Aidan Crawley
- Charith Asalanka
- Dhananjaya de Silva
- Wanindu Hasaranga
- Dimuth Karunaratne
- Dilshan Madushanka
- Kusal Mendis
- Pathum Nissanka
- Sadeera Samarawickrama
- Dasun Shanaka
- Maheesh Theekshana
Alphabetically sorted top ten of players who have played the most matches across formats in the last 12 months
Full Name
Aidan Merivale Crawley
Born
April 10, 1908, Benenden, Kent
Died
November 03, 1993, Banbury, Oxfordshire, (aged 85y 207d)
Batting Style
Right hand Bat
Bowling Style
Right arm Medium, Right arm Offbreak
Education
Harrow School; Oxford University
RELATIONS
(grandson),
(father),
(cousin),
(brother),
(cousin)
Aidan Crawley MBE, who died on November 3, 1993, aged 85, was one of seven members of his family, Harrovians all, to play first-class cricket, and perhaps the most brilliant. His 87 against Eton at Lord's in 1926 was widely regarded as the best innings in the match for many years. In Wisden, H. S. Altham called him a beautiful player. In 1928 he broke the Oxford scoring record, with 1,137 runs (average 54.14) and five hundreds, including 167 against Essex and 162 against Surrey. In 1929, he made 204 against Northamptonshire at Wellingborough with ten sixes and 22 fours, apparently having driven to the ground straight from an Oxford ball. For the Gentlemen at Lord's he hit A. P. Freeman over the old free seats on to the Nursery End. He played 33 matches for Kent, mostly in 1931 and 1932, but his subsequent career took him off in many different directions, most of them distinguished, some contradictory: he was Labour MP for Buckingham (rising to be Under-Secretary of State for Air in 1951) and, having grown disillusioned with nationalisation, Conservative MP for West Derbyshire. He was also a pioneering documentary film-maker, a fighter pilot, a PoW who staged a spectacular if brief escape, the biographer of de Gaulle and an early TV personality, as presenter of the 1950s series Viewfinder. In 1955 he became the first head of Independent Television News, where he encouraged the then novel idea of probing questions, and he was later the first chairman of London Weekend Television. He retained his cricketing connections, was president of MCC in 1972-73, chairman of the National Cricket Association for its first seven years and one of the begetters of the National Village Championship. His perseverance did not always match his versatility and panache. The last years of this handsome, gilded figure were clouded with tragedy: his wife was killed in a car crash and his two sons in a plane crash.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack
Aidan Crawley Career Stats
Batting & Fielding
Format | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | 100s | 50s | Ct | St |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FC | 87 | 141 | 6 | 5061 | 204 | 37.48 | 11 | 24 | 44 | 0 |
Bowling
Format | Mat | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | Ave | Econ | SR | 5w | 10w |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FC | 87 | 949 | 565 | 15 | 2/40 | 37.66 | 3.57 | 63.2 | 0 | 0 |