Ben Hollioake

Benjamin Caine Hollioake (11 November 1977 – 23 March 2002) was an English cricketer who played for Surrey County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. Born in Australia, Hollioake moved to England where he made his first-class cricketing debut for Surrey in 1996. A right-handed batsman and right-arm seam bowler, Hollioake's performances as an all-rounder saw him join his brother Adam in the 1997 England ODI team. Later that year, Adam and Ben Hollioake made their England Test debut in the same game, becoming only the third set of brothers to do so. Ben Hollioake made two Test appearances and earned 20 ODI caps before he was killed in a car crash in Australia at the age of 24.

Biography

Early life The son of an Australian engineer and his Indonesian wife, Ben Hollioake was born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1977. Hollioake got his cricketing start in Hong Kong, where the family lived for two years until he was five, before they moved on to England. He played junior cricket in Sydney, in his first organised match for Gladesville District when he was 9 years old, he took figures of 9/13 in an under-12 match. Hollioake moved to England in 1984 along with his older brother, Adam, for 2 years and then a further 3 years in Hong Kong before returning to Australia. He was educated at Millfield Preparatory School and later at Wesley College, Perth. and was named Man of the Match. England won the three-match series 3–0. His performance led the media to compare him to the great English all-rounder Ian Botham.

The following July, Hollioake produced another Man of the Match performance at Lords, this time taking two wickets and scoring 98 runs from 112 deliveries as Surrey defeated Kent in the final of the Benson & Hedges Cup. Losing his place in the team soon after, he toured Sri Lanka that winter with the England A team, scoring two centuries. scoring 14 and 0 with the bat, and bowling two for 105.

Steve James wrote in the Daily Telegraph:

Legacy Following his death, Ben's brother, Adam Hollioake and his family established the Ben Hollioake Fund to raise funds for CHASE Hospice Care for Children. A range of fundraising activities have taken place, including breaking the world record for the number of participants in a continuous 100-metre relay in 2004.

At the Hong Kong Cricket Sixes, the player of the tournament award is named in his honour, the 'Ben Hollioake Award'.

At his old club, Surrey, an apprenticeship for an up-and-coming younger player was set up in 2003, also called the 'Ben Hollioake Award'.

Honours County Championship (2) – 1999, 2000 Benson and Hedges Cup (2) – 1997, 2001