Alexander Chalmers 'Alec' Bannerman, younger brother of Test cricket's first centurion Charles Bannerman, played 28 Tests for Australia between 1879 and 1893 as the most determined defensive opener of the 19th century. Where Charles attacked, Alec stonewalled. He never made a Test century in 50 innings; his highest was 94. His patience was a moral asset to a young Test side that could not yet match the depth of England's batting.
The Bannerman brothers were among the small group of Sydney cricketers who formed the core of Australian Test cricket from 1877 onwards. Charles was the dazzling original; Alec the durable, defensive successor.
By the early 1880s, with Charles's career fading, Alec was an automatic Australian opener. His method was already considered eccentric — too slow, too cautious — but tour after tour the runs accumulated and his place was never seriously threatened.
Alec Bannerman was born at Paddington, Sydney, on 21 March 1854, eight years after his elder brother Charles. He was small (around 5 ft 4 in), wiry and intensely serious about the technical side of batting. He made his Test debut at Melbourne in January 1879, taking the place his brother had once filled, and remained an Australian opener for 14 years across nine tours and series.
There was no resemblance between the brothers' styles. Charles had hit the first ball ever bowled in a Test for runs and had made the inaugural Test century (165 retired hurt in March 1877). Alec, by contrast, blocked, padded, left and accumulated. He scored at less than 30 runs an hour for almost his entire Test career; in one famous innings against England at Sydney in 1891-92, he scored 91 in seven hours.
The statistics: 28 Tests, 1,108 runs at 23.03, no centuries, six fifties, top score 94. He made six centuries in first-class cricket and four of those came on tour in England. In the inaugural England-Australia Test on English soil — at the Oval in 1880 — Alec opened in his brother's absence and is often credited with scoring the first Test run made on English ground.
Bannerman's fielding was excellent, particularly at point, where he was rated alongside the best of his era. He toured England in 1880, 1882, 1884, 1886, 1888 and 1893 — six tours, a 19th-century Australian record matched only by Murdoch and Blackham.
After retiring he became a coach with the New South Wales Cricket Association and a respected umpire. He died at Sydney in 1924, the last survivor of the Australian XI that won the Oval Test in 1882.
21 Mar 1854: Born at Paddington, Sydney.
Jan 1879: Test debut v England at Melbourne.
Sep 1880: Opens at Oval — first Test in England.
1882: Member of Oval Test side that wins by 7 runs.
1884: Highest first-class score on tour of England.
Six Australian tours of England (1880, 1882, 1884, 1886, 1888, 1893).
1891-92: 91 in seven hours v England at Sydney.
1893: Last Test, aged 39.
1924: Dies at Sydney, last survivor of the 1882 XI.
21 Mar 1854
Born at Paddington, Sydney.
Jan 1879
Test debut at Melbourne.
Sep 1880
Opens at Oval — first Test on English soil.
Aug 1882
Plays in Oval Test that births the Ashes.
1880-1893
Six tours of England as Australian opener.
Mar 1893
Last Test, aged 39.
19 Sep 1924
Dies at Sydney.
“Bannerman is almost strokeless, but his judgment of length and his patience are without rival.”
Bannerman's coaching role with NSW shaped a generation of Australian batsmen, including Victor Trumper. His umpiring career added respectability to a profession not yet fully professionalised in Australia.
Australia's first true defensive opener — the patient counterweight to his attacking elder brother and a one-man advertisement for the value of occupation of the crease in the era before time limits.
Alec Bannerman is the prototype of every Australian opener who has prized survival over flourish — Bill Brown, Bill Lawry, Justin Langer in their pure-defence moods. The Bannermans are the first family in Test cricket: the man who hit the first ball for four (Charles) and the man who blocked the next thousand (Alec).
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.