Player Profiles (M-R)
See a brief summary below, or click on a player in the left panel for a more detailed profile.
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Keith Miller
When World War Two broke out in September 1939, Championship cricket was understandably suspended but unlike the situation in World War One, there was still some cricket of a high standard played between teams that were often cobbled together based on who was home on leave and /or where in the UK they were stationed.
Leonidas de Tolhedo Marcondes de Montezuma
This gentleman with such a wonderfully sounding name played eight games, as a right hand bat, for Sussex as an amateur in 1898. He also played once against Gloucestershire for the short-lived London County team run by W. G. Grace. In total he scored 271 runs for Sussex with a top score of 80 against a good Nottinghamshire attack.
Mushtaq Ahmed
Mushtaq was a chubby leg spinner who could produce a full range of leg-spin variations. He was a match-winner who was considered to be not far behind his contemporary Shane Warne. He got less bounce than Warne and couldn’t get the in-drift that Warne got but in every other respect was the equal of Warne. During his time with Sussex, he was the leading wicket-taker in the County Championship for five successive seasons, helping the county win the competition not just in 2003 but also in 2006 and 2007.
Jim Parks, senior
Jim Parks senior will always be remembered for what may become a unique achievement, scoring over 3,000 runs and taking over 100 wickets in one season. In 1937 Parks scored 3003 runs at an average of 50.89 and took 101 wickets at 25.83 each. His son, ‘Young’ Jim remarked that this achievement may have been a reaction to a family bereavement, for his wife had died the previous season and Parks may just have thrown himself in to his cricket as a way of giving himself something else to focus on.
In his record breaking season, Parks was called up to the England side for the first time in the First Test at Lords that summer against New Zealand. He opened the batting with Len Hutton, who was also making his debut, and scored 27 and 7. He also took three wickets for 16, and was then dropped.
Jim Parks, junior
James Michael Parks was the most successful member of a family that had connections with Sussex from 1924 until 1972 and together produced more than 70,000 runs for the County. He was born in Haywards Heath (like his father) in 1931, and like his father before him, Young Jim was an excellent schoolboy cricketer, playing for Hove County School before being signed up by Sussex at the age of 17.
The Nawab of Pataudi
Following on from Ranji and Duleep, Mansur Ali Khan was the third member of Indian royalty to captain Sussex. He was born in Bhopal in 1941 and became the Nawab of Pataudi in 1952 following the death of his father, also a noted cricketer. By then, the title was largely honorific although with some privileges which had been retained under a deal struck with the British upon the creation of the independent Indian state. He was generally called by the nickname Tiger Pataudi.
Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji
Within a year of making his debut for Sussex in 1895, Ranji was a huge celebrity, not just in the world of cricket but in the world of sport generally. He had an instant impact on the batting of Sussex and was soon attracting large crowds wherever he played, for the runs he scored but also the style in which he made his runs.
AE Relf
Albert joined Sussex in 1900 to start a career of twenty-one years, punctuated by the First World War, in which he distinguished himself, being awarded the Meritorious Service Medal. While with Sussex, A E played in 448 matches and scored 18,133 runs. He took 1897 wickets at an average of 20.94 and to top that off, he was an outstanding slip fielder taking 409 catches.