Alec Bedser

Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE, (born July 4 1918) was a professional English cricketer, chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and president of Surrey County Cricket Club, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest English cricketers of the 20th century.

He was an outstanding right-arm fast bowler for Surrey and England in a first-class playing career that spanned twenty-one years, taking an incredible 1924 first-class wickets in 485 matches during this time.

Early life and career
Bedser was born in Reading, Berkshire, where his father was stationed with the Royal Air Force, just minutes after identical twin brother Eric. Within six months the family moved to Woking, Surrey, where, at the age of seven, the brothers played their first organised cricket and over the next decade played together for Monument Hill School and Woking Cricket Club. They joined a local firm of solicitors, but were spotted practicing in the nets for Woking Cricket Club by Surrey coach Alan Peach and recruited to the staff at The Oval in 1938. A year later they made their first-class debuts for the county, but their careers were interrupted in 1939, when they joined the RAF to serve in World War II. They saw action at Dunkirk and later served in North Africa, Italy and Austria. They were demobilised in 1946.

Main career
Alec had impressed during war-time cricket matches: in games for the British RAF, he took 6 wickets for 27 runs (including a hat-trick) against the West Indies and 9 for 36, featuring another hat-trick, against a Metropolitan Police team. In his first full season for Surrey, in 1946, he passed 100 wickets by July and established himself in the England Test team. In each of his first two Tests, against the visiting Indians, he took eleven wickets: 11 for 139 in his debut at Lord's and 11 for 96 in the next game at Manchester. His amazing season resulted in his nomination as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year for 1947. He was selected for the ensuing Ashes tour of Australia and for most of the next decade "carried England's bowling attack".

In 1953, at an age (35) by which many fast bowlers have retired from first-class cricket, Bedser emphasized his longevity in the sport, and helped England regain the Ashes, by taking 39 wickets at an average of 17.48 at home to Australia, including career-best match figures of 14 for 99 in the Nottingham Test. In a Test career extending from 1946 to 1955, Bedser played 51 matches and took 236 wickets at an average of 24.89. As the bowling spearhead of an English national team still recovering from the War, he cemented his place in English cricket history.

His entire first-class career spanned 485 matches, in which he helped Surrey to eight County Championships between 1950 and 1958, and took 100 wickets in a county season eleven times, figures that place him high amongst the game's greats. He took five or more wickets in an innings 96 times, and ten wickets or more in a match 16 times.

Post-playing career
After retiring from playing cricket in 1960, Bedser served as a national team selector for twenty-three years and was chairman of selectors from 1963 to 1981. He also managed two England overseas tours. Bedser was made president of Surrey in 1997, apt recognition of his outstanding contribution to the county's cricketing fortunes over the previous five decades. In October 2004 he was selected in 'England's Greatest Post-War XI' by The Wisden Cricketer, an authoritative monthly cricket magazine.

Bedser was knighted for his services to cricket in 1996.

International

 * England

English county

 * Surrey

Tests
Test Debut: vs India, Lord's, 1946 Last Test: vs South Africa, Manchester, 1955
 * Bedser's best Test batting score of 79 was made against Australia, Leeds, 1948
 * His best Test bowling figures of 7 for 44 came against Australia, Nottingham, 1953