If a general discussion comes over the longest Cricket careers on international field many people with take the name of India’s Batting Maestro Sachin Tendulkar, but actually he played highest matches in a career but was not the longest career. The Longest Cricketing career was of England’s Wilfred Rhodes which lasted 30 years, 315 days. Sachin Tendulkar took part in 664 matches in his 24 year career which was recently concluded. No other player in the list of Ten longest careers have crossed 100 matches other than Sachin, with second highest among them was England’s Frank Woolley with just 64 matches.
Here is the List of ten Longest Cricketing Careers:
10. Freddie Brown (Eng, 21 years 336 days) :
Frederick Richard Brown CBE, was all-rounder of exceptional skill and achievement who will always be remembered for the courage and determination of his leadership of England in the 1950-51 Test series in Australia. Few visiting captains have been received with so much acclaim by the crowds of Melbourne and Sydney. Although England lost the series by four matches to one, it was soon appreciated that the 40-year-old Brown had almost single-handedly, and against every forecast, done a huge amount to revitalise English cricket. He represented England in 22 matches in his 22 year career in which he scored 734 runs and picked up 45 wickets. In his 23 year First Class career he played 335 first class matches, in which he scored 13325 runs and picked up 1221 wickets.
9. Sydney Gregory (Aus, 22 years 32 days) :
Sydney Gregory, one of three famous brothers, to England on eight different tours, and in 58 matches he played between 1890 and 1912, recorded 52 of them against England.
He was born on the present site of the Sydney Cricket ground. He was a right-hander, with exquisite footwork which compensated for his height and a New South Wales boy who marked Sydney’s inaugural Test – when England were the visitors in 1894-95. With a memorable 201, although the match is best remembered for England winning despite being forced to follow on. Gregory eventually led a depleted Australia in the Triangular Tournament in England in 1912, his last bow as a Test player.
8. George Gunn (Eng, 22 years 120 days) :
George Gunn, was probably the greatest batsman who played for Nottinghamshire. Had he possessed a different temperament he would doubtless have improved upon his splendid records, for his skill and judgement were such that he made batting successfully against first-class bowlers appear the easiest thing imaginable. In his 23 year career, he could only play 15 test matches, in which scored 1120 runs at an average of 40 included two hundreds. In his 32 year First Class career he scored 35208 runs in 643 games at an average of 35.96, scoring 62 centuries.
7. Sir Jacob Hobbs (Eng, 22 years 233 days) :
Jack Hobbs was cricket’s most prolific batsman. He finished with 61,237 first-class runs and 197 centuries, most of them stylishly made from the top of the Surrey or England batting orders. And he might have scored many more had the Great War not interrupted, or if he hadn’t been inclined to get out shortly after reaching 100 to let someone else have a go. Hobbs was known as “The Master”, and scored consistently throughout a long career that didn’t end till he was past 50. Half his hundreds came when he was over 40, and he remains, at 46 in 1928-29, the oldest man to score a Test century. Hobbs was also a charming man, and the world of cricket rejoiced in 1953 when he became the first professional cricketer to be knighted. In his test career he scored 15 hundreds in 61 matches he played, scoring 5410 at an average of 56.94.
He scored 34357 runs in International career which included 100 Hundreds and picked up 201 wickets. Looking at his other cricket he scored 50192 runs including 142 centuries and picked 274 wickets. An interesting fact of his 24 year career is that the number of matches he played during this period was almost double to the combining of all the international matches played other nine players of top 10 longest cricketing careers.
6. John Traicos (SA/Zim, 23 years 40 days) :
A disciplined and accurate off spinner, John Traicos is one of international cricket’s most unusual members. He made his Test debut for South Africa in 1969-70 in their final series before they were cast into sporting isolation, and returned to international cricket in 1992, aged 45, playing in Zimbabwe’s first four Tests. The gap between appearances – 22 years and 222 days – is a record. Egyptian born, he grew up in South Africa. When Zimbabwe was finally admitted to the fold in 1992, Traicos, despite his age, was still far and away the best off spinner in the country, and one of best in the world. And the speed of his reactions fielding in the gully would have shamed many half his age. In Zimbabwe’s inaugural Test he took 5 for 86 in 50 overs. His international career ended when business commitments meant he was not available to tour Pakistan in 1993-94.
5. Sachin Tendulkar (Ind, 24 years, 1 day) :
Sachin Tendulkar, the man who is holding a record of holding a numerous records. He is the most prolific batsmen of all time. He is a part time bowler too who can provided some crucial break through. He was most prolific batsmen in the cricket history.
He featured in 664 International Matches, the highest to play even in Test and ODI format. He featured in 965 matches in all the form of the game.
4. George Headley (WI, 24 years, 10 days) :
George Alphonso Headley MBE, was the first of the great black batsmen to emerge from the West Indies. Between the wars, when the West Indies batting was often vulnerable and impulsive, Headley’s scoring feats led to his being dubbed the black Bradman.
In 22 Tests, Headley scored 2190 runs, including 10 centuries of which eight were against England with an average of 60.83. He was the first to score a hundred in each innings of a Test at Lord’s, in 1939. Playing in first class cricket he extended his aggregate to 9921 runs, with 33 centuries and an average of 69.86.
3. Frank Woolley (Eng, 25 years, 13 days) :
Frank Edward Woolley, was beyond doubt one of the finest and most elegant left-handed all-rounders of all time. He played 64 matches for England scoring 3283 runs, at an average of 36.07 and picked 87 wickets. In a first-class career extending from 1906 to 1938 he hit 58,969 runs, exceeded only by Sir Jack Hobbs which also includes 145 centuries, to average 40.75; he took 2,066 wickets for 19.87 runs each, and he held 1,018 catches, mainly at slip, a record which remains unsurpassed.
2. Dennis Brian Close (Eng, 26 years, 356 days) :
Brian Close still holds the record for the youngest player to represent England, when, after a superb all-round first season with Yorkshire, he was picked to play against New Zealand in 1949 at the age of 18. He never fully realised the promise of that first season, in and out of the England side over the next 27 years. In later years he played in the Lancashire League then returned to Yorkshire, and much controversy as chair of the cricket committee. He was an England selector in the late 70’s. He played 22 Intl matches in his career including 3 ODIs.
1. Wilfred Rhodes (Eng, 30 years, 315 days) :
Wilfred Rhodes was Yorkshire cricket personified in the great period of the county’s domination, shrewd, dour, but quick to seize an opportunity. For Yorkshire he scored more than 30,000 runs, averaging 30 an innings; for Yorkshire he took 3,597 wickets at 16 runs each. When he was not playing for Yorkshire, in his spare time, so to say, he played for England, he represented them in 58 matches and scored 2,000 runs, at an average 30, and took 127 wickets.
He was a great player, one of the greatest of cricket’s history, not only for his all-round performances denoted by the statisticians: nearly 40,000 runs scored in 37 seasons and 4,184 wickets taken. He was great because his cricket was redolent and representative of Yorkshire county. He attended cricket as long as health would permit.
