Jim Higgs
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| Full name | James Donald Higgs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born |
11 July 1950 Kyabram, Victoria |
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| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling style | Legbreak googly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Source: Cricinfo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
James Donald "Jim" Higgs (born 11 July 1950, Kyabram, Victoria) is a former Australian leg spinner who played in 22 Tests from 1978 to 1981. In the words of Gideon Haigh "Jim Higgs was Australia's best legspinner between Richie Benaud and Warne. His misfortune was to play at a time when wrist-spin was nearly extinct, thought to be the preserve only of the eccentric and the profligate, and so to find selectors and captains with little empathy with his guiles."
Higgs began his district cricket career at Melbourne University, where he studied civil engineering. He took 132 district wickets before transferring to Richmond in 1972.
He made his début for Victoria against Western Australia in 1970-71, taking four wickets. His best performances that summer was taking five wickets against South Australia. He had to take some time off from cricket in November due to exams, thus missing games against the touring English XI.
During the 1971-72 season, Higgs took his first five wicket haul at first class level with 5-162 against South Australia. He picked up eight wickets against West Australia and four against South Australia.
At the start of the 1972-73 season there was some talk Higgs might be a possibility for a spot in the squad to tour the West Indies at the end of the summer. However his form was less impressive, apart from six wickets against South Australia, and he was dropped from the Victorian side and replaced by Ray Bright.
Higgs started the following summer strongly with seven wickets against Queensland but was never as successful again – indeed he was made 12th man for some games. However, in a Richmond versus Northcote game he took 8 for 19.
1974–75 was Higgs' breakthrough season. He took 8-66 and 3-52 against Western Australia, 3-107 against the touring English, five against Queensland, eight against NSW and six against South Australia. He finished the summer with 42 wickets at an average of 21.92 and was subsequently selected for the Ashes tour in 1975 to England.
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Wikipedia