Robert Croft

Robert Croft Biography

Robert Damien Bale Croft is a retired Welsh professional cricketer who played for England in the years of 1996 to 2001.

Croft was born on 25 May 1970 in Morriston, Swansea, Wales and his professional career was mainly with Glamorgan as a right-arm off-break bowler.

His batting style was right-handed and he was often proved a handy batsman in the lower order.

Croft is first Welsh cricketer to score 10,000 runs and take 1,000 wickets in first-class cricket.

He was also appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to cricket.

Background

Croft began his sports career as a rugby player when he was 11 years old but later, he switched to cricket and at the age of 19, he started playing for Glamorgan.

In his debut match, he bowled 30-odd overs and Graham Thorpe was his first wicket.

In 1990, he bagged Glamorgan Player of the year award and got this honour one more time in 1992.

Debut

England selected him for the national team in 1996 and he made his international debut against Pakistan on 22 August 1996 in a Test match at the Oval and took his first wicket when he got Aamir Sohail out. Overall, he finished the game with 2 wickets for 125.

In the same tour, on 29 August, he got an opportunity to debut in ODIs as well.

He did pretty well in his early games and earned a place in the team touring Zimbabwe and New Zealand.

There, he achieved his Test’s best of 5-95 against New Zealand and finished the winter season on 18 wickets for 340 runs.

Rise to Glory

Croft did not play much international cricket but his domestic career was always on a high.

His career best came in 1992, in a match against Warwickshire when he took 8 wickets for 66 runs. After two years, in 1994 he claimed 6 scalps against Worcestershire which was his best List-A figure also.

He kept his electrifying performances on the go and became first Welsh cricketer to take the double of 10,000 runs and 1,000 wickets in 2007.

On 1 August 2010 he got his first hat-trick against Gloucestershire to help Glamorgan win the match. It also made him the first Glamorgan spinner to take a hat-trick in 46 years.

Club Career

Croft remained Glamorgan’s key player throughout his long career of 23 years. Since his debut in 1989, he received several awards as a Glamorgan player including 4 Player of the year awards in the years of 1996, 2003, 2004 and 2007.

His first-class and list-A records are as amazing as his international records are average. He has 1,175 wickets in 407 first-class match and 411 wickets in 408 List-A games. He was decent with the bat too and has scored 12,880 runs in First-class cricket.

Captaincy

Croft took the responsibility of Glamorgan’s captaincy in 2003 and under his leadership, team won one-day league in 2004 and then returned to the Division One of the Championship in the same year.

In 2006 County Championship, Glamorgan won only two games in 15 which was his worst county season as a skipper, he resigned from the captaincy and handed it over to David Hemp.

Croft's Record in Numbers

Croft played 21 Tests and 50 ODIs for England in his international career. He has 49 scalps in his name in Tests at the average of 37.24 and 45 scalps in ODIs at 38.73.

Retirement

In 2004, he had announced his international retirement to concentrate on the captaincy of Glamorgan and later, in 2012, He retired from first class cricket as well.

Croft occasionally served Sky Sport as a commentator after his retirement.

In 2016, he was appointed the head coach for Glamorgan.