David Holford

David Holford
Cricket information
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Legbreak
International information
National side
  • West Indian
Career statistics
Competition Tests First-class
Matches 24 99
Runs scored 768 3,821
Batting average 22.58 31.31
100s/50s 1/3 3/20
Top score 105* 111
Balls bowled 4,816 17,430
Wickets 51 253
Bowling average 39.39 31.99
5 wickets in innings 1 8
10 wickets in match - 2
Best bowling 5/23 8/52
Catches/stumpings 18/- 83/-
Source:

David Anthony Jerome Holford (born April 16, 1940, Upper Collymore Rock, Saint Michael, Barbados) is a former West Indian cricketer who played in 24 Tests from 1966 to 1977. He is the cousin of Garry Sobers.[1]

Holford was a middle-order batsman and leg-spinner. In his second Test, at Lord's in 1966, he and Sobers put on un unbroken partnership of 274 for the sixth wicket after West Indies had lost 5 for 95 in their second innings and were leading by only 9 runs. Holford scored 105 not out, his only Test century.[2] He took 5 wickets and made 80 in the First Test against India in 1966-67, but then suffered an attack of pleurisy and had to return home.[3] He never had a regular place in the Test team after that. His best Test bowling figures came in 1975-76 when he took 5 for 23 on the first day against India in the First Test at Bridgetown.[4]

He played for Barbados from 1960-61 to 1978-79 (apart from a season in Trinidad in 1962-63), captaining the team in most matches from 1969-70 until 1978-79. His highest first-class score was 111 for Barbados against the touring Indians in 1970-71, when he put on 213 with Sobers for the fourth wicket. His best first-class bowling figures were 8 for 52 (12 for 115 in the match) for the West Indian touring team against Cambridge University in 1966.[5] He also took 4 for 89 and 6 for 61 for Barbados against Combined Leeward and Windward Islands in 1969-70.

He later played in Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket, and served on the West Indies selection panel.

He has a degree in agriculture and has worked as a soil scientist, and another degree in computer studies.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Lawrence Booth, "Nothing he couldn't do" (March 30, 2007).
  2. ↑ England v West Indies, Lord's 1966
  3. ↑ Christopher Martin-Jenkins, The Complete Who's Who of Test Cricketers, Rigby, Adelaide, 1983, p. 347.
  4. ↑ West Indies v India, Bridgetown 1975-76
  5. ↑ Cambridge U v West Indians 1966
  6. ↑ Garry Sobers, My Autobiography, Headline, London, 2002, p. 71.

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