John Barry Hobbs who is known as Jack Hobbs in the cricket world is one of the greatest batsmen in the world. Hobbs was born in the year 1882 in Cambridge, England, and passed away in 1963.
Almost 60 years have passed since he left the world. During this period, many great batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli, Brian Lara, and Ricky Ponting portrayed their talents. But none of these batsmen could match Jack Hobbs.
Jack Hobbs holds the record for scoring the most runs in cricket. He scored 61760 runs in 834 matches in first-class games. This English cricketer has also scored 199 centuries, which is the most in the first-class format. During this, his average was 50.70.
When it comes to comparison with Don Bradman, he scored 28067 runs in 234 matches in his first-class career but his average was 95.14, much better than Hobbs. However, the matches played and the runs scored are lesser than Hobbs.
Cricket originated in England, where the game has been played since the 19th century. This is a big reason why all the names of English batsmen are among the highest run scorers in first-class cricket.
Hobbs was also known as "The Master" and scored consistently during his long career until the age of 50. Half of his centuries came when his age was above 40. He became the oldest player to score a Test century in 1928–29 at the age of 46. Hobbs scored 5410 runs in 61 matches in his Test career which includes 15 centuries.
Jack Hobbs became the first professional cricketer to be awarded the title of "Knight" in 1953.
Here are the top five run scorers of first-class cricket:
- Jack Hobbs - 61,760 runs in 834 matches
- Frank Woolly - 58,959 runs in 978 matches
- Patsy Hendren - 57,611 runs in 833 matches
- Phil Mead - 55,061 runs in 814 matches
- WG Grace - 54,211 runs in 870 matches
