65: WG Grace

1,098 runs @ 32.29. 2 hundreds. 9 wickets @ 26.22. Strike rate 74.0.

The discussion

Audience:        What?

The greatest cricketing icon of all-time at 65th on your list?

(cue trigger)

I mean . . . like . . . he is only one of THE most recognisable cricketers EVER.

Right?

I mean . . . come on . . . what are you on about?

(likely tilting at this point)

Me:                   Bear with me here, because there are two sides to this story, and an exception that proves every rule.

Without being able to revert to the eye test (I may be old according to my son, but I have never seen WG Grace play), we’re going to rely on two things to evaluate Grace’s position in the Hall of Fame:

1. His statistical record

2. The legacy that his career left on the world of cricket

In terms of his Test career, ‘The Doctor’ averaged 32.29 over 36 matches, which on the face of it does not appear impressive. Let’s see how that compares to other batters of the pre-war era.

The chart above shows batting averages (vertical axis) against the last year of their Test career (horizontal axis) for players who scored 1,000 or more runs in the pre-war era. As you can see, averages trend up considerably towards the end of that period. The other thing worth noting is that several cricketers who retired within 10 years of WG Grace had better averages: The Hon. FS Jackson, Victor Trumper and Clem Hill are three notable names. Grace’s average ranks 33rd among that group. But given the fact that he debuted at age 32 and retired from international cricket 19 years later at the tender age of 51, you have to wonder what the career numbers would look like if he had played international cricket in his twenties. When you consider that batting averages of the best cricketers increased between World Wars, we make significant allowances for that change in average when comparing Grace’s record to other, more modern cricketers. Remember, powered lawn mowers were not invented until 1893. Groundskeeping technology has come a long way since Grace’s playing days.

Advocates for the greatness of WG Grace point to his first-class record, and what a record it is. Given that Grace played the majority of his career before the advent of Test cricket, I am going to make an exception to the ‘don’t talk about the player’s first-class record’ rule when evaluating a Test career.

He played 44 first-class seasons, and scored over 100 centuries among 54,000+ runs. Throw in 2,800 wickets at an average under 20 and you have an incredible record over the course of 870 matches. We do need to consider the strength of the opposition in an era when first-class status seems debateable in some cases. Several accounts describe matches between ‘county’ sides, where the level of talent was dubious. Other matches, players versus gentlemen in particular, were described as being of a very high standard. Indeed, some sides were self-organised, and matches might have been played as commercial ventures (or as an opportunity to gamble on the outcome, which happened more often than you’d think), others as invitations to play against peers and high-class members of society in the middle of the Victorian era. Even if some opposition wasn’t of the highest quality, Grace did dominate even the professional sides of that time, and the written record has plenty of evidence of him dominating even the better bowling attacks at first-class level.

Even before reading about his exploits in Grace in Wisden, I was prepared to concede that Grace’s record was pretty good. I just didn’t know how good he was compared to other players of that era. The Grace family (he often played with one or more of his brothers) regularly dominated with both bat and ball. In my reading it was common for Wisden to describe a game featuring Grace as one in which he scored the majority of his team’s runs, and for the Grace family to take the lion’s share of the wickets as well. His 100+ first-class centuries stand out across all eras, even if we can’t be sure whether the opposition was always of a truly first-class standard.

With the passing of time, it becomes harder and harder to say definitively how Grace might have fared even 20 or 30 years later. I will say this — his test record is good in my view considering his peers, but it’s not the best of his era. His first-class record is great, and I was surprised how good his bowling record was at first-class level. But this is the Test cricket Hall of Fame. If it were the first-class cricket Hall of Fame, we might be having a very different conversation, or at least we might be having that conversation much higher on this list. As mentioned earlier, his Test statistics are not as impressive. Grace would qualify for the Hall of Fame conversation (just) based on his Test average when placed into the context of his era, but they certainly don’t warrant a place in tier two.

But now we need to look at the narrative: what legacy has WG Grace left behind? I will not delve too deeply into Grace’s conduct on the field. Let us just say that his attitude towards the rules and regulation of the game was ‘more professional’ in its outlook than other players who regarded the game as ’gentlemanly’. In Grace in Wisden, his on-field conduct was described as featuring ‘gamesmanship’ and ‘sharp practice’.[1] At any rate, the paying customers (who paid quite the premium) came to see WG Grace play, not anyone else. Which is something he famously was not shy about announcing to the world (or at least the opposition!).

WG Grace was a member of the MCC and was officially an amateur cricketer. Despite the designation of his amateur status, Grace made a lot of money playing cricket. Ostensibly, to maintain amateur status a player could not make a profit from playing cricket. Grace was paid expenses for travel and accommodation, but his appearance fees dwarfed those of his contemporaries.[2] There was, at one point, an inquiry into the claiming of expenses, in which Grace was cleared of any wrongdoing. His two testimonial matches netted him a healthy sum as well (according to Wikipedia, over 1.25 million pounds in equivalent 2019 value) Moreover, gate takings were higher when Grace played, to reflect the massive financial windfall drawcard that came along with the Grace name.  It is said that he was one of the most famous people in the UK at that time, which greatly increased the profile of cricket as a sport.

WG Grace was very handsomely paid to play cricket 75 years or more before Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket brought television money to the game and changed how players could make a living.

The verdict

First-class record or Test record? What effect did the opposition and pitches have on that record? The numbers or the legacy? These are some of the great conundrums I set out to provide a definitive answer to in compiling this Hall of Fame. In looking at WG Grace’s career I come away not with a definitive answer but a feeling that, on balance, the legacy of his greatness and his reputation as the Godfather of cricket outshine the numbers, at least at Test level. It is hard to look past 54,211 first-class runs: the 5th highest total of all time — the temptation to move Grace significantly up the list based on his first-class record is strong, given the nature of the wickets and the dominance that Grace had over his contemporaries. I think it’s unlikely that a modern player will approach those heady numbers of first-class matches played and runs scored — ironically because there is not enough cricket played these days to amass 870 first-class matches in a career, and not many careers last 44 years!

Do those first-class stats really matter? Maybe there are others who feel his overall contribution to the game should have landed him a higher spot in the Hall. Either way, I’ve no doubt that the contribution of William Gilbert Grace transcends his record. Some legacies are greater than the sum of their raw statistics. The fact is, people came to see Grace play. He was a massive drawcard as much for his larger-than-life persona as his incredible on-field exploits. Wherever he went, fans flocked to watch. He became a legend across the first-class and Test scenes and was instrumental in enhancing the popularity and profile of cricket in the minds of the British public in the formative years of the game. Every sport needs a godfather figure — and cricket has WG Grace. I can’t think of a more appropriate character.

In one word

Godfather

Notes

[1] Some accounts even went as far as calling Grace a cheat. Putting the bails back on the stumps, and declaring that you will bat on because you are who the paying spectators came to see isn’t exactly cheating if the umpire allows it, but I think it might be fair to say he ran roughshod over some of the officials.

[2] Wikipedia cites an example of a match involving nine professionals plus WG Grace and his brother Fred. The team was paid a total of 90 GBP for their appearance as part of the United South of England Eleven. The nine ‘professionals’ were said to have pocketed 45 GBP (5 GBP each), while the brothers received the other 45 GBP. It is uncertain whether there was extenuating circumstances for this split.

Bio

Record

Source: ESPN CricInfo