George Headley

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George Headley West Indies (WI)

Batting style	Right hand bat
Bowling type	Right arm leg break
	Tests	First-class
Matches	22	103
Runs scored	2,190	9,921
Batting average	60.83	69.86
100s/50s	10/5	33/44
Top score	270*	344*
Balls bowled	398	3,845
Wickets	0	51
Bowling average	N/A	36.11
5 wickets in innings	N/A	1
10 wickets in match	N/A	0
Best bowling	N/A	5/33
Catches/stumpings	14	76/0
Test debut: 11 January 1930 Last Test: 21 January 1954 Source: [1]

George Alphonso Headley (born May 30, 1909 in Panama; died November 30, 1983 in Kingston, Jamaica) was a West Indian cricketer. He was taken to Jamaica at the age of ten and went on to become the finest West Indian batsman of the 1930s and 1940s. He has a career batting average in Test cricket of an exceptional 60.83, the fourth highest of any player and behind only Australians Sir Donald Bradman and Michael Hussey and Graeme Pollock.

Headley played mainly off of the back foot, yet he was an attacking batsman; a fine cutter and a powerful driver. He played in the first ever Test match on West Indian soil in 1929/30 and went on to score an exceptional aggregate of 703 runs in the series at an average of 87.87, including four centuries. In 1948 he became the first black man to captain the West Indies, and in his final appearance in January 1954 he set a record as the oldest West Indian Test cricketer (44 years and 236 days) which is unlikely to be beaten.

His rate of scoring centuries, often seen as an accurate measure of great batsmen, of 1 every 4 innings is bettered only by Bradman. He is known as the "Black Bradman".

Headley was an excellent fielder and occasional leg-break bowler. His son Ron Headley appeared in two Test matches for the West Indies in 1973 and his grandson Dean Headley played fifteen Test matches and thirteen one day internationals for England in the late 1990s.

The 8,000 seat George Headley stand at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica is named in his honour. [2]