The Era Chain

[SJS]

While I was looking at the career lengths for these Era Chains, I came across some very interesting statistics. Some of them were about the overlapping careers of several great players in the same era. Four such were Hobbs, Woolley, Hendren and Phil Mead. During a quarter of a century between the English seasons of 1911 and 1936 (both inclusive) they

• Scored over two hundred thousand runs !
• Hit up 612 centuries !
• Plus 935 fifties (notice the conversion rate !
• All at a combined average of 51 !
• AND they pouched 23023 catches as well !

[B]Batsman	Runs	100's	50's	Avg.	Catches[/B]
Hobbs	48395	169	203	56.1	245
Woolley	49817	132	248	44.0	830
Hendren	54196	165	260	53.9	704
Mead	48823	146	224	51.4	544
					
Overall	201231	612	935	50.9	2323

Amazing.

And for those who think Woolley brings down their average,just have a look at those catches (he took 1012 in all). He also took a small matter of 2066 wickets at 19.87 and 132 five wicket hauls besides 28 ten-fors. !!

Its mind boggling and these are not their entire career figures, just the figures for those 26 years when all four careers overlapped

Their overall tally is higher by 32000 runs, 55 centuries, 166 fifties and 471 catches !!

• These four, whose careers so closely overlapped are the four highest run getters in the history of the game occupying the top four spots in the list.
• They also occupy the 1st (Hobbs), 2nd (Hendren), 4th (Mead) and 7th (Woolley) spots in all time greatest centurions.
• Woolley has most catches by a non-wicket keeper in the history of the game. Hendren is at number eight.
• Woolley is also amongst the top 30 highest wicket takers of all time.

 

[SJS]

I think you mean 16 years, SJS.

I have great respect for your opinion and do appreciate the time and effort you've put into this. so please dont think I am nit picking you. just that the future readers would appreciate these posts even better with the little bugs fixed.

otherwise, just simply awesome posts. love the wealth of stat info hidden in them.

Actually it IS 26 years. There is a typographical error - the period is 1911-1936 (and not 1926).

Thanks for pointing anyway.

 

[SJS]

With just 16 years (less 6 years taken away by WW I) it would have been too much even for these greats to score 200000 runs plus in ten years

 

[SJS]

One would think that all those who played first class cricket for close to a quarter century would be absolutely at the top of their game but a very large number of these champions of the first class game never get to play for their country. Here is a strange Era Chain made up of just five cricketers shows how futile the struggle to reach the very top can be,

1. Frank Tarrant (1898-1936-37) :
Nearly 18000 FC runs at 36.4 with 33 centuries PLUS over 1500 wickets at 17.5 each !
2. Arthur Jepson (1938-1959) :
1051 wicktes at 29 each
3. Tony Brown (1953-1976) :
Nearly 13000 runs and 1230 wickets at 25.6 each.
4. Clive Rice (1969/70-1993/94) :
One of the greatest all rounders produced by South Africa. Unable to play Test cricket due to the Boycott of South African Cricket in the 70's and 80's. Over 26000 runs at 40 + and 930 wickets at 22.5 each !
5. Glen Chapple (1992-2009) :
Six first class centuries and 705 wickets at 27.6 each.​

 

[SJS]

A purely Aussie Chain

1. George Giffen (1877-1903)
2. Frank Tarrant (1898-1936)
3. Ian Johnson (1935/36 - 1956/57)
4. Bob Simpson (1952-53 - 1977/78)
5. David Hookes (1975/76 - 1991/92)
6. Justin Langr (1991/92 - 2009)

 

[bagapath]

SSJ! what would be the shortest chain for indian test cricketers? without thinking too much, i am assuming it would be something like...

ck nayudu
lala amarnath
vijay hazare
polly umrigar
prasanna
kapil dev
sachin tendulkar

 

[SJS]

SSJ! what would be the shortest chain for indian test cricketers? without thinking too much, i am assuming it would be something like...

ck nayudu
lala amarnath
vijay hazare
polly umrigar
prasanna
kapil dev
sachin tendulkar

Well depends on where you want to start. You can start with the beginning of the 20th century and you have

1. HD Kanga (August 1899 to Nov 1921)
2. CK Nayudu (Sept 1916 to Nov 1963) He played in Kanga's last FC match.
3. Ashok Mankad (Oct 1963 to March 1983) He played in Nayudu's last or second last match.
4. Chandrakant Pandit (Feb 1980 to March 2001) He played in Mankad's last match.
5. Naman Ojha (March 2001 till date) He played in Pandit's last match.

But this does not cover the entire FC period in India whch started with a match between the Europeans and Parsees on 26th August 1892. If you want to start with that you have to start with ME Pavri (August 1892 to September 1912). Unfortunately it still leaves us short of Nayudu so you have to add another link, maybe Professor D B Deodhar (1911-12 to 1947-48)

I cant make it shorter than that.