Gary Ballance

He is also distantly related to John Timms, a cricketer who played for Northamptonshire County Cricket Club from 1925 to 1949.

He attended Springvale House and Peterhouse Boys' School.

Gary Simon Ballance (born 22 November 1989) is a Zimbabwean former cricketer who represented England internationally from 2013 to 2017, and also represented Zimbabwe in 2023.

He is a left-handed batsman and a leg break bowler, who last played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

He was born in Harare, Zimbabwe.

He is known for his style of striking deep in the crease.

He qualified to play for England through residency and British passports.

He had a promising start to his Test career.

In his first ten Test matches, he scored 1017 runs in 17 innings at an average of 67.93, putting him behind only Sir Donald Bradman in the list of batsmen with both 1000+ test runs and an average of above 60.

Ballance first played in the Second XI Championship in 2006, having made five appearances for Zimbabwe in the 2006 Under-19 World Cup, in which the team finished in sixth place.

In the final match for the team, Ballance scored a half-century, gaining notice from Derbyshire and earned the chance to sign for the team in 2006.

He played his first limited overs match two weeks later, having performed in the Derbyshire Second XI.

After representing Zimbabwe in cricket at various age levels, he moved to England in 2006.

He attended Harrow School for two years, where he was in the same team as Sam Northeast.

Playing for Harrow, he scored a century against Eton College at Lord's. Ballance is related to former Zimbabwean cricket captain David Houghton through his father, who is a cousin of David's wife.

He obtained a sports scholarship in 2006 to Harrow and then moved to Derbyshire as an overseas player where he shared dressing room with his relative Dave Houghton, a fact which he barely knew at that time.

Ballance signed for Derbyshire for the 2006 season, playing exclusively in their second XI.

At the end of the 2007 season, Ballance left Derbyshire to sign academy terms with Yorkshire.

He made his England debut on 3 September 2013 in an ODI against Ireland.

In November 2014, he won the ICC Men's Emerging Cricketer of the Year during the 2014 ICC Awards.

In 2014, Ballance was reportedly seen taking his shirt off during a night out in Nottingham nightclub as he was in celebration mode in an inebriated state enjoying and relieving about the memories of his own bowling when he eventually bowled a maiden over in the first test against India which ended in a draw.

Ballance was also quoted as saying he was "absolutely fucked" and that he told fans in Pandora's Box "I'm not a cricketer tonight. I'm a drunken bellend."

He revealed that his captain Cook had asked whether he was interested in bowling an over and Ballance accepted the captain's offer and delivered an over.

On 25 April 2015, Ballance became the third fastest England Test cricketer to reach 1,000 runs, a feat which he achieved during the second Test against West Indies.

However, his test career failed to take off with inconsistent performances.

His next 13 matches yielded two half-centuries and an aggregate of 481 runs at an average of 19.04, a sharp contrast to his first set of 10 test appearances.

Ballance was named a Cricketer of the Year in the 2015 edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Following an investigation into racism at Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Ballance released a statement admitting that he was one of the players who had used racial slurs against fellow player Azeem Rafiq.

Following this announcement, he was suspended from selection by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

In 2022 it was confirmed that, having served a period of ineligibility, Ballance was eligible for selection by Zimbabwe, and had agreed a contract to do so from 2022 onwards before retiring in 2023.

Ballance was born and raised in Zimbabwe, where his parents were tobacco farmers.

He grew and raised up in a village near Mutare, on the border of Mozambique.

The tobacco farm was later confiscated by the Government of Zimbabwe which was under the helm of president Robert Mugabe.

He was sent to boarding school at the age of five.

He had also occasionally played field hockey, tennis and rugby union for Zimbabwe in age group categories.

However, he decided to change his mind at the age of 13 that his future would be on playing cricket.

It is believed that Ballance has British roots through his grandparents with one of them having flown to the RAF during the World War II.

Ballance married his wife Alex in December 2018.

His wife Alex is a speech and language therapist hails from Middlesbrough.

Ballance is colour blind and consequently struggles to see a pink ball when batting.