I'm indebted to the Melbourne statistician Charles Davis for reminding me that his treatise on fast scorers, which was the lead article in the 2004-05
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack Australia, also unmasked Test cricket's dawdlers. Mr Davis - who runs his own statistical website
sportstats.com.au - researched all the Test matches for which no official scorebook survives, and made estimates of the balls faced by each batsman based on the length of innings and the prevailing over rate during the innings. It might only be an estimate, but, he says, "It is far, far more accurate than might be expected." His calculations suggest that
Alec Bannerman, the brother of the first Test centurion Charles, was actually the slowest runscorer of them all, with 1108 runs at between 22 and 23 per 100 balls in Tests. Of those with more than 1000 Test runs, Trevor Bailey lies second with 26-27 runs per 100 balls, and Jim Burke third with 28-29. William Scotton, the defensive batsman mentioned in last week's column as a noted early stonewaller, averaged between 22-23 per 100 balls, similar to Bannerman, but scored only 510 Test runs. Mr Davis adds that, since he completed that article, he has collected more information that suggests that
Geoff Rabone, the New Zealander who scored 562 runs in 12 Tests between 1949 and 1954-55, might have scored at a rate even slower than Bannerman, at just under 22 runs per 100 balls.