Parker George Image 1 South Africa 1924

Description

Cape Town, Cape Province born right-arm fast bowler George Parker is almost unique in that two of the three first class matches he ever played were Tests. He was qualified for South Africa only through having been born in Cape Town, and played almost all of his cricket in the Bradford League, where he played for Accrington. He was not originally in the 1924 team to tour England. However, with bowlers possessing a high reputation on matting, like Blanckenberg and Nupen, failing completely on English turf wickets, Parker was called in to reinforce the side for the match against Oxford University. Although play lasted only five hours due to rain, Parker took 4-34 and had four catches dropped on a pitch too soft to suit him and was promptly given a place in the First Test at Edgbaston in June.

In that match, which ended disastrously after Arthur Gilligan and Maurice Tate produced one of the finest bowling performances in Test history to bowl South Africa out for a mere 30 runs in their first innings, Parker was by far the best of the South African bowlers, taking six of the ten wickets that fell for 152 runs, including five on the opening day. “He bowled himself to a standstill,” said Wisden, “and became so exhausted that he had to leave the field”. In the second Test at Lord’s, which England won by the same margin of an innings and 18 runs, Parker was the only bowler to take a wicket, taking the two wickets that fell – Hobbs and Sutcliffe – for 121 runs in an innings declared for 531 runs.

However, Parker was not able to play in matches against Counties and, despite having taken two-thirds of the wickets that had fallen in the first two Tests, he was not given a further trial. He never played first class cricket again, and is still the only South African Test cricketer not to play first class cricket in his own country.

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