongside cricket, he also studied medicine. According to ESPNcricinfo, cricket repeatedly interrupted his studies, and he eventually qualified as a doctor at Westminster Hospital in London².

Remarkable feats in first-class cricket

Very few Tests were played in Grace’s time, so his main record is in first-class cricket. According to an article by Geoffrey Moorhouse published in Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack in 1988, he scored more than 54,000 first-class runs in 44 seasons; the writer notes that there are at least two different calculations of the exact figure. According to the same article, in 1876 he scored 839 runs in just eight days, including two triple centuries. In 1895, when he was nearing the age of 47, he completed 1,000 runs in the single month of May. He also took more than 2,800 wickets at an average of under 18 runs per wicket².

The same article records an interesting episode from his youth. At the age of 18, he scored 224 not out for England against Surrey, and in the middle of the match went to Crystal Palace and won a quarter-mile hurdles race. According to the writer, his batting was all the more astonishing given the uneven pitches of that era².

One of his records stood for several decades: 126 centuries in first-class cricket. Jack Hobbs broke it in 1925. Interestingly, Grace was the opposing captain in Hobbs’s first first-class match in 1905, and on seeing the young Hobbs he said the boy would make a good player⁴.

Test cricket

All of Grace’s 22 Tests were against Australia. His Test career began at The Oval in London on 6 September 1880, when he was 32. In his first Test innings, he opened the batting, batted for 251 minutes and scored 152 with 12 fours. In the second innings he was 9 not out. In the same match he also took one wicket in the first innings and two in the second¹.

His highest Test score came at The Oval on 12 August 1886, when he made 170 in 270 minutes with 24 fours. From 1888 he also captained England, leading the side in 13 Tests. At Lord’s in July 1890, he scored 75 not out in the fourth innings¹.

In 1891-92 he toured Australia and played three Tests there. His notable innings included 50 at Melbourne and 58 at Adelaide. Later he scored 68 at The Oval in 1893 and 66 at Lord’s in 1896. In the Tests that England won, his batting average was 43.35¹.

His last Test began at Nottingham on 1 June 1899, in which he scored 28 and 1¹. According to the Wisden article, he was still opening for England at the age of 50².

Statistics

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

Influence and legacy

Grace’s importance goes beyond his figures. According to the Wisden article, his extraordinary batting lifted cricket from being one of many 19th-century sports to the biggest spectator sport of summer, first in England and then in many countries of the world. The writer also says Grace may be the only person whom even those with no interest in sport recognise from just the two letters of his name, “WG”².

The ESPNcricinfo article on Bradman also says that in the early period of the game, only Grace had a standing somewhat close to Bradman’s⁵.

He died at Mottingham, in Kent, on 23 October 1915². In 2009 the ICC inducted him into the Cricket Hall of Fame³. Among those who laid the foundations of modern cricket, the name of WG Grace is the first to be mentioned.