Fred Trueman

Fredrick Sewards Trueman was a former English cricketer who played test matches for England. He is regarded as one of the finest fast bowlers in history. He was better known as Fiery Fred and was the first ever cricketer to have taken 300 wickets in Test history. Trueman was born in Maltby, Yorkshire in England and was educated at the Maltby Hall Secondary School. He was a right handed batsman and a right armed pacer.

At the beginning of his career, Trueman played domestic cricket with the Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 till 1968. Later in 1972, he joined the Derbyshire club and played for a year. He played a total of 603 first-class matches and 18 List A matches scoring 9,231 and 156 runs off them respectively. He successfully dismissed 2,304 batsmen in first-class matches at an average of 18.29 and 28 batsmen in List A matches at the average of 18.10.

Trueman’s debut as a Test cricketer came in 1952 against India. He went on to play a total of 67 test matches in his career with the one against New Zealand in 1965 as the last one. His batting average for Test matches is at 13.81 while the bowling average is at 21.57. Trueman grabbed 5 wickets in a test match on 17 occasions while he dismissed 10 batsman in a test match on 3 occasions.

A match at The Oval in 1964 saw Trueman claim his 300th wicket in test cricket making him the first one ever to have achieved this feat. After his retirement from cricket, Trueman became a famous media personality and was an outspoken radio summarizer. He presented many shows like the Indoor League on Yorkshire Television ITV and Test Match Special on BBC.

Trueman was diagnosed with small cell carcinoma of the lung and passed away of it in July, 2006.

Career Highlights

He is the first ever cricketer to have taken 300 wickets in test matches.

In August, 2009, he was inducted to the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.