Ed Giddins

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Ed Giddins England (ENG)

Batting style	Right-hand bat
Bowling type	Right-arm fast-medium
	Tests	First-class
Matches	4	147
Runs scored	10	534
Batting average	2.50	5.28
100s/50s	-/-	-/-
Top score	7	34
Balls bowled	444	25376
Wickets	12	478
Bowling average	20.00	28.37
5 wickets in innings	1	22
10 wickets in match	-	2
Best bowling	5/15	6/47
Catches/stumpings	-/-	22/-
Test debut: 19 August 1999 Last Test: 15 June 2000 Source: [1]

Edward Simon Hunter Giddins (born July 20, 1971, Eastbourne, Sussex) is a former English cricketer who played in 4 Tests from 1999 to 2000.

During his career, he has been banned for cocaine use, no-balled for throwing, and suspended for five years for placing a bet on his county to lose a match.

A wet-wicket specialist, Giddins could get the ball to swing both ways with a busy action. He played one Test in 1999, and, in his second, the following summer, promptly won the match award against Zimbabwe at Lord's. Two less successful Tests later he was dropped from the squad.

He joined Warwickshire in 1998 after a drugs scandal cost him his job at Sussex and earned him an 18-month ban (Giddins raised money while serving his drugs ban by setting up a business selling Christmas trees with his team-mate Nadeem Shahid) but his form fell away after England dropped him in 2000, and he moved to Surrey, and then Hampshire.

Giddins retired early during the 2003 season. In his first Test he fought with Phil Tufnell and Alan Mullally for the No. 11 spot - and won. He was once nominated as one of Britain's most eligible bachelors, prepared for one summer with a trip up the Amazon, and spent £10,000 of his own money one winter to try and improve his fitness and international chances.

Giddins will be remembered as much for his off-field activities as for his achievements on it.

He has recently turned to poker to earn his living and appeared on the poker chat show Heads Up with Richard Herring to discuss his career.