Wisden overview
Five handsome hundreds in six innings in 1976-77 turned blond left-hander David Hookes from a promising Sheffield Shield cricketer into Australian cricket's great white hope, a billing to which he never quite lived up. After he famously struck Tony Greig for five consecutive fours during his debut in the Melbourne Centenary Test, he was a star attraction of the World Series Cricket circuit, but lost his way thereafter thanks to injury and rather rudimentary footwork. His only Test century came during Australia's inaugural Test against Sri Lanka at Kandy in 1982-83. At Sheffield Shield level, however, he treated Adelaide Oval as his personal exhibition centre, its short square boundaries scarcely a challenge to a batsman of his power: his record-breaking hundred there in November 1982 against Victoria ended in the time it takes most batsmen to play themselves in. He later became an outspoken TV commentator. Gideon Haigh

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