Martin Bicknell

Martin Bicknell
Personal information
Full name
Martin Paul Bicknell
Born (1969-01-14) 14 January 1969 (age 55)
Guildford, Surrey, England
NicknameBickers
Height193 cm (6 ft 4 in)
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm fast-medium
RoleBowler
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 565)22 July 1993 v Australia
Last Test8 September 2003 v South Africa
ODI debut (cap 110)7 December 1990 v New Zealand
Last ODI13 February 1991 v New Zealand
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 4 7 292 332
Runs scored 45 96 6,740 1,589
Batting average 6.42 24.00 24.87 15.57
100s/50s 0/0 0/0 3/26 0/2
Top score 15 31* 141 66*
Balls bowled 1,080 413 55,420 16,167
Wickets 14 13 1,061 429
Bowling average 38.78 26.69 25.06 25.10
5 wickets in innings 0 0 44 3
10 wickets in match 0 0 4 0
Best bowling 4/84 3/55 9/45 7/30
Catches/stumpings 2/– 2/– 103/– 78/–
Source: [1], 1 January 2006

Martin Paul Bicknell (born 14 January 1969) is a former English cricketer. He played in four Test matches, with the last two, against South Africa in 2003, coming ten years after the first two in the 1993 Ashes series. England had played 114 matches between his appearances, a record.[1] He was considered most unlucky to be constantly overlooked for selection in home Test matches when constantly proving himself a prolific wicket taker in county cricket.[2]

He was a very effective medium-fast swing and seam bowler who reached one thousand first-class wickets for his county, Surrey, in 2005, having achieved the milestone in all first-class matches the previous year.[3] In 2000 he had match figures of 16-119 for Surrey against Leicestershire at Guildford, the second best match figures ever returned for the county. His figures in the second innings were 9-47.[4] His best innings figures were 9-45, against Cambridge University at The Oval in 1988.

He was also an increasingly useful tail-end batsman, verging on all-rounder status, with three first-class centuries to his name and an average of 24.87.

His brother Darren Bicknell was a sound county batsman formerly with Surrey and finishing his career with Nottinghamshire.

Bicknell lives in Churt, Farnham, He is married to Sarah, and has four children: Ellie, Charlotte, Mia-May and Millie-Coco.

Bicknell was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 2001.

He made his first-class debut in 1986. Having initially intended to cease playing at the end of the 2006 season, he was struck by a series of niggling injuries which forced him to announce an earlier retirement from first-class cricket on 9 August 2006,[5] moving on to take up a post at Charterhouse School as the Master in Charge of Cricket.

His autobiography, Bickers. was published in 2008.[6]

References

  1. ^ "The waiting game". ESPN. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  2. ^ "Just not cricket". ESPN Cricinfo. 11 January 2008. Retrieved 14 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Martin Bicknell appeals for wicket No. 1000 | ESPNcricinfo.com". ESPNcricinfo.
  4. ^ "Surrey storm to a sixth championship victory".
  5. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 9 August 2006.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. ^ Entry for Bickers on Amazon