Len hutton
jim laker
Run machine Jack Hobbs
England all-time greats Len Hutton, Jack Hobbs and Jim Laker were posthumously inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame at The Oval on 23 August.
In a lunchtime ceremony during the final Ashes Test, representatives of each of the three men were presented with commemorative caps as part of the joint venture between the International Cricket Council and the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations.
ICC president David Morgan presented the cap for record-breaking batsman Hobbs to Surrey chairman David Stewart; Hutton’s cap was given to his son Richard and grandson Ben, who have also both been cricketers of note; England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke handed a cap to off-spinner Laker’s grandchildren Jamie Harvey and Nicholas Marks.
Hutton represented England in 79 Test matches, amassing 6,971 Test runs at an average of 56.67 – including 19 centuries and 33 half-centuries. The Yorkshire batsman and Ashes-winning captain’s greatest feat in Tests came with his 364 in 1938 at the Oval, then the highest all-time individual score. Hutton played in 513 first-class matches, making 40,140 runs at an average of 55.51. He currently sits ninth in the list for the most first-class hundreds scored in a career – 129.
Hobbs was one of cricket’s most prolific batsmen – and his record of 197 first-class centuries will never be beaten. n first-class matches, he scored 61,273 runs. He also played 61 Tests for England, making 5,140 runs at an average of 56.94. He became the first professional cricketer to be knighted in 1953.
Laker represented England between 1948 and 1959 in 46 Test matches, claiming 193 wickets at an average of 21.24. Yorkshire-born Surrey off-spinner Laker achieved another cricketing feat which will surely never be equalled – by taking 19 of the 20 Australian wickets to fall at Old Trafford in 1956.
