5 Famous cricketers who endured extreme poverty after retirement

#1. Wally Hammond

Hammond smashed more than 50,000 runs in his first-class career

Wally Hammond was an all-time English great who represented his nation in 85 tests between 1927 and 1947. Hammond represented Gloucestershire in his first-class career from 1920 to 1951. He was considered to be the best English batsman of the 1930s along with being one of the best slip fielders ever.

His career aggregate of 7249 runs was the highest in Test cricket until surpassed by Colin Cowdrey in 1970. His total of 22 Test centuries remained an English record for 73 years until Alastair Cook surpassed it in December 2012. Hammond also set the record for the highest individual Test innings of 336 not out in 1933 which was surpassed by Len Hutton after 5 years.

Post-retirement Hammond moved to South Africa and joined an automobile company, which went bankrupt a few years later. Hammond then started his coaching career at the Natal University but could not make enough money. When he died of heart attack in 1965, the cricketing world came together to raise a memorial fund for his wife and three children