West Indian all-rounder Carl Hooper’s career in numbers

Batsman, bowler, fielder and captain. Carl Hooper probably did everything during his 15-year International career for the Windies except being a wicketkeeper. Hooper was often regarded as Cool Carl for his calm nature and success as a batsman, off-spinner and a 2nd slip fielder where he converted the chances produced by his pace attack of Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh. He led the Windies between 1997 and 2003 in the phase which brought the best out of him as a batsman.

On occasion of Carl Hooper’s 51st birthday, we look at his career numbers and achievements:

1 – Carl Hooper was the first player in history with the triple of 10000 runs, 300 wickets and 200 catches in International cricket. Jacques Kallis and Sanath Jayasuriya achieved the double after Hooper.

2 – Number of cricketers in the history till date with 5000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches both Test and ODI cricket. Carl Hooper was the first to achieve this feat while Jacques Kallis was the 2nd and the last one so far.

3 – Hooper was only the 3rd player when he completed 5000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in ODI cricket after Vivian Richards and Steve Waugh. Eight players achieved this triple after Hooper in this format.

4 – Number of players with 5000 runs, 100 wickets and 100 catches in Test cricket till date including Carl Hooper. Gary Sobers and Ian Botham are the two who achieved this triple in this format prior to Hooper while Kallis did it after him.

18 – Hooper scored centuries against 18 different county teams, a feat that is achieved by only Mark Ramprakash and Chris Adams.

58.13 – Hooper’s batting average in the Windies First-Class competition is the 3rd best for any player. He aggregated 3372 runs in 66 innings with 13 hundreds and 12 fifties. His best season was the 2001/02 in which he scored 954 runs at an average of 95.4 with a record of four hundreds and four fifties.

13357 – Hooper’s 13357 runs in List A cricket are the 5th most by a West Indian. Vivian Richards (16995), Gordon Greenidge (16349), Desmond Haynes (15651) and Brian Lara (14602) have scored more than Hooper in this format.

Hooper also bagged 396 wickets and taken 242 catches in the List A cricket. Graham Gooch is the only player with 5000+ runs, 250+ wickets and 250+ catches in this format. Hooper missed out on joining this list by mere eight catches.