First-class record

Matches: 84
Runs: 1369
Top score: 64
Batting average: 15.04
Wickets: 249
Best bowling: 8/57
Bowling average: 28.54

Who was the first player from a non-Test nation to be named one of Wisden's cricketers of the year? Given the qualification of influence on the English season, most people would probably guess at one of the players from non-Test countries to have played for England, perhaps Tim O'Brien, or more recently Dermot Reeve, Dougie Brown or Ed Joyce.

None of those would be right though. The correct answer would be Argentina's Clement Gibson, who was chosen as one of five public school cricketers of the year in 1918, due to the absence of first-class cricket because of the war.

Born in 1900 in Entre Rios, Argentina, Gibson attended Eton, which was where he was playing when selected by Wisden. In 1919, he played two County Championship matches for Sussex, before he began to attend Cambridge University. He played for the University in 1920 and 1921, gaining his blue in both years. He was eventually described by his Wisden obituary in 1977 as being part of the most formidable bowling partnership the university had ever produced.

The match that brought him to fame was for Archie MacLaren's England XI against Australia in 1921. He had already played twice against Australia that year, but the third match was the most successful. He went wicket-less in the first innings, but took 6/64 in the second to lead the England XI to a 28 run victory.

Had there been an England tour that winter, Gibson would surely have been selected, but instead he made his international debut for his native Argentina in a three match series against Brazil in December 1921/January 1922. His bowling wasn't at its best in the two matches he played, but he returned to form in the 1922 North v South match, when he took 6/16 to help bowl the North out for 39 in their first innings, leading eventually to a seven wicket win for the South.

He went on Argentina's tour of Brazil in 1922, taking 18 wickets at 15.39, finally showing his bowling ability for his national side. He was then selected to go on an MCC tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1922/23, playing 14 further first-class matches. He took 8/57 against Canterbury on the New Zealand leg of the tour, his best first-class bowling figures.

He had impressed enough on that tour to be selected for the Ashes tour of Australia in 1924/25, though he had to refuse the invitation due to commitments in Argentina. In 1926, he returned to play county cricket, playing a full season with Sussex, though that would be the last time he played for them. That winter, he played four first-class matches for Argentina against the MCC, and began to captain the South of Argentina in the annual North v South match.

His next first-class cricket came in March 1930 when he played three times for Argentina against Julien Cahn's XI. He played three matches in England in 1931, two for the MCC and captained the combined South American side that toured in 1932 and played six first-class matches.

It would be five years before Gibson played first-class cricket again, though he continued to play in Argentine cricket, eventually moving to play for the North in the annual North v South match. He played for Argentina in their three first-class matches against Theodore Brinckman's XI in 1937/38, Argentina's last first-class matches to date, and played for the MCC against Oxford University in 1939, his final first-class match.

He played his last North v South match in 1940, and died in Buenos Aries after a short illness on New Years Eve, 1976.