Peter Maclean Pollock (born 30 June 1941) is a retired South African cricketer. He has played a continuing role in the

South Africa cricket team The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council (I ...

as a player and selector. He was voted a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in 1966. He was primarily a

fast bowler Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

, but was also a useful late-order

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

Family and personal life

Pollock is of Scottish ancestry through his father Andrew Pollock, who was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

to a minister and moved to present-day South Africa. Peter's brother,

Graeme Pollock Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944) is a former cricketer for South Africa, Transvaal and Eastern Province. A member of a famous cricketing family, Pollock is widely regarded as one of South Africa's greatest ever cricketers, and as ...

, an acclaimed left hand batsman, was a regular player for the South African cricket team at the same time as Peter, and two of his nephews also played first-class cricket, both for Transvaal and Leicestershire amongst other sides. Perhaps most famous of all is his son,

Shaun Pollock Shaun Maclean Pollock OIS (born 16 July 1973) is a South African cricket commentator and former cricketer, who was captain in all formats of the game. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fast bowlers and allrounders of all time. A genu ...

, who played 108 Tests and over 300

ODIs ODIS, or the Offender Data Information System is a web based, computerized records management software application to improve the capture, maintenance and quality of law enforcement data that is capable of running in any combination of centralize ...

for South Africa and is widely regarded as one of the finest

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

s to ever play the game. Peter attended

Grey High School Grey High School is a semi-private English speaking high school (grades 8 - 12) for boys situated in the suburb of Mill Park in Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the top sporting schools in the country, w ...

, a school famous for its sporting achievements, with his brother Graeme.

Career

On his debut, he took six wickets in the second innings against New Zealand in Durban in 1961. He was South Africa's leading bowler in the 1960s, playing every Test between 1962 and 1970. Perhaps the highlight of his career came alongside that of his brother when they were both playing in a Test match at

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is als ...

in 1965. Peter took ten wickets in the match with innings figures of 5 for 53 and 5 for 34, while his brother Graeme, batting, made 125 and 59. South Africa won the match, and with it the three-Test series. Peter and Graeme were leading figures involved in the famous Walk-off at Newlands in 1971 as a protest against apartheid and political interference in cricket.

Post-retirement

Pollock was convenor of selectors for South Africa in the 1990s, immediately following their re-admittance into world cricket after the collapse of

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

. He is often credited with establishing the work ethic and style of play (based on tight

fast bowling Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. ...

) that led to the team rapidly rising to become one of the top two teams in the game. Later, he led calls for the famous fast bowler

Allan Donald Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the current bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his lightning quick bowling, he is considered ...

to retire from the game when that player became very injury-prone due to his age. Pollock is an Honorary Life Member of the MCC. Outside cricket, Peter was a journalist and company director and is now an international evangelist. He has written books on cricket and Christian belief.

References

Books

*''Bouncers and Boundaries'' (with Graeme Pollock) (1968) *''The Thirty Tests'' (1978) *''Clean Bowled'' (1985) *''God's Fast Bowler'' (2001) *''The Winning Factor'' (2004) *''Into the Light '' (2012)

External links