Victor Trumper

Victor Trumper Biography

Romantic memories may be tinged with hyperboles, exaggerations, myths and fables, but one cannot deny that Victor Trumper reigns the mindscape of cricket fans as few ever have.

The thrill of Trumper’s batsmanship, the gallantry and gaiety, the unbridled sense of adventure and zest and joy of being at the crease, is brilliantly captured in the famed photograph clicked by George Beldam. In it Trumper is seen striding out to drive, yards and yards beyond his crease. According to Gideon Haigh, it achieves the synthesis of orthodox and spontaneity that defined Trumper’s batting. It is also a snapshot of cricket’s Golden Age and its most cherished icon.

However, at the top of the order, Trumper was not all style and excitement. There was plenty of substance cloaked by the dazzling silk of his art and craft. Trumper scored with élan and quickly, was successful enough to boast one of the best averages of his era of non-standardised wickets, and ranks as one of the best ever on wet, soggy wickets.

Indeed, it was largely his exploits on the difficult wickets of England in the summer of 1902, one of the wettest experienced in England, aided by the need of a sporting icon in the newly created republic of Australia, that pitch-forked Trumper as a folk-hero from which pedestal even the genius of Don Bradman found it difficult to dislodge him.

His form fluctuated at times, later English trips were not that successful. Scarlet Fever weakened him and he died tragically young from Bright’s disease at the age of 37. The ephemerality combined with the allure of his strokeplay to create the lore of Trumper, but if we look past the legend and get down to the numbers associated with his batting, even then the story remains eloquent.

Clem Hill perhaps enjoyed a better record, especially against tougher oppositions. Jack Hobbs outscored him during the seven-year period when the start of his great career’s graph intersected with the second half of Trumper’s flight across the cricket skies. Aubrey Faulkner scored quite a substantial amount of runs at a better average. Other than that, there were not any challengers. And none of them, Hobbs included, could match the elegance and artistry of the flashing blade.

Comparisons with Bradman are fanciful and flawed, but often indulged in by cricketers and scribes of the past and present. Far-fetched though they are, they underline the genius of the man and the everlasting impression he created on the noble game. “No matter how many runs Bradman makes, Vic Trumper’s name comes up time and again, and his great deeds are discussed. He took a hold on the hearts and minds of the people in England as no other batsman has done,” said CB Fry. It seems to persist even to this day, more than a century after his death.

Arunabha Sengupta

Victor Trumper Batting & Fielding Averages

Career	M	In	R	NO	HS	Avg	BF	SR	100s	50s	4s	6s	Ct	St
Test	48	89	3163	8	214*	39.04	1364	231.8	8	13	236	--	31	0
ODIs	0	--	--	--		--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
T20s	0	--	--	--		--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	0	--	--	--		--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--

Victor Trumper Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	48	546	317	8	39.62	3.483	68.	0	0	3/60	3/87
ODIs	0	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
T20s	0	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	0	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--		--

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