Jack Crawford (cricketer)

Jack Crawford (cricketer)

John Neville ("Jack") Crawford (1 December 1886 – 2 May 1963) was an English first-class cricketer who played mainly for Surrey. An amateur, he played as an all-rounder and was highly regarded from an unusually early age. A right-handed batsman, Crawford had a reputation for scoring quickly and hitting powerful shots. With the ball, he bowled medium-paced off spin and was noted for his accuracy and ability to make the ball turn sharply from the pitch. Unusually, Crawford wore spectacles while playing.

Crawford established a reputation as an outstanding cricketer while still a schoolboy, and played Test cricket for England before he was 21 years old. In two successive seasons, he completed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in first-class games and successfully toured Australia with the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1907–08. He played only 12 matches for England although critics believed he had a great future in the sport and was a potential future England captain.

A dispute over the composition of a Surrey side to play a high profile game in 1909, after several professional players were omitted for disciplinary reasons, led to an increasingly bitter argument between Crawford and the Surrey authorities. Crawford was told he had no future with the club and moved to Australia to pursue a teaching career. He continued his cricket with South Australia until the outbreak of the First World War, after which he returned to England. He made his peace with Surrey and played a handful of games between 1919 and 1921. In all first-class cricket, Crawford scored 9,488 runs at an average of 32.60 and took 815 wickets at an average of 20.66.