28 Facts About Alan Melville

Alan Melville was a South African cricketer who played in 11 Test matches from 1938 to 1949.

Alan Melville was born in Carnarvon, Northern Cape, South Africa and died at Sabie, Transvaal.

Alan Melville's second match was a trial for the 1929 South African tour to England and he scored 123, putting on 283 for the second Natal wicket with Jack Siedle; he took four more wickets in the game.

Alan Melville made an unbeaten century in the Freshman's trial match at Oxford and was thereafter a regular in the Oxford University side over the next four years, winning a Blue each year.

Alan Melville scored 78 in his first first-class innings for Oxford against Kent in May 1930.

Alan Melville did not maintain that form, but finished with 591 runs at an average of 32.83, plus 19 rather expensive wickets, though he was not successful with either bat or ball in the University Match against Cambridge University.

Alan Melville's record improved slightly in 1931, with 631 runs and an average of 35.05, though there were no centuries.

Alan Melville had made an unbeaten century, 113* before the collision.

Bowley was quickly hurt and retired; Alan Melville came in and began hitting the bowling; Langridge was then forced to retire hurt, but Alan Melville went on to 114 and a four-man first-wicket stand of 223.

Duleepsinhji, had stood down because of the death of his father; Scott was unable to resume in 1934, and Alan Melville took over the Sussex captaincy for the next two seasons.

Alan Melville recovered in time to lead the team through the season, and though he again missed a few matches, he had a personally successful season, heading Sussex's Championship batting averages and scoring in all matches a total of 1904 runs at an average of 40.51.

Alan Melville's side had a mixed season, falling to seventh in the County Championship.

Back in South Africa, Alan Melville became captain of the Johannesburg-based Wanderers Cricket Club and in December 1936 played his first game for Transvaal, though he did not appear in Transvaal's Currie Cup matches that season.

Alan Melville himself took a while to adapt to Test cricket.

Alan Melville was out without scoring in the only innings of the first game, one of five ducks in an innings of 390.

Van der Bijl and Alan Melville improved on their first-wicket stand in the first innings, scoring 131 before Alan Melville was out for 78.

Alan Melville served with the South African forces during the Second World War, but an injury in training brought about a recurrence of the back injury he had suffered as a teenager in 1929 and for almost a year he wore a steel jacket; Wisden wrote that "it was thought that he would never play cricket again".

The 1947 English cricket season was dominated by the run-getting exploits of Denis Compton and Bill Edrich, and the South African side led by Alan Melville suffered at the hands of both batsmen in a hot summer made for batting.

Alan Melville made centuries in the second match of the tour against Leicestershire and in the fourth match against Surrey.

Alan Melville's form took a bit of a dip when he moved up to open the innings because Dennis Dyer, the expected opening partner for Bruce Mitchell, was badly out of form.

The change proved successful in the first Test match, however: Alan Melville scored a career-best 189 in the first innings and then, when the South Africans went in wanting 227 to win the match in 140 minutes, he hit an unbeaten 104 in the second innings, though the match remained drawn.

The rest of the Lord's Test was less successful and the South Africans lost the match after being forced to follow on, with Alan Melville making just 8 in the second innings.

Alan Melville made 17 and 59 in the third Test, played at Manchester, which was lost.

The fifth Test, played in what Wisden called "extreme heat", ended in a tense draw with the South Africans, seeking 451 for what would have been a record-breaking win, finishing at 423 for seven wickets: Alan Melville dropped down the batting order in this game and scored 39 and 6.

Alan Melville was finally fit in time for the third Test, a fortnight later, and this proved to be his last Test match, and the only one in which he did not captain the South African side: used as an opening batsman, he scored 15 and 24 in a drawn match.

Alan Melville then played in a second game for Transvaal against the touring side, but failed to score in that, and ended his first-class cricket career.

In retirement, Alan Melville remained an influential figure in South African cricket and was a selector for the South African cricket team for many years.

Alan Melville died suddenly on a trip to the Kruger National Park in 1983.