Frank King (cricketer)

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Frank King
West Indies (WI)
Frank King
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling type Right-arm fast
Tests First-class
Matches 14 31
Runs scored 116 237
Batting average 8.28 9.11
100s/50s 0/0 0/0
Top score 21 30*
Balls bowled 2,869 unknown
Wickets 29 90
Bowling average 39.96 28.75
5 wickets in innings 1 2
10 wickets in match 0 0
Best bowling 5/74 5/35
Catches/stumpings 5/0 17/0

Test debut: 21 January 1953
Last Test: 3 March 1956
Source: [1]


Frank McDonald King (born December 14, 1926, Delamere Land, Brighton, St Michael, Barbados, died December 23, 1990, Bescot, Walsall, Staffordshire, England) was a West Indian cricketer who played in 14 Tests between 1953 and 1956.

Frank King was a hostile right-arm fast bowler who opened the bowling for the West Indies in three consecutive home series in the early 1950s. But he failed to build on a promising debut in the 1952-53 series against the Indian cricket team, when, with 17 wickets, he was the second highest wicket-taker after Alf Valentine. In the third Test of the series, he took five wickets for 74 runs in India's first innings, and also broke the hand of the Indian wicketkeeper, Ebrahim Maka. The report of the tour in Wisden for 1954, however, says that he "used the bumper a little too often for it to be a surprise ball".

The following season he played three Tests against England and took eight wickets, again bowling with much hostility and inflicting injury to several batsmen, though he himself also suffered from muscle strains. But in 1954-55 he took just three wickets in four matches against the Australians. His one overseas tour, to New Zealand in 1955-56, was blighted by injury. In the first Test, he pulled up with a strained muscle at the start of his ninth over; returning for the third Test, he again was injured, this time after four balls of his ninth over. This tour saw the emergence of Tom Dewdney as a fast bowler, and King never again appeared for the West Indies. When he was passed over for the 1957 West Indies tour to England, he retired from first-class cricket and moved to England where he played league cricket for West Bromwich Dartmouth in the West Midlands.

King's cricket outside Tests was largely for Barbados, but he played two matches in 1951-52 for Trinidad against Barbados.