Alec Kennedy

Infobox Historic Cricketer


nationality = English
country = England
country abbrev = ENG
name = Alec Kennedy
picture = Cricket_no_pic.pngbatting style = Right-hand bat
bowling style = Right-arm medium
tests = 5
test runs = 93
test bat avg = 15.50
test 100s/50s = -/-
test top score = 41*
test balls = 1683
test wickets = 31
test bowl avg = 19.32
test 5s = 2
test 10s = -
test best bowling = 5/76
test catches/stumpings = 5/-
FCs = 677
FC runs = 16586
FC bat avg = 18.53
FC 100s/50s = 10/64
FC top score = 163*
FC balls = 150851
FC wickets = 2874
FC bowl avg = 21.23
FC 5s = 225
FC 10s = 45
FC best bowling = 10/37
FC catches/stumpings = 531/-
debut date = 23 December
debut year = 1922
last date = 16 February
last year = 1923
source = http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/player/15858.html

Alexander Stuart "Alec" Kennedy (January 24, 1891, Edinburgh, Scotland – November 15, 1959, Southampton, England) was an Hampshire cricketer and one of the ten highest wicket-takers in first-class cricket (usually ranked seventh after Rhodes, Freeman, Parker, J.T. Hearne, Goddard, and W.G. Grace).

Career

He was a right-arm medium-pace bowler with an unusually long run-up for his time but a body action that allowed for remarkable efficiency and ease and was considered a classic for aspiring young cricketers for quite some time. His arm action was viewed suspicious by many observers, but unlike Arthur Mold hindsight has not condemned Kennedy even if one may consider him fortunate in playing during a period when only a single bowler in county cricket was ever no-balled for throwing and that before he had played more than a handful of games. On a sticky wicket Kennedy could spin the ball very sharply either way and at times was extremely difficult to play, as when he took seven for eight against Warwickshire at Prtsmouth in 1927.

However, Kennedy never had the pace off the ground needed to be at all difficult against the highest quality opposition on good pitches, as was shown by his complete failure against the Australians in 1921, which was enough to show conclusively that he would have been as ineffective as most English spinners on cast-iron Australian pitches. As with so many bowlers of medium pace or below, his effectiveness even on the best of pitches against appalling batting could mask his limitations, and even when English bowling was at its weakest Kennedy was never in contention for an Ashes tour.

Although he began as a tail-end batsman, Kennedy developed his defence so well that by 1921 he was often opening the batting in addition to bowling well over a thousand overs a season. At times, he could play wiht great skill, as shown when he made 101 against excellent Kent bowling in 1923 - "Wisden" said "he was caution itself up to a point, but hit twelve fours". His batting however was inconsistent and declined several times during his later career.

When Kennedy first played for Hampshire he was only sixteen and at the time the county had not had a top-line professional bowler since Tom Soar and Henry Baldwin declined at the turn of the century. He played only irregularly up to 1910, but in 1912 made a remarkable leap to be the third highest wicket-taker in purely county cricket with 112 wickets for seventeen runs apiece. Despite an injury in 1913, Kennedy rebounded so well in the last season prior to World War I that he took 164 wickets for twenty apiece. Despite extreme lack of support, Kennedy worked extremely hard when cricket resumed in 1919 and did one of his best-ever bowling feats with seven for 47 against Surrey at the Oval - one of only three games Surrey were to lose there between 1919 and 1927!

With the development of his batting, Kennedy was between 1921 and 1923 one of the best all-rounders in the game. During this period, Kennedy toured South Africa and did exceptionally well on the matting pitches with his biting spin and lift. He took thirty-one wickets in what was to be his only Test series. However, Maurice Tate and Roy Kilner were already overaking Kennedy for the title of best all-rounder in the game, and then Kennedy's batting declined so severely that he did not make a half-century in county cricket between the end of 1923 and the middle of 1926, and even when it recovered well enough for his to reach four-figure aggregates again in 1928 and 1930 and nearly do so in 1927 and 1934 Kennedy was never again considered a leading all-rounder. However, apart from a surprise decline in 1926 when he took only 87 wickets despite a good performance against the Australians, Kennedy took over 100 wickets every season until 1932, when he was as a reward for long service to Hampshire with a "Wisden Cricketer of the Year" nomination.

The dry summers of 1933 and 1934 saw Kennedy's bowling decline considerably, but he was still playing a vital role and Hampshire's stock bowler. Though he retired to coach at Cheltenham College at the end of 1934, Kennedy returned to the Hampshire team during the school holidays and bowled, aided by the new leg before wicket rule, very effectively - taking seven for 46 against an admittedly weak Northamptonshire team and six for 94 against Essex. A few matches in 1936 concluded Kennedy's career for good.

External links

* [http://www.pcboard.com.pk/Archive/Players/0/422/f_Batting_by_Season.html All first-class batting averages]
* [http://www.pcboard.com.pk/Archive/Players/0/422/f_Bowling_by_Season.html All first-class bowling averages]