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Even the briefest look at the batting statistics in Wisden would seem to assure Graeme Hick a place among the greatest batsmen ever to play the game in this country.

He is only the seventh player in the history of the game to make 100 centuries for their county - and has done it in by far the shortest period.

Of his contemporaries only Geoff Boycott, with 151, has scored more first class hundreds.

He's also scored more hundreds than the legendary WG Grace.

With an average of over 50 and a top score of 405 not out, made as a 21-year-old against Somerset, no-one playing cricket today can come remotely close to him in terms of runs scored.

And yet there are still detractors who say the statistics don't tell the full tale.

They'd point to the fact that for all his dominance in the county game Hick never made the expected impact playing for England - he made six hundreds in his 65 international appearances.

Accusations that he is a 'flat track bully' aren't born out by the fact that he has made the majority of his centuries at New Road, where the regular flooding can change the character of the pitch from year to year.

The runs have continued to flow from his bat season after season, and he's remained loyal to the county that gave him his first chance, rather than chase the limelight with a more 'high-profile' club.

_{Early days}

Graeme Hick was born in Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, in 1966, and it was apparent from very early on that he was prodigious cricketing talent - he made his first hundred when he was six years old.

He first came to New Road when he was still in his teens, after a successful year playing in the Birmingham league.

He arrived on a Saturday and went straight into a match.

On the website for his testimonial year he describes the experience:

"I've been very fortunate, I didn't expect to be here more than a year when I first came.

"I had a good year in league cricket in Birmingham, so I decided to stay for a second term.

"I'd come from a different life, a school kid, who'd grown up in a disciplined society.

"I was 17, 18... and I looked on it as a great adventure."

Twenty years on, the sight of Graeme Hick in full flow, at New Road or anywhere else, is a thing of joy - unless, that is, you are a member of the bowling attack.