Jack Crawford (cricketer) - Style and Technique

Style and Technique

Crawford's obituary in The Times described him as one of the best young players to play cricket in England and said: "Although he invariably played in glasses, he was a most attractive player to watch, an aggressive hitter of the ball and a dangerous medium-paced bowler". Wisden described him as a "hard-hitting batsman", and he played mainly from the front foot. He had an orthodox batting technique, moved his feet well to get to the ball, and played very straight. Herbie Collins, who played with Crawford in Australia, described one of his innings as "a hurricane innings, full of classical shots charged with dynamite." As a bowler, he also had an orthodox technique. His bowling pace varied from fast to medium paced and he spun the ball effectively. An accurate bowler, it was difficult for batsmen to score runs from his bowling. Crawford could swing the ball away from the bat, but his most effective delivery was his off break: Clem Hill stated that Crawford could make the ball turn several inches, despite the hard pitches prevalent in Australia when he played there. John Arlott described him as "the schoolboy genius who turned on Australian pitches where no one else deviated from straight". Herbie Collins also wrote in 1937, at a time when Wally Hammond was considered to be the world's leading all-rounder, that "People who have seen both men consider a better all-rounder than Hammond."

Commenting on the interruption of Crawford's career by his dispute with Surrey, Neville Cardus wrote: "His break with Surrey must be regarded as a sad deprivation of fame and pleasure to himself, and a grievous loss to the annals of English cricket. It is as certain as anything in a man's life can be confidently postulated, that had he continued to play in English county cricket ... he would have taken his place amongst the select company of England's captains." The Times commented: "It was one of the great disappointments of English cricket in the first quarter of this century that his outstanding promise was never fully realized." No-one on the Surrey committee ever expressed regret at what had happened.