Graeme Wood (cricketer)

Graeme Malcolm Wood (born 6 November 1956 in East Fremantle, Western Australia) is a former Australian cricketer who played in 59 Tests and 83 ODIs from 1978 to 1989. He scored nine Test centuries in his career, which was a West Australian record until 2001–02 when it was surpassed by Justin Langer.

International career

His Test debut came against India as a 21-year-old in 1978. He got his place in the side due to several of Australia's best players defecting to World Series Cricket. Later in the year he toured the West Indies and scored a century in the 1st Test as well as four half-centuries as he finished the Test series with the best run aggregate of 474 runs at 47.40.

He maintained his place in the Australian cricket team for the majority of the early to mid-1980s. He was dropped after the disastrous Ashes tour of England in 1985. After excellent domestic form Wood was recalled in 1988/89 for the Test series against the West Indies. Wood scored 111 and 42 in the second Test, but was dropped after the third Test. Overall his best innings seemed to be against the West Indies, and the Australian selectors always seemed to recall him when a series against them was close. But after 1988 he never appeared in the Test side again. Voted out as captain in a move instigated by Geoff Marsh saw Wood ousted as the Western Australian Captain, a move that was self-serving as Marsh had a view on the Australian captaincy which Allan Border had tied up.

Graeme Wood's Test career batting performance.

In first-class cricket, Wood scored 13,353 runs, making 35 centuries and 61 half centuries. As the captain of Western Australia he led the team to victory in three Sheffield Shield finals and another in the limited overs competition.

Other sports

Prior to making his Test debut in 1978, Wood played Australian rules football for the East Fremantle Football Club in the West Australian National Football League, playing 14 games between 1975 and 1977.^[1]

Administration

In February 2007 Wood became chief executive of the Western Australian Cricket Association. He retired from the WACA in October 2011, replaced by Christina Matthews.

References

External links

• Cricinfo article on Graeme Wood

Australia squad – 1983 Cricket World Cup
1 Hughes (c) 2 Border 3 Chappell 4 Hogan 5 Hogg 6 Hookes 7 Lawson 8 Lillee 9 MacLeay 10 Marsh (wk) 11 Thomson 12 Wessels 13 Wood 14 Yallop

Western Australia squad – 1977-78 Sheffield Shield Competition
1 Terry Alderman 2 Ian Brayshaw 3 Ric Charlesworth 4 Wayne Clark 5 G Colgan 6 Wally Edwards 7 Sam Gannon 8 K Hagdorn 9 Kim Hughes 10 John Inverarity 11 Tony Mann 12 Geoff Marsh 13 PA Nicholls 14 PA O'Meara 15 Graeme Porter 16 Craig Serjeant 17 Greg Shipperd 18 Graeme Wood 19 Kevin Wright 20 Bruce Yardley