Shaun Pollock

Shaun Pollock
Personal information
Full name Shaun Maclean Pollock
Born (1973-07-16) 16 July 1973
Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Nickname Polly
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Batting style Right-handed
Bowling style Right arm fast-medium
Role All-rounder
Relations AM Pollock (grandfather)
PM Pollock (father)
RG Pollock (uncle)
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 261) 16 November 1995 v England
Last Test 10 January 2008 v West Indies
ODI debut (cap 39) 9 January 1996 v England
Last ODI 3 February 2008 v West Indies
ODI shirt no. 7
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1992/93–2003/04 KwaZulu-Natal
1996–2002 Warwickshire
2004/05 Dolphins
2008 Mumbai Indians
2008 Durham
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 108 303 186 435
Runs scored 3,781 3,519 7,021 5,494
Batting average 32.31 26.45 33.11 26.66
100s/50s 2/16 1/14 6/35 3/24
Top score 111 130 150* 134*
Balls bowled 24,353 15,712 39,067 21,588
Wickets 421 393 667 573
Bowling average 23.11 24.50 23.25 22.93
5 wickets in innings 16 5 22 7
10 wickets in match 1 n/a 2 n/a
Best bowling 7/87 6/35 7/33 6/21
Catches/stumpings 72/– 108/– 132/– 153/–
Source: CricketArchive, 20 September 2008

Shaun Maclean Pollock (born 16 July 1973) is a former South African cricketer who is considered a bowling all-rounder. From 2000 to 2003 he was the captain of the South African cricket team, and also played for Africa XI, World XI, Dolphins and Warwickshire. He was also chosen as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2003. He is the leading wicket taker among South Africans, taking over 400 test wickets and scoring over 3,700 test runs in his 108 Test matches.[1] On 11 January 2008 he announced his retirement from all forms of international cricket after his 303rd One Day International on 3 February.[2]

Career

Shaun Pollock was a fast-medium seam bowler, with the ability to deliver a quicker ball with accuracy and swing.

The nephew of legendary South African cricketer Graeme Pollock and the son of former South African fast bowler Peter Pollock, expectations from him were high since he started playing for South Africa in 1995/96, in their home series against England. He cemented his place in the team with some excellent performances and found a steady bowling partner in Allan Donald. They were to be the mainstay of South African bowling till Donald's retirement.

Pollock was also a very useful hard-hitting batsman, whose style bears some resemblance to his famous uncle on occasions. He has normally batted at 7 or 8, with a Test average of over 30 and ODI average above 25. He is also an athletic fielder. After Hansie Cronje was banned from cricket for life, Pollock took over the captaincy in April 2000. He had the task of boosting the morale of the team in the aftermath of the match-fixing scandal. After getting off to a good start as a captain he faced some disappointing series losses in his tenure. He was eventually removed from the captaincy after South Africa's poor performance in the 2003 Cricket World Cup, a tournament that they were amongst the favourites to win as the host nation.

Pollock has just clipped Dominic Cork through mid-wicket during the 1st Test between England and South Africa in 1998 at Trent Bridge

Although no longer captain, he retained his place in the team. After a disappointing Test series tour of Australia in 2005/2006, he faced criticism for losing his wicket taking ability. He has the lowest (best) economy rate of any bowler to have taken 300 ODI wickets,[3] and he is also the first South African and only the tenth player to take 400 Test wickets. However, minor injuries hampered his performances towards the end of his career, and in September 2007 he was dropped from the South African test side for the first time in his career.[1] Pollock was later readded to the test series against the West Indies, whereupon he announced his retirement, effective on 3 February 2008. He stated that "I realise I have been blessed by God and feel I have nurtured my talents to the best of my abilities."[2] After South Africa sealed a series victory against the West Indies, Graeme Smith paid tribute to Pollock, stating "It's very important that people celebrate what he's given to South African cricket and what he's achieved as an individual."[4] Shaun Pollock later represented Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League, and Durham Dynamos in the 2008 Twenty20 Cup in England.

He is friends with golf icon Gary Player and regularly plays in the Gary Player Invitational charity golf series to help raise funds for underprivileged children.

Shaun Pollock has commentated on Sky Sports and Test Match Special on the BBC during the 2008 England vs South Africa Test Series.

Career highlights

Pollock took four wickets in four balls on his first appearance for Warwickshire – in a limited-overs (B&H Cup) game v Leicestershire at Birmingham in 1996. He also recently received the SA Player's Player award and the SA ODI Player of the Year Award.[5]

A graph showing Pollock's test career bowling statistics and how they have varied over time.

He is joint 10th in the all-time best ever bowler ratings in the LG ICC Ratings,[6] and has taken over 400 wickets and at the time of his retirement was one of only six players to have scored 3000 runs and taken 300 wickets in Test matches.

He has also performed impressively in One Day International, consistently from 1997 to 2001. The year 2002 saw a little performance dip after which he performed excellently up until 2005 after which there was a second dip. Many said that Pollock would not recover from this but he did, in fact he reached his career-best LG ICC Bowling Rating of 920 in February 2006. He holds the 3rd highest career-best rating, 3 points behind the New Zealand bowler Richard Hadlee.

In June 2007 he represented an Africa XI in an ODI game against an Asia XI in Bangalore. Playing as a specialist batsman, Pollock scored 130 from number 7 in the batting order, the highest ever score by an ODI batsman in that position.[7] The record would however not last long, MS Dhoni bettered it later in the series.

In Summer 2008 he played for Durham County Cricket Club in the North East of England and along with fellow South African Albie Morkel was used mainly in the Twenty20 Cup competition.

Of the 18 players who have bowled at least 2,000 balls for South Africa in ODIs, Pollock's economy rate of 3.65 runs per over was the second best behind that of Fanie de Villiers.[8]

Rankings

Shaun Pollock's career-best ranking and rating in the cricket ratings as determined by the International Cricket Council are as follows:

Personal life

Pollock comes from a family of mainly Scottish ancestry. His paternal grandfather, Andrew Pollock, who played for Orange Free State, was born in Edinburgh.[9] He is married to Patricia "Trish" Lauderdale and has two daughters, Jemma and Georgia. Jemma was born in August 2003, and Georgia in July 2006. Lauderdale was a finalist in the Miss South Africa pageant in the early '90s and also worked for MTN, a South African telecom company.[10] He is a teetotaller and a devout Christian.[11][12] Pollock is a graduate of the University of Natal with a bachelor's degree in commerce.

International centuries

Test centuries

Shaun Pollock's Test centuries
# Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year Result
1 111  Sri Lanka South Africa Centurion, South Africa SuperSport Park 2001 Won
2 106*  West Indies Barbados Bridgetown, Barbados Kensington Oval 2001 Drawn

One Day International centuries

Shaun Pollock's One Day International centuries
# Runs Match Against City/Country Venue Year Result
1 130 ACC Asia XI India Bangalore, India M. Chinnaswamy Stadium 2007 Lost

References

  1. 1 2 Pollock dropped by South Africa BBC News retrieved 29 September 2007
  2. 1 2 Pollock announces his retirement BBC News retrieved 11 January 2008
  3. ↑ "Records – One-Day Internationals – Most wickets in career". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  4. ↑ Smith salutes legendary Pollock BBC News retrieved 12 January 2007
  5. ↑ Pollock is SA's player of the year (2007)
  6. ↑ LG ICC Best-Ever Test Bowling Ratings
  7. ↑ "Records – One-Day Internationals – Most runs in an innings (by batting position)". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  8. ↑ "Records / South Africa / One-Day Internationals / Best economy rates". Cricinfo.com. Retrieved 2011-11-24.
  9. ↑ "Players and Officials – Andrew Pollock". Cricinfo. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  10. ↑ "Pollock in doubt for Sri Lanka". News24.com. 2006-06-08. Retrieved 2007-09-01.
  11. ↑ "Cricinfo Quote Unquote – Gibbs reveals the failure to get teetotaler Pollock to break the habit". Cricinfo.com. 2008-02-10. Retrieved 2008-02-10.
  12. ↑ Personal Information on Shaun Pollock

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shaun Pollock.
Preceded by
Hansie Cronje		 South African Test cricket captain
2000/1–2001/2 		Succeeded by
Mark Boucher
Preceded by
Mark Boucher		 South African Test cricket captain
2001/2–2002/3 		Succeeded by
Graeme Smith
Preceded by
Hansie Cronje		 South African ODI cricket captain
2000–2005 		Succeeded by
Graeme Smith
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