Player of the Month
Player of the MonthMay 1998: Graeme Hick
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Photograph © Paul McGregor 1998 http://www.cc-p.demon.co.uk May's Player of the Month wins his award upon the achievement of a career milestone, one for many years seemed inevitable, and one that was finally achieved in spectacular fashion - that of scoring one hundred first-class hundreds. A ruthless accumulator of runs in County Cricket since 1986, not least of all his 405 against Somerset back in 1988 at the age of twenty-one. As 1997 progressed it looked as he would be the youngest player to reach the 100 100's milestone, needing to do so by 16 May to beat Walter Hammond's record. His failure to win selection for the Test leg of England's tour of the West Indies earlier this year did not help. May commenced and he was on 96 first-class centuries. In his only innings of his first-class match of the month (v Oxford University, May 11-13) he scored 124. Innings of 33 and 58 against South Africa came in the following match. Number ninety-eight came with 166 against Middlesex on May 21. His next innings against Sussex on May 29 was worth 104 runs, and he followed that in the second innings concluding on May 31 with 132. The milestone, his hundred hundreds reached with three tons in a row. Just twenty-four players in the long history of the game have scored one hundred first-class hundreds. As cricket evolves ever more rapidly it is likely that the "first-class" game as we know it will either diminish in frequency or disappear altogether in the foreseeable future, making it quite possible that this will be the last time that we celebrate the achievement of this landmark. the googler's Player of the Month for May 1998 is Worcestershire's Graeme Ashley Hick.
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Highlights of Hick's May:
124 Worcs v Oxford Uni, May 11-13 166, Worcs v Middlesex, May 21-24 104 and 132, Worcs v Sussex, May 29 - June 1. Graeme Hick profile on CricInfo Christopher Martin-Jenkins on Hick, June 1 Related Player of the Month pages: Who missed out? The good, the bad and the ugly of May. |