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Full name | John James Ferris | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born |
Sydney, Australia |
21 June 1867|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 17 November 1900 Durban, South Africa |
(aged 33)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Batting style | Left-handed batsman (LHB) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bowling style | Left-arm medium fast | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Test debut | 28 January 1887 Australia v England |
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Last Test | 22 March 1892 England v South Africa |
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Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source: [1]
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John James Ferris (21 May 1867 in Sydney – 17 November 1900 in Durban), a left-arm swing bowler, was one of the few cricketers to play Test cricket for more than one country.
Born in Sydney, Australia, Ferris made his first-class debut for New South Wales against Alfred Shaw's touring English team on his home ground in 1886/87. He took seven wickets in the match, including five in the second innings, and after several more good displays was selected for the first Test, also at Sydney. The England first innings was a disaster as they collapsed to what remains their lowest Test total of 45 all out, Ferris bowling unchanged with Charlie Turner, but despite his nine wickets in the game England, inspired by Billy Barnes' second-innings 6–28, scraped to a 13-run win.
Ferris took another nine-wicket haul in the second Test, but again England were victorious, though in the only Test of the 1887/88 tour he could manage "only" six as the Englishmen came out on top yet again. He went with the Australians to England in 1888, and at Lord's for the first time in his career played in a winning Test side, his partnership with Turner accounting for no less than eighteen England wickets as Australia recorded a 61-run win. The Ashes remained in England, however, as the home side won the other two Tests. In 1889 Ferris was named as one of the first Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
He went to England again in 1890, taking 13 wickets in another series defeat and no less than 186 in the season as a whole, but then moved there permanently, playing a single Test for his adopted country against South Africa in 1891/92. Coincidentally, his former Australian team-mate Billy Murdoch also made his first England appearance in this match, which was not given Test status until some time later. Ferris' performance helped crush the home side by an innings and 189 runs, but it was to prove his final international appearance. He had taken 61 Test wickets at an average of just 12.70; only George Lohmann had a better career average.