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Walter Reginald Hammond (June 19, 1903 - July 1, 1965), often known as Wally Hammond, was an English cricketer, who played for Gloucestershire and England, primarily as a batsman, in a career that straddled (and was disrupted by) the Second World War. His Test batting average of 58.45 presently stands tenth in the all-time list.
Hammond is regarded as one of the best batsmen in the history of cricket: his Wisden obituary put him in a class with W. G. Grace, Jack Hobbs and Sir Donald Bradman, and on the centenary of his birth the Wisden Cricinfo website's editor ranked him second only to Bradman. The Don was five years his junior, and the comparisons apparently rankled with Hammond for years. Apart from his batting talents, he was one of the best slip fielders in the game and also a useful right-arm medium-fast bowler.
Hammond started his career as a professional but became an amateur in 1938, allowing him to captain England, a position to which professionals were not then appointed. He also captained both Gentlemen and Players. He retired from the captaincy, and from cricket, after a disappointing tour of Australia in 1946-7, in which he was comprehensively outshone by Bradman.
After 1946-7 Hammond only played two more first-class games, for MCC in 1950 and Gloucestershire in 1951. He emigrated to South Africa, where he died in 1965.
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