Harold Rhodes

Harold James Rhodes was better known as Dusty Rhodes and is a former English cricketer. He was born and brought up in Derbyshire in England and played domestic cricket with Derbyshire from 1953 till 1975 and also for MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) from 1959 till 1963. Rhodes also played one day matches for Nottinghamshire from 1970 till 1973.

Rhodes is the son of an all-rounder cricketer, Albert “Dusty” Rhodes who later became a well known umpire and stood for test matches. Albert also played for Derbyshire in the year 1953 however both father and son never played the same first-class match.

At the start of his career, Harold was an off-spinner but soon he converted to a seam bowler and since 1959 was a regular opening bowler alongside Les Jackson. The same season, he played against India at a test match and dismissed nine batsmen. During that time Rhodes had faced a lot of competition from Fred Trueman and Brian Statham.

In 1960, when playing for Derbyshire, umpire and a former test cricketer Paul Gibb raised questions on the legality of his bowling and dubbed his actions for “throwing”. In the same season, he was no-balled by Syd Buller, a renowned umpire in those days and again by Gibb. These events led to a lone term examination of Rhodes bowling tactics by MCC committees and although they cleared him of the charges, his test cricket career was long gone.

Rhodes had a hyper-extended arm that made people believe his normal and legal bowling actions to be caused due to “throwing”. Later, he continued to play for Derbyshire and retired in 1969. His first class career ended with a batting average of 9.48 and a bowling average of 19.70. His best bowling figures stand at 7 wickets for 38 runs. His bowling average for test matches is 27.11 with best bowling figures of 4 wickets for 50 runs.

Career Highlights

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