Writers at the wicket: 10 famous authors who played cricket

Considering his love for the game, Lord Byron’s Muse might as well have been cricket

EW Hornung

Though his poor health did not permit him to play the game regularly, Hornung created one of literature’s most dashing characters, AF Raffles, a gentleman thief. The second most popular fictional character of his time, behind Sherlock Holmes, Raffles was a cricketer by day and thief by night.

George Orwell noted that it was Raffles cricketing background that allowed Hornung to draw the ‘sharpest moral contrasts’.

Doyle’s brother-in-law, Hornung occasionally featured in the Author’s XI.

---

Lord Byron

The leading poet of the Romantic Movement, Lord Byron was a cricketer for his school, though a poor one. He represented Harrow in the very first Eton v Harrow match at Lord’s, which then went one to become one of the longest running annual sporting fixtures in the world.