Barry Knight (cricketer)

Last updated

Barry Knight
Personal information
Full name
Barry Rolfe Knight
Born (1938-02-18) 18 February 1938 (age 86)
Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast-medium
International information
National side
Test debut1 December 1961 v  India
Last Test7 August 1969 v  New Zealand
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches29379
Runs scored81213,336
Batting average 26.1925.69
100s/50s2/012/66
Top score127165
Balls bowled5,37757,813
Wickets 701089
Bowling average 31.7524.06
5 wickets in innings 045
10 wickets in match08
Best bowling4/388/69
Catches/stumpings 14/–263/–
Source: CricInfo, 7 November 2022

Barry Rolfe Knight (born 18 February 1938) [1] is a former English cricketer, who played in twenty nine Tests for England from 1961 to 1969.

Cricket correspondent Colin Bateman remarked, "a flamboyant cricketer... [Knight] was an elegant middle-order batsman and a bowler with a sharp turn of speed who never appeared to run out of energy". [1]

Life and career

Born 18 February 1938, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Knight was a fast bowling all-rounder, doing the cricketer's double (1,000 runs and 100 wickets in a season) four times, including the fastest in modern times, (two and a half months). He won the World Single Wicket Title at Lord's in 1964.

Knight made his county cricket debut with Essex in May 1955, leaving them at the end of the 1966 season for financial reasons to join Leicestershire. [1] He emigrated to Australia at the end of the 1969 season, ending his career whilst still an England cricketer. He took 100 wickets in four seasons, and scored a thousand runs five times. He accomplished the double in each season from 1962 to 1965. [1] In 1959, he missed the honour by a mere five runs. He made his highest first-class score, 165, against Middlesex at Brentwood in 1962.

His longest run at Test match level was the first six Tests he played in India and Pakistan in 1961–62. He was recalled nine times in a stop-start type of international career, but toured Australia twice in the 1962–63 and 1965-66 Ashes series, where he was a support bowler and lower order batsman. [1] His 240 run, sixth wicket partnership, with Peter Parfitt against New Zealand in 1963, stood for almost forty years, until Graham Thorpe and Andrew Flintoff put the same opposition to the sword, with their partnership of 281 in Christchurch in March 2002. [1] [2]

He was the first professional coach in Australia, starting in 1970 at an indoor facility in Sydney called Knights Inn and also was a very early user of video to record students batting and bowling. [1] He was also the first coach to use video analysis, which led to his coaching over the past forty years of over twenty Test players, including Allan Border, Steve and Mark Waugh, Brett and Shane Lee, Adam Gilchrist, John Dyson, Andrew Hilditch and many New South Wales players and is coaching some upcoming players. He has coached over 20,000 young cricketers since 1970, and is still involved in school holiday programmes, and with Mosman Cricket Club in Sydney. He holds an ACB level 3 coaching certificate, and also a Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) coaching certificate.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courtney Walsh</span> Jamaican cricketer

Courtney Andrew Walsh OJ is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is a fast bowler and considered one of the all-time greats, best known for a remarkable opening bowling partnership along with fellow West Indian Curtly Ambrose for several years. Walsh played 132 Tests and 205 ODIs for the West Indies and took 519 and 227 wickets respectively. He shared 421 Test wickets with Ambrose in 49 matches. He held the record of most Test wickets from 2000, after he broke the record of Kapil Dev. This record was later broken in 2004 by Shane Warne. He was the first bowler to reach 500 wickets in Test cricket. His autobiography is entitled "Heart of the Lion". Walsh was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1987. In October 2010, he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was appointed as the Specialist Bowling Coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team in August 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hedley Verity</span> English cricketer

Hedley Verity was a professional cricketer who played for Yorkshire and England between 1930 and 1939. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler, he took 1,956 wickets in first-class cricket at an average of 14.90 and 144 wickets in 40 Tests at an average of 24.37.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Shackleton</span> English cricketer (1924–2007)

Derek Shackleton was a Hampshire and England bowler. He took over 100 wickets in 20 consecutive seasons of first-class cricket, but only played in seven Tests for England. As of 2007, he has the seventh-highest tally of first-class wickets, and the most first-class wickets of any player who began his career after World War II. He holds the record for the most first-class wickets taken by any Hampshire player.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wilfred Rhodes</span> English cricketer (1877–1973)

Wilfred Rhodes was an English professional cricketer who played 58 Test matches for England between 1899 and 1930. In Tests, Rhodes took 127 wickets and scored 2,325 runs, becoming the first Englishman to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in Test matches. He holds the world records both for the most appearances made in first-class cricket, and for the most wickets taken (4,204). He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season a record 16 times. Rhodes played for Yorkshire and England into his fifties, and in his final Test in 1930 was, at 52 years and 165 days, the oldest player who has appeared in a Test match.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Trumble</span> Australian cricketer (1867–1938)

Hugh Trumble was an Australian cricketer who played 32 Test matches as a bowling all-rounder between 1890 and 1904. He captained the Australian team in two Tests, winning both. Trumble took 141 wickets in Test cricket—a world record at the time of his retirement—at an average of 21.78 runs per wicket. He is one of only four bowlers to twice take a hat-trick in Test cricket. Observers in Trumble's day, including the authoritative Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, regarded him as ranking among the great Australian bowlers of the Golden Age of cricket. He was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1897 and the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, established in 1996, inducted him in 2004.

Kenneth Higgs was an English fast-medium bowler, who was most successful as the opening partner to Brian Statham with Lancashire in the 1960s. He later played with success for Leicestershire.

Sir Wesley Winfield Hall is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bowl long spells. Hall played 48 Test matches for the West Indies from 1958 to 1969. Hall's opening bowling partnership with fellow Barbadian Charlie Griffith was a feature of the strong West Indies teams throughout the 1960s. Hall was one of the most popular cricketers of his day and was especially popular in Australia, where he played two seasons in the Sheffield Shield with Queensland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Hirst</span> English cricketer

George Herbert Hirst was a professional English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1891 and 1921, with a further appearance in 1929. One of the best all-rounders of his time, Hirst was a left arm medium-fast bowler and right-handed batsman. He played in 24 Test matches for England between 1897 and 1909, touring Australia twice. He completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in an English cricket season 14 times, the second most of any cricketer after his contemporary and team-mate Wilfred Rhodes. One of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1901, Hirst scored 36,356 runs and took 2,742 wickets in first-class cricket. In Tests, he made 790 runs and captured 59 wickets.

Victor James Marks is an English sports journalist and former professional cricketer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin McCool</span> Australian cricketer (1916–1986)

Colin Leslie McCool was an Australian cricketer who played in 14 Test matches between 1946 and 1950. McCool, born in Paddington, New South Wales, was an all-rounder who bowled leg spin and googlies with a round arm action and as a lower order batsman was regarded as effective square of the wicket and against spin bowling. He made his Test début against New Zealand in 1946, taking a wicket with his second delivery. He was part of Donald Bradman's Invincibles team that toured England in 1948 but injury saw him miss selection in any of the Test matches.

Alan Raymond Butcher is a former English cricketer who is part of a family known for its strong cricketing connections. Although only selected to play for England on one occasion, he was lauded for his skills in first-class cricket and was named a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1991. He became Essex coach in 1993, and coached Surrey between 2005 and 2008. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman noted Butcher was, "a popular and accomplished left-handed opener, unlucky to be consigned to membership of the 'One Cap Club'... despite consistent county performances and an ability to tackle quick bowlers, Butcher was passed over".

Herbert Leslie Jackson was an English professional cricketer. A fast or fast-medium bowler renowned for his accurate bowling and particular hostility on uncovered wickets, he played county cricket for Derbyshire from 1947 to 1963, and was regularly at, or near the top of, the English bowling averages. He played in only two Test matches for England, one in 1949 and a second in 1961. Jackson's absence from Test cricket was largely because his batting was so underdeveloped: his highest first-class score was 39 not out, and he reached 30 on only two other occasions. Between July 1949 and August 1950, Jackson indeed played fifty-one innings without reaching double figures, a number known to be exceeded only by Jem Shaw, Nobby Clark, Eric Hollies (twice), Brian Boshier and Mark Robinson. His leading competitors like Trueman, Tyson, and even teammate Gladwin were far better batsmen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Leyland</span> English cricketer (1900–1967)

Maurice Leyland was an English international cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938. In first-class cricket, he represented Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1920 and 1946, scoring over 1,000 runs in 17 consecutive seasons. A left-handed middle-order batsman and occasional left-arm spinner, Leyland was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1929.

James Langridge was an English cricketer who played for Sussex and England. He played in eight Test matches between 1933 and 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Old</span> English cricketer

Chris Old is a former English cricketer, who played 46 Tests and 32 ODIs from 1972 to 1981. A right-arm fast-medium bowler and lower order left-handed batsman, Old was a key feature of the Yorkshire side between 1969 and 1983, before finishing his career at Warwickshire in 1985. As a Test bowler for England he took 143 wickets, and scored useful runs in the famous 1981 Ashes series' Headingley victory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Ring</span> Australian cricketer (1918–2003)

Douglas Thomas Ring was an Australian cricketer who played for Victoria and for Australia in 13 Test matches between 1948 and 1953. In 129 first-class cricket matches, he took 426 wickets bowling leg spin, and he had a top score of 145 runs, which was the only century of his career.

Donald Victor Smith was an English cricketer, who played in three Tests for England in 1957. He was born in Broadwater, Sussex, England. The cricket writer, Colin Bateman, commented that "Sri Lanka's historic first victory over England early in 1993 will have given at least one English Test player a certain amount of satisfaction. Don Smith, a steady left-handed opener capable of some useful seam bowling, became Sri Lanka's national coach in the late 1980s".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Len Coldwell</span> English cricketer

Leonard John Coldwell was an English cricketer, who played in seven Tests for England from 1962 to 1964. Coldwell was a right-arm fast-medium bowler who was, for a few years in the early to mid-1960s, half of a respected and feared new-ball partnership in English county cricket. With his bowling partner Jack Flavell, Coldwell was the attacking force behind the unprecedented success of Worcestershire which brought the county its first successes in the County Championship in 1964 and 1965.

Thomas William Cartwright was an English cricketer. Playing largely for Somerset and Warwickshire, he took over 1,600 wickets as a medium-pace bowler, though he began his career as a top-order batsman, and was capable enough with the bat to score seven hundreds including a double-century. He played in five Tests for England in 1964 and 1965. His withdrawal from the 1968–69 tour to South Africa led to his replacement in the touring team by Basil D'Oliveira, whose inclusion precipitated the sporting isolation of South Africa until apartheid was abolished.

M.J.K. Smith captained the English cricket team in Australia in 1965–66, playing as England in the 1965-66 Ashes series against the Australians and as the MCC in their other matches on the tour. The 5-Tests series ended in 1–1 draw. Although they failed to reclaim the Ashes this was not unexpected as the Australian press labelled them the weakest MCC team to arrive in Australia and the bookmakers were giving odds of 7/2 on their winning the series. These views rapidly changed as they set about winning their state matches with exciting, aggressive cricket and by the First Test the odds against them had been reduced to evens. Lindsay Hassett said "other teams from England may have been better technically but none had tried so hard to make the game as interesting as possible". Financially the tour's receipts were much lower than in 1962–63 due to the number of rain-affected games in a wet Australian summer and the general doldrums of the sixties.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bateman, Colin (1993). If The Cap Fits. Tony Williams Publications. p. 101. ISBN   1-869833-21-X.
  2. "Highest partnerships by wicket". Cricinfo.com. Retrieved 25 April 2011.