Grahame Thomas Explained

Grahame Thomas
Birth Date:21 March 1938
Birth Place:Croydon Park, New South Wales, Australia
Batting:Right-handed
Club1:New South Wales
Year1:1957–58 to 1965–66
International:true
Country:Australia
Testdebutagainst:West Indies
Testdebutdate:3 March
Testdebutyear:1965
Testcap:235
Lasttestdate:11 February
Lasttestyear:1966
Lasttestagainst:England
Columns:2
Column1:Tests
Matches1:8
Runs1:325
Bat Avg1:29.54
100S/50S1:0/3
Top Score1:61
Deliveries1:0
Wickets1:
Bowl Avg1:
Fivefor1:
Tenfor1:
Best Bowling1:
Catches/Stumpings1:3/0
Column2:First-class
Matches2:100
Runs2:5726
Bat Avg2:40.32
100S/50S2:17/23
Top Score2:229
Wickets2:0
Bowl Avg2:
Fivefor2:
Tenfor2:
Best Bowling2:
Catches/Stumpings2:92/2
Source:http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/7934.html Cricinfo

Grahame Thomas (born 21 March 1938, in Croydon Park, New South Wales) is a former Australian cricketer who played in eight Tests in 1965 and 1966.

After several seasons in which he established a reputation as a hard-hitting batsman for New South Wales in the Sheffield Shield, he made his Test debut a few days short of his 27th birthday against the West Indies in 1965. He played all five Tests in that series without notable success, and returned to the Test side in the 1965–66 Ashes series when Bobby Simpson was injured, making two fifties in the last three Tests of the series.[1]

He toured South Africa in 1966–67 although there were rumours he may not be selected due to his mixed race heritage (he was part Aboriginal and American Indian).[2] In the final event he went on the tour[3] but was not selected for any of the Tests, and retired from first-class cricket at the end of the tour at the age of 28 in order to concentrate on his career in the printing industry.[4] He was a reliable fielder who occasionally kept wicket in first-class matches.

He played most of his Grade cricket in Sydney with Bankstown-Canterbury and was honoured in 2005 with the renaming of Bankstown's Memorial Outer Oval to the "Grahame Thomas Oval". He was made a life member of Cricket NSW in 2011.[5]

See also

Notes and References

  1. News: Simpson out – chickenpox . . 7 January 1966 . 27 March 2020 . 18 . Trove .
  2. News: Sports Comment . . New South Wales, Australia . 26 January 1966 . 27 March 2020 . 12 . Trove .
  3. News: End of road for Booth and O'Neill . . 3 March 1966 . 27 March 2020 . 32 . Trove .
  4. The Oxford Companion to Australian Cricket, Oxford, Melbourne, 1996, pp. 527–28.
  5. Web site: Two new Life Members of Cricket NSW. Cricket NSW. 3 April 2018. 3 April 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180403112454/http://www.cricketnsw.com.au/news/two-new-life-members-of-cricket-nsw/2011-09-06. dead.