Gerald Alfred Skerten Innes (16 November 1931 – 11 July 1982) was a South African

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er who played

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

from 1950 to 1964 and toured Australia and

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with the South African team in 1952–53.

Early career

After attending

Diocesan College The Diocesan College (commonly known as Bishops) is a private, English medium, boarding and day high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The school was established o ...

Rondebosch Rondebosch is one of the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, South Africa. It is primarily a residential suburb, with shopping and business districts as well as the main campus of the University of Cape Town. History Four years after the first Dutch s ...

, where he excelled at cricket and captained the South African Schools team, he studied teaching at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. He made his first-class debut for Western Province in the 1950–51

Currie Cup The Currie Cup is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring (June to October), featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier ...

, and although he scored only 147 runs in five matches he was selected to play in a trial match that was held to help the national selectors choose the side to tour England in 1951. He made 49 and 23 but was not selected to tour. He batted consistently in 1951–52, scoring 487 runs at an average of 54.11, including his first century, 139, in the match against Eastern Province in Cape Town. He made the top score of a rain-affected trial match at the end of the season, 68 not out, and was one of the 15 players selected to tour Australia and New Zealand.

Playing for South Africa

The youngest player on the touring team, Innes took a catch while fielding as substitute in the First Test, but struggled to find batting form. He hit 109 in the match against Victoria before the Fifth Test, but his team-mate Headley Keith hit two centuries in the same match and took the vacant batting spot in the Test side. In seven matches on the tour Innes scored 307 runs at 30.70. His captain on the tour,

Jack Cheetham John Erskine Cheetham (26 May 1920 – 21 August 1980) was a South African cricketer who played in 24 Test matches between 1949 and 1955, captaining South Africa in his last 15 Test matches. He later served as president of the South African Cric ...

, said Innes had "great promise as a cricketer" and predicted that he would take part in "many more cricket tours". But this tour was to be his only one.

Later career

Innes played regularly for Western Province in subsequent seasons without great success. He did not hit another century until the opening match of the 1958–59 season, when he scored 131 against Natal. He scored consistently throughout the season, leading the Western Province batting with 477 runs at 47.70. He was chosen as one of the ''South African Cricket Annual'' Cricketers of the Year in 1959. Innes captained Western Province from 1959–60 to 1962–63. He scored 219 runs at 54.75 in the 1962–63

and there were suggestions that he might be selected to tour Australia and New Zealand the following season, but he made himself unavailable for the tour. He played for Transvaal in 1963–64 and 1964–65, then retired. He made his highest score, 140 not out, in the final match of the 1963–64 season against Natal. He later served as a selector for Transvaal and Western Province.''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "bible of cricket" was first used in the 1930s by Alec Waugh in a ...

'' 1983, p. 1248.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Innes, Gerald 1931 births 1982 deaths Cricketers from Cape Town Alumni of Diocesan College, Cape Town University of Cape Town alumni Deaths from cancer in South Africa South African cricketers Western Province cricketers Gauteng cricketers