Sir Warner

Sir Pelham Francis Warnerimage:Sir Pelham Francis Warner|Sir Pelham Francis Warner was born on 2nd October in Port of Spain, Trinidad in 1873. He was popularly called as “Plum Warner and Grand Old Man of English Cricket”. Warner had completed his education from Rugby School along with Oriel College, Oxford. Warner was a right handed batsman and started playing for Oxford University first-class cricket. Later on, he went to play for Middlesex in club matches and for England. Sir Pelham played a total of fifteen Test matches for England and 521 first class cricket matches. Warner made his test debut in February 1899 against South Africa. He played for Middlesex from 1894-1920.

Out of 15 test matches in which Warner played, he captained the side in 10 matches. The team won 4 test matches and lost 6 matches under his captaincy. During his captainship England regained the Ashes in 1903-04 by 3-2 thus defeating Australia. However, they lost the series against South Africa in England’s tour in 1905-06 to South Africa by a very wide margin of 1-4. It was the initial time that South Africa was able to defeat England. Warner was elected as the captain of the side in 1911-12 for England’s tour to Australia, but he fell ill and was not able to attend the series. Johnny Douglas replaced him as England’s captain.

In 1904, Warner was named as Wisden Cricketer of the Year and again in the year 1921. He was one of the two players who have been awarded by this honor twice. He was awarded the second award at the time of his retirement from county cricket. 1920 was the last season he played in county cricket. He was the captain of Middlesex and captained the side with achieving the County Championship title.