Today's sporting birthdays: Pollock, Kiplagat, Shelvey

Sport360 staff 07:10 27/02/2017
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  • South Africa’s outstanding player of the 20th century and arguably the best left-hand batsman the game has ever produced celebrates his 73rd birthday today.

    Graeme Pollock only played 23 Tests, but ‘The Little Dog’ showed enough tenacity and class in those games to place him in the conversation with the all-time greats.

    His score of 274 against Australia was for a long time a Test record for South Africa.

    A powerful batsman, he possessed a natural timing of the ball.

    His career Test match batting average of 60.97 remains second only to Sir Donald Bradman. Pollock scored his maiden first-class century at just 16 and then notched his first Test hundred at 19 against the Aussies.

    Pollock’s career was cut short by the sporting boycott at 26 but he now sits on the South African selection committee.

    Other sports stars born on this day

    1980: Scott Prince, is an ex NRL star and winner of the Clive Churchill Medal after his 2005 Grand Final win (37).

    1981: Elodie Ouedraogo, won Olympic gold as part of the Belgian 4x100m relay team in 2008 (36).

    1987: Florence Kiplagat, is a Kenyan long-distance runner and former half marathon world record holder (30).

    1992: Jonjo Shelvey plays for Newcastle and is widely argued to be the best midfielder in the Championship (25).

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