Download or read book Eric Rowan: The Toughest Springbok written by Rick Smith and published by Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of South Africa’s finest batsmen in the first half of the twentieth century, Eric Rowan (1909-1993) will always be remembered for his cocky and fiercely combative approach to every match in which he played. A highly courageous player, he was prepared to take on Lindwall and Miller at their fastest without the benefit of either gloves or box. To him the very thought of a helmet and other modern protective gear would have been anathema. No stranger to controversy, he sat down on the pitch when a Lancashire crowd barracked him for slow scoring, was controversially omitted from South Africa’s 1947 tour of England and had his Test career ended by the South African Cricket Association for reasons other than cricket. Using a variety of sources and photographs from the Brian Bassano collection, Rick Smith describes the career of this South African whose approach to cricket would have been very much at home in the modern era. In his Test career lasting from 1935 to 1951 Eric Rowan scored 1,965 runs at an average of 43.66. In 1951, aged 42, he made 236 against England at Leeds which was then South Africa’s highest individual score in a Test match. He is still the oldest cricketer to score a Test match double century. Durable to the end, Eric’s career ended in the 1953/1954 season when he was not far short of his 45th birthday.