Cricket Players Biography: December 2011

Friday 23 December 2011

Herschelle Gibbs

Herschelle Gibbs Biography

Herschelle Gibbs is a professional South African cricketer, born on February 23, 1974 in Green Point, Cape Town, Cape Province. Graduating from St. Joseph’s Marist College, he moved on to the Diocesan College in Rondebosch to complete his degree. Nicknamed “Scooter”, he is primarily a top-order right-handed batsman, who also bowls right-arm leg-spin. Being a brilliant fielder with his sharp reflexes, he took 94 catches in Tests and 100 catches in ODIs as of the year 2008, earning him a position next to Jonty Rhodes, an outstanding South African fielder. On June 8, 2007, he got married to Tennielle Povey in St. Kitts.

Herschelle Gibbs made his Test debut against India at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on November 27, 1996, and helped his team win the Test by 329 runs. He has two double-centuries to his credit from his Test career, the first one was 211* runs against New Zealand at Jade Stadium in 1999, in which he with Graeme Smith, a team-mate, set a national record partnership of 368 runs. In 2003, at Cape Town, he scored his second double-century and made 228 runs against Pakistan. Herschelle Gibbs also made 300 runs opening partnership with his captain, and became the first pair in Test history to break 300 runs on three occasions. He also holds the South African second wicket record partnership of 315* with Jacques Kallis. On January 10, 2008, in a Test match against the West Indies at Kingsmead, Durban, his team won the Test by an innings and 100 runs. As of October 2008, Herschelle Gibbs has played 90 Tests and has scored 6,167 runs, including 14 centuries and 26 half-centuries, with an average of 41.95.

Herschelle Gibbs debuted in One Day International (ODI) against Kenya at Gymkhana Club Ground, Nairobi, on October 3, 1996, in which South Africa won the match by 202 runs. Herschelle Gibbs became the third batsmen in ODI history to score centuries in three consecutive innings. On October 6, 2002, playing against Bangladesh, Herschelle Gibbs made an unbeaten 97 and missed the chance to become the only batsman to score centuries in a row, as his team won the match and he fell just three runs short to complete his century. On March 12, 2006, Herschelle Gibbs played a monumental innings in the fifth ODI against Australia, scoring 175 runs off just 111 balls, in which he scored 126 runs in boundaries. In the match against Netherlands in the group stages at the 2007 World Cup, Herschelle Gibbs has hit six sixes in an over off the bowling of Daan van Bunge and became the first player in ODI history to do so. His penchant for hitting sixes continued throughout the tournament and he drew level with Ricky Ponting, a famous Australian cricketer, at 28 for most sixes in the World Cup History. So far Herschelle Gibbs has played 232 ODIs and made 7,589 runs, including 20 centuries and 35 half-centuries, at an average of 36.31.

On October 21, 2005, Herschelle Gibbs played his first Twenty20 International (T20I) against New Zealand at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. As of 2008, he has played nine T20Is and has scored 182 runs, including 2 half-centuries, at an average of 22.75, in which 90* was his highest score, against West Indies, with a massive strike rate of 135.82. He also played T20I against West Indies at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, on January 18, 2008, where his team won the match by 4 wickets.

Herschelle Gibbs made his debut in First-class cricket during the 1990-91 season. He has played 186 First-class matches and has scored 13,102 runs, including 31 centuries and 58 half-centuries, at an average of 42.53. He also played this level of match against the West Indies at Kingsmead, Durban, on January 10, 2008, in which his team won the game by an innings and 100 runs. Herschelle Gibbs made his first appearance in List A match during the 1990-91 season, and has played 351 matches of this level and scored 10,724 runs, including 24 centuries and 57 half-centuries, at an average of 34.81, and his highest score at this level is 175.

Herschelle Gibbs made his debut in Twenty20 (T20) for Western Province Boland against Dolphins at Newlands, Cape Town, on April 7, 2004, in which South Africa won the match by six wickets. He has played thirty-five T20s and has scored 747 runs, including five half-centuries, at an average of 24.09, and his highest score at this level is 98. He has also played for Glamorgan against Worcestershire, in which his team won the match by six wickets.

For his impressive performance, Herschelle Gibbs was signed for $575,000 by Deccan Chargers to play in Indian Premier League (IPL) for the 2008 inaugural season. He has played nine IPL matches and has scored 167 runs, with an impressive strike rate of 109.15.

As of the year 2008, Herschelle Gibbs is awarded the first position in the International Cricket Council (ICC) World ODI Team of the Year.

Herschelle Gibbs

Herschelle Gibbs six 6's In One Over

Herschelle Gibbs 175

Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle Biography

Chris Gayle, a West Indian cricketer, was born on September 21, 1979, in Kingston, Jamaica. He is fondly called “Cramps” or “Mr. Cool” and is an all-rounder, who bats left-handed and bowls right-arm off break.

Chris Gayle played his first international Test match on March 16, 2000 against Zimbabwe, and in July 2001, he set up a 214-run partnership with Daren Ganga, a teammate, which became the record for opening partnerships at Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo. By the end of 2002, he scored three centuries against India and also became the fourth West Indian to score 1000 runs in a calendar year. In January 2004, Chris Gayle hit a century off 79 balls when chasing a first-inning South African score of 532, following which he again scored a century against Bangladesh.

In 2005, Chris Gayle was included in the Test series against South Africa, during which he played in the fourth match in Antigua and made 317 runs, which is his career best. It was also the first triple century against South Africa. During the 2005-06 tour of New Zealand, Chris Gayle opened the batting in the three-Test series and scored 235 runs, becoming the first West Indian to cross the 200-run mark.

Chris Gayle made his One Day International (ODI) debut on September 11, 1999 against India and was included in the West Indian squad for the 2003 World Cup. At the 2006 Champions Trophy, he was a part of the team that played at the finals against Australia and went on amass 474 runs in that tournament, which were 150 runs more than any other player. Chris Gayle also scalped eight wickets and in recognition of his impressive performances he was named as the Player of the Tournament. He featured at the 2007 World Cup and scored a remarkable 79 runs off 58 balls in a match against England. Chris Gayle joined the list of ace players like Vivian Richards, Sanath Jayasuriya and Brian Lara, who have three or more scores above 150.

Chris Gayle captained the West Indies at the ODI series in England and Ireland, and led the team to a 2-1 win against England. He also led the team in the Test series against South Africa, which finished in a 1-1 draw. In August 2008, he made his 16th ODI century, 110 runs off 77 balls, in the final match against Canada, and led his team to a seven-wicket win at the Tri-series hosted by Canada.

Chris Gayle played his first Twenty20 international (T20I) on February 16, 2006 against New Zealand and in 2007, he scored 117 runs off just 57 balls, in the opening match against South Africa at the International Cricket Council (ICC) World T20 Championship. He is the only batsman to have hit a century in the Twenty20 international and also holds the record of the highest innings in a T20I. As of 2008, Chris Gayle is the only cricketer to have hit centuries in all three formats of international cricket and has also been nominated for the Twenty20 International Performance of the Year.

In April 2008, Chris Gayle was purchased by the Kolkata Knight Riders team for $800,000, making him one of the most expensive players of the Kolkata team at the 2008 Indian Premier League (IPL). However, he failed to play as he had to join the West Indies team for a series against Australia.

When not playing cricket, Chris Gayle enjoys playing video games and also likes watching Tom and Jerry shows in the television.

Chris Gayle

Chris Gayle's powerful hitting, 3rd ODI WI vs ENG 2009.

Chris Gayle 152* vs South Africa 2003/04

Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara Biography

Kumar Chokshanada Sangakkara was born on 27 October 1977, Matale, Sri Lanka, is a Sri Lankan cricketer and captain of the Sri Lanka national cricket team. He is a left-handed top-order batsman. He used to play as a wicket-keeper and top-order batsman in all forms of the game, but has stopped doing so in Tests as his batting average is significantly higher in Tests when he plays as a pure batsman.

Sangakkara is a product of the Trinity College, Kandy where he received the coveted Trinity Lion for Cricket and was the Ryde Medalist of his year. He showed talents in both cricket and tennis at school, and it was the school’s Principal, Mr. Leonard De Alwis who advised his mother to encourage him to pursue cricket.

Sangakkara began his career as a batsman but subsequently became a wicket-keeper. His batting has developed to such an extent that he once topped the LG ICC Test batting rankings. However, in 2006 he gave the gloves to Prasanna Jayawardene in Tests and has since played as a specialist batsman. He remains Sri Lanka’s wicket-keeper in One Day International and Twenty20 cricket. As of September 2009, he was ranked 1st on the Test batting rankings. Sangakkara peaked at 6th on the ICC all-time Test batting rankings.

Sangakkara was billed as a future captain of Sri Lanka. On Sri Lanka’s tour to England in May 2006, he was named the vice-captain of the side. In March 2009 he was appointed to captain the Sri Lankan team for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20. Sangakkara has won a certain degree of admiration for his clever use of sledging and is one of few cricketers who are willing to talk about it openly.

Sangakkara plays his domestic cricket for Nondescripts in Sri Lanka. Sangakkara has played English county cricket with Warwickshire in the 2007 County Championship. In 2010 Sangakkara was confirmed to represent Lancashire in the 2010 County Championship. Lancashire coach, Peter Moores said “Kumar is hot property at the moment and rightly so. He is arguably the most consistent batsman in international cricket with an outstanding average in all formats, making his signing a real coup for Lancashire. Not only will he bring his qualities as a player to the squad but his experience and knowledge will be invaluable.” However, Sangakkara never played for Lancashire as he was unavailable due to international commitments.

On 3 March 2009, a terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team convoy injured several players, including Sangakkara, and also injuring six other people in the convoy.

He is the youngest of four siblings and has a brother and two sisters one of whom is a sportswoman herself – a keen Tennis player. Sangakkara is married to his longtime partner, Yehali and is currently a law undergraduate, going in the footsteps of his father, who is also a leading lawyer in Kandy. He is multilingual, being able to speak in Sinhalese, Tamil and English and is often seen as the unofficial spokesman of the cricket team. Sangakkara is ambidextrous. Sangakkara is currently a law student at the Sri Lanka Law College.

On 30 June 2009 Sangakkara’s wife gave birth to twins, a girl and boy.

Kumar Sangakkara

Kumar Sangakkara sledging Shaun Pollock

Kumar Sangakkara

Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar Biography

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was born on April 24, 1973 in Mumbai, India. He went to Shradashram Vidyamandir, a high school in Mumbai, where he began his cricketing career under his coach Ramakant Achrekar. He attended the MRF Pace Foundation during his schooldays to train as a fast bowler, but Australian fast bowler Dennis Lillee, who saw him training, was not much impressed and suggested that Tendulkar should focus on his batting instead. As a young boy, Tendulkar would practice for hours at the net, and was driven hard by his coach Achrekar.
While at school, his extraordinary batting skills got noticed by the sports circuit. People felt that the young boy would soon become one of the greats in cricket. In the 1988 season, he scored a century in every inning that he played. In one of the inter school matches that year, he had an unbroken 664-run partnership with friend and team mate Vinod Kambli.
When he was 14, Indian batting legend Sunil Gavaskar a great Indian batsman of that time, gave him a pair of his own light pads. This touching gesture greatly encouraged the budding cricketer, who 20 years later broke Gavaskar’s world record of 34 Test centuries.
In 1988, when he was just under 16, he scored 100 not out in for Bombay against Gujrat. This was on his first-class debut. He then scored a century in his first appearance in the Deodhar and Duleep Trophy. Mumbai captain Dilip Vengsarkar picked him up after seeing him batting Kapil Dev in the nets. That season he was Bombay’s highest run-getter. In the Irani Trophy final, He made an unbeaten century. He scored a century in all three of his Irani Trophy, Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy debuts, and became the first player to do so. He was selected for the tour of Pakistan next year.
At the very young age of 16, Sachin played his first Test match against Pakistan in Karachi in 1989. In this Test, he received several blows to his body at the hands of Waqar Younis, a pace bowler. He made just 15 runs. In the last test in Sialkot, he had a bloody nose from a bouncer, but he went on playing. He scored better in the subsequent games, scoring 53 runs of 18 balls at Peshawar.

In the 1990 Test in England he scored a century at Old Trafford. The English were highly impressed by his disciplined display of immense maturity. He played many types of strokes. His off-side shots from the back foot greatly impressed the English. Though short in height, he confidently faced short deliveries from the English pace bowlers. His great performance made him look the embodiment of Gavaskar, India’s former famous opener.
During the 1991-1992 tour of Australia Tendulkar scored and unbeaten 148 in Sydney and another century on a bouncing pitch a Perth.
At the age of 19, Tendulkar was in England, playing for Yorkshire in 1992. He scored 1070 runs at an average of 45.25 while playing for the English county as the first overseas player.
In the 2003 Cricket World Cup, he made 673 runs in 11 matches which enabled India reach the final. Although Australia won the trophy Tendulkar was given the Man of the Tournament award.
Shortly after this Tendulkar developed a tennis elbow and he was out of cricket for a while. But by 2005, he was back in form. He played well against Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
Tendulkar performed very well against Bangla Desh and he was adjudged the Man of the Series in the Future Cup against South Africa.
Today Tendulkar is a national icon to fans all over the world. He is the most worshipped cricketer in the world. Tendulkar has been granted the Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna Award, Padma Vibhushan by the Indian government.
Personal Life
In 1995, Sachin married Anjali, a doctor and the daughter of Gujarati industrialist Anand Mehta. They have two children, Sara and Arjun. Tendulkar now sponsors 200 underprivileged children every year through a Mumbai-based NGO.

Sachin Tendulkar

SACHIN TENDULKAR- TWO AMAZING CATCHES- THE GREATEST

Sachin Tendulkar

Shoaib Akhtar

Shoaib Akhtar Biography

Shoaib Akhtar Biography receives strong comments from Wasim Akram, Shahrukh, BCCI, PCB, Shoaib Malik, Tauqeer Zia and several others. Wasim Akram has termed it as a cheap publicity move by Shoaib Akhtar. He further said that Shoaib was a “problem” when he was an active player and remains just that even in retirement. Wasim Akram rubbished Akhtar’s claims of making Sachin Tendulkar uncomfortable with his pace in the Faisalabad Test in 2006 as has been claimed by Akhtar in his book titled ‘Controversially Yours’.

“I remember Sachin’s one innings when he was 16 and touring Pakistan. Sialkot Test was Sachin’s 4th Test. He made his debut in that series. There was a lot of grass on the pitch. Waqar and I bowled very fast. Waqar, I think, was 19 and Sachin was 16. Waqar hit him (Sachin) on the helmet just below the chin and he got hurt. But he put a plaster and he came back to score a 50. If a 16-year-old kid wasn’t scared, I don’t think any of the top batsmen in the world is scared of any bowler,” Akram said.

“Maybe he might play on the back foot to block the delivery or maybe he might just see it off. But I don’t think a player like Sachin can get scared of any bowler. He (Shoaib) can write anything to sell a book, but it does not affect me or Sachin,” he said. Cricblogger totally agrees with Wasim on this one. Even though we have critically analysed Tendulkar’s performances and have written about his centuries and of him not being the best of match finishers, we stand with Wasim on this one. Tendulkar is a great batsman and no top batsmen can be scared by any bowler, Ganguly included (pun intended). Cricblogger has also praised Tendulkar’s world records in another article.

On Akhtar’s allegations that Akram was responsible for destroying his career, he said no one but the Shoaib himself was responsible for destroying his career. ”He himself is responsible for destroying his career. Nobody helped him (in destroying his career).” said the King of Swing.

“There is no point in me talking about his book. I still haven’t read his book. But his idea is good. If the books get sold then good luck to him,” Akram said adding that, “You people (media) will ensure his book is a bestseller.”

Shahrukh Khan, the bollywood super star responded to the allegations made by Akhtar in a similar fashion. He said that there is just as much truth in Akhtar’s claim that we (Shahrukh and company) are cheaters as there is in the fact that Sachin fears his (Akhtar’s) bowling.

Rajiv Shukla, a senior BCCI official demanded an apology from Shoaib Akhtar for making such remarks against Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. Akhtar had remarked that Sachin and Dravid lacked ability to finish off games early in their respective careers. It seems unnecessary for the BCCI to jump into the swamp, just ignore Shoaib he is just trying to sell his book.

The former PCB chairman, Tauqeer Zia has also rubbished Akhtar’s claim that Zia had helped Akhtar when Wasim Akram tried to destroy his career and threatened to walk off with have the team if Akhtar was selected. Zia said that no such thing happened. Shoaib Malik responded to the allegations by Akhtar that Malik was incompetent to be captain and said that Akhtar’s allegations were a joke.

Meanwhile, there have been some protests in India against the paceman and the opening function of the launch of the book has been cancelled without giving any reason. Shoaib has another public appearance on Monday. Lets see how it goes but one thing is for sure, there are lots of people out there looking to read his book.

Even my blog has seen an unusual rush of visitors on this particular story and the search engines are all flooded with queries about his book and who said what in response. He seems to have achieved his goal, it might just turn out to be a best seller. His slower ball usually works in the midst of bouncers and yorkers. Lets see what he does next.

Shoaib Akhtar

Shoaib Akhtar at his Best

Shoaib Akhtar vs. Gary Kirsten

Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting Biography

Full Name: Ricky Thomas Ponting
Date of Birth: December 19, 1974
Place of Birth: Launceston, Tasmania
Marital Status: Married Rianna Jennifer Cantor in June 2002
Children: daughter, Emmy Charlotte, born on July 26, 2008
Parents: Graeme (played for Mowbray) and Lorraine (sister of Greg Campbell)
Siblings: Drew and Renee (both younger)
Ponting is the eldest of three children; he was born and raised in Launceston, Tasmania by parents Graeme and Lorraine. Ricky started playing cricket at age 7, and showed immediate promise. He was known to be rich in talent ever since he was 12 when he became the youngest person in the world to have a bat sponsor as he was signed by Kookaburra. Obviously people knew that in the future he would be a star. Ponting excelled in junior levels as he was already playing 1st/A Grade cricket when he was 12 and had made it into Youth State and National sides with ease.

He attended school at Mowbray Primary and then Brooks Senior High School in Launceston, and then attended the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy from 1992 to 1993.

Ponting reached international standards at a young age for a batsman, making his One Day International debut in early 1995 and making his Test debut at the end of the year aged 20. However, his progress was not unhindered. He lost his place in the team several times due to lack of form and discipline issues, before rising to the ODI captaincy in early 2002 and becoming Test captain in early 2004. As of March 2008, he is the second highest ranked ODI batsman and ranked third amongst Test batsman in the ICC ratings.

Ponting is considered one of the best cricketers in modern cricket, and is ranked 2nd in the One-Day International Batting chart. He has scored over 9,500 Test runs at an average near 60, but since the February 2002 tour of South Africa (when he was elevated to the ODI team captaincy) he has scored 24 of his Test centuries and averaged above 74, leading to comparisons with Sir Donald Bradman.

Ponting is also Australia's leading ODI run-scorer and century maker he has the second most centuries ever, behind only Tendulkar. His century against the West Indies in Jaipur at the 1996 Cricket World Cup made him the youngest ever World Cup centurion, and his unbeaten 140 against India in the 2003 Cricket World Cup final was the highest by a captain in a World Cup final. In 2007 Cricket World Cup match against South Africa at St Kitts, Ponting became the first Australian to reach 10,000 runs in ODI Cricket and the 7th in world cricket to achieve this distinction.

Like many Australian batsmen, Ricky Ponting is particularly strong against pace bowling, with the full array of back foot shots, including the pull, hook, and square cut. Early on, he was regarded as a near-compulsive hooker, but he has lately moderated this tendency. He tends to move across his off stump, and has therefore been regarded as vulnerable to LBW early in his innings. He is less adept against spin bowling, particularly on very helpful spinning pitches such as those in India where his average is just 12.28.

After his first 30 Tests in just under four years his average was 38.62, and after rising into the mid-40s had dipped again to 40.50 after 45 Tests. Since that time his average has consistently risen; his averages in recent calendar years are 70.93 in 2002, 100.20 in 2003, 41.00 in 2004, 67.13 in 2005 and 88.86 in 2006.

Ponting occasionally bowls medium pace, and has also experimented with off-spin. He is an outstanding fieldsman square of the wicket or at silly point, with fast reactions and hand-eye coordination and (especially in the one-day game) a reputation for hitting the stumps to run out opposition batsmen. A report prepared by Cricinfo in late 2005 showing that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the second highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the sixth highest success rate.

Ponting is a keen supporter and number one ticket holder of the North Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League. On 9 August 2007, Ponting appeared on The AFL Footy Show where he talked about his desire to join the club's board. He also supports Blue Square Premier side Altrincham F.C.after befriending chairman Geoff Goodwin. He owns 500 shares in the club and attended a pre-season friendly in 2009.

After marrying long-time girlfriend—law student Rianna Jennifer Cantor in June 2002, Ponting credited her as the reason for his increased maturity. On 26 February 2008, it was announced that they were expecting their first child. Daughter Emmy Charlotte was born in Sydney, Australia on 26 July 2008

Ricky Ponting

Ricky Ponting 196

Ricky Ponting 197 vs Pakistan 1999

Glenn McGrath

Glenn McGrath Biography

Glenn McGrath is a former Australian cricketer born to Beverly and Kevin McGrath on February 9, 1970 in Dubbo, New South Wales. Nicknamed “Pigeon and Millard” in the cricketing circles, he is a right-arm medium-fast bowler and a right-handed batsman, who possesses exceptional fielding skills.

Glenn McGrath made his Test debut for Australia against New Zealand in Perth, on November 12, 1993. In 2004, he emerged as the first Australian fast bowler to play in 100 Tests. In the first innings of the International Cricket Council (ICC) Super Series Test match held in 2005, Glenn McGrath surpassed the record of Courtney Walsh to become the greatest wicket-taker among fast bowlers in Test cricket. He completed his career as the most successful fast-bowler and the third highest wicket taker in Test cricket. In the Frank Worrell series against the West Indies, his scintillating hat-trick dismissed Sherwin Campbell, Brian Lara marking his 300th wicket, followed by the West-Indian captain, Jimmy Adams. Interestingly in an interview prior to the match, he mentioned the names of Sherwin Campbell and Brian Lara as targets for his 299th and 300th wickets respectively. Mike Atherton of England has been dismissed 19 times by Glenn McGrath, becoming the first batsman to be dismissed the most number of times by a single bowler in cricket history. On 23 December, 2006, Glenn McGrath announced his retirement from Test matches. He has played in 124 Test matches taking 563 wickets, his best bowling figures in a match being 10 for 27, at an excellent economy rate of 2.49.

Glenn McGrath made his One Day International (ODI) debut on December 9, 1993 in Melbourne against South Africa. In the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Glenn McGrath became the leading wicket taker in the World Cup history after picking 26 wickets. His splendid performance in the World Cup campaign won him the Player of the Tournament award. He retired from international cricket following his brilliant display in the successful 2007 Cricket World Cup. He has played in 250 ODIs picking 381 wickets, his career best being 7 for 15, at an economy of 3.88.

Glenn McGrath made his Twenty20 International (T20I) debut for Australia against New Zealand on February 17, 2005 in Auckland. He represented the team in two T20I matches during his career, 3 for 31 is his best in a T20I match.

Glenn McGrath made his First-class debut during the 1992-93 season, when he played for Worcestershire in the 2000 English County Championship and a few matches for Middlesex in 2004. He has played in 189 First-class matches taking 835 wickets and has made 303 List A appearances picking 458 wickets.
In the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2008, Glenn McGrath was selected to be a part of the Delhi Dare Devils team. He was signed for $350,000 by the Delhi Dare Devils team. Glenn McGrath bowled 54 overs picking 12 wickets in the 2008 IPL and won the Man of the Match award for his brilliant performance against Bangalore Royal Challengers on April 30. Glenn McGrath displayed his best bowling against Bangalore Royal Challengers earning 4 wickets for 29 runs.

Glenn McGrath has won several laurels, namely the prestigious Allan Border Medal 2000, Test Player of the Year -2000, One-Day International Player of the Year-2001, Wisden Cricketer of the Year 1998, Wisden Australia Cricketer of the Year during the season 1999 and 2005-06. He also holds the distinction of being the Member of the Order of Australia, Jan 2008. Glenn McGrath holds the seventh highest tenth wicket partnerships, and two tenth wicket partnerships.

Apart from cricket, Glenn McGrath has established the McGrath Foundation to fund more breast care nurses in rural Australia and educate woman regarding breast cancer. He has authored the book The Glenn McGrath Barbecue Cookbook: Barbecue with the Master.

International Debut: 1993

Batting and fielding records
M Inns NO Runs HS Ave BF SR 100 50 4s 6s Ct St
Test 124 138 51 641 61 7.37 1570 40.83 - 1 51 1 38 -
ODI 250 68 38 115 11 3.83 236 48.73 - - 7 - 37 -
T20I 2 1 0 5 0 5.00 12 41.67 - - - - 1 -

Bowling records

M Inns Balls Runs Wkts BBI BBM Ave Eco SR 4W 5W 10W
Test 124 243 29248 12186 563 8/24 10/27 21.64 2.50 51.95 28 29 3
ODI 250 248 12970 8391 381 7/15 7/15 22.02 3.88 34.04 9 7 -
T20I 2 2 48 79 5 3/31 3/31 15.80 9.88 9.60 - - -

Career Statistics

Test Debut: Australia v New Zealand, 12-Nov-1993
ODI Debut: Australia v South Africa, Dec 09, 1993
Twenty20 Debut: Australia v New Zealand, Feb 17, 2005

Personal life

His late wife, Jane Louise (née Steele), was born in the United Kingdom and had worked as a flight attendant before their marriage. Glenn married Jane in 1999 after they met at a Hong Kong nightclub called Joe Bananas in 1995. They had two children, James and Holly. Jane McGrath fought recurrent battles with metastatic breast cancer. On 26 January 2008 (Australia Day) Glenn and Jane McGrath were both made Members of the Order of Australia. Jane McGrath died, aged 42, on 22 June 2008 from complications following cancer surgery. Glenn McGrath later became engaged to Sara Leonardi, an interior designer. They met during the 2009 Indian Premier League. They married at home in Cronulla on 18 November 2010. In April 2011 McGrath put his home on the market for 6 million dollars

Sporting Achievements

McGrath holds 7 highest tenth wicket partnerships, and two tenth wicket partnerships of 100 plus .

At the time of his retirement he held the record for most runs scored as a number 11 batsman (603)[8]. This record has since been surpassed by Muttiah Muralitharan.

After his dismissal for a duck in the fourth test of the 2006-2007 Ashes series, McGrath claimed the record of having scored more ducks in test cricket than any other Australian cricketer (35 - one more than Shane Warne).

McGrath holds the record for dismissing the most batsmen for ducks in test cricket (104) .

His win-loss record at World Cup tournaments is impressive; he's been in four tournaments (two less than the record) and has won three of those, getting to the final in the other they lost in 1996 to Sri Lanka his last in 2007 world cup Australia won to Sri Lanka

Honours

He was named a Member of the Order of Australia on 26 January (Australia Day) in 2008 for "service to cricket as a player", and along with his wife for "service to the community through the establishment of the McGrath Foundation."

Glenn McGrath

Glenn McGrath Lays Into Sanath Jayasurya

Glenn McGrath Magic Over in 3rd Ashes Test 2006