by Abhishek Mukherjee
1924.
Herbie Taylor's South Africans were having a tough time in England. Ahead of the first Test, they had played seven counties, lost two, and had failed to win even one.
There was a problem simple. While most of their bowlers thrived on the matting wickets back home, they failed to replicate those performances on English soil. Moreover, not all their team members were fit.
So they tracked down one George Parker, playing for Eccleshill in the Bradford League. Parker had never played First-Class cricket, but he had one qualification: he was born in Cape Town.
So they picked him for the match against Oxford. All but four hours were washed out, but Parker did get a chance. He took 4/34 and had three catches dropped off his bowling.
In less than 24 hours he made his Test debut, at Edgbaston. Parker did not lose pace throughout his 37 overs, during which he picked up 6/152 (including Sutcliffe, Woolley, Hendren, and Chapman).
But there were the idiosyncrasies. He felt exhausted after a long spell. While that was expected, leaving the field without informing anyone was not. And refusing to return even afer being asked to most definitely was not.
For the era, he also took an absurdly long time to bowl. He walked back to his mark very slowly, almost disinterestedly. Of course, he did not lose pace, but slow over rates were not common practice.
He did not find it easy to bowl at the left-handed Woolley, so he asked *Woolley* whether the field placement was acceptable for a left-hander.
England scored 438. Gilligan and Tate then bowled out South Africa for 30. They got 390 in the second innings, but it was not enough.
England declared at 531/2 at Lord's, winning by an innings again. Both wickets fell to Parker, who now had 8 out of 12 England wickets.
Let alone a Test, Parker never played another First-Class match. Three First-Class matches (12/307), two of them Tests (8/273), that was it. Almost like an end-of-month mobile top-up plan.
Groege Parker, a man with one of the most bizarre Test careers, was 14 Oct 1882