Robert Graeme Pollock (born 27 February 1944) is a former cricketer for South Africa, Transvaal and Eastern Province.

[2][5][6] Despite Pollock's international career being cut short at the age of 26 by the sporting boycott of South Africa, and all but one of his 23 Test matches being against England and Australia, the leading cricket nations of the day,[5] he broke a number of records.

His completed career Test match batting average (twenty innings minimum) of 60.97 remains the third best behind Sir Don Bradman and Adam Voges.

His grandfather was a Presbyterian minister,[9] and his father, Andrew, was a former first-class cricketer with Orange Free State and the editor of the Eastern Province Herald.

[9][10] As a youth, Pollock earned the nickname Little Dog:[11] The name arose when his brother [Peter], with voice still unbroken, made queer-sounding appeals for l.b.w.

[20] The highlight of his season was scoring 209 not out for an Eastern Province Invitational XI against the International Cavaliers, which included bowlers such as Richie Benaud and Graham McKenzie.

[12][25] Pollock was not successful in the Second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, making 16 and 2 as South Africa were heavily defeated by eight wickets.

England won the First Test at Kingsmead convincingly by an innings and 104 runs, with Pollock making 5 and a first ball duck.

[29] In the final Test at St George's Park, Pollock made 137 in the first innings, with Wisden Cricketers' Almanack describing it as "a splendid century, distinguished by many drives past cover and mid-on.

John Woodcock wrote in The Cricketer, "Not since Bradman's day could anyone recall having seen an English attack treated in such cavalier style."

Swanton wrote in The Daily Telegraph that it was an innings "which in point of style and power, of ease and beauty of execution is fit to rank with anything in the annals of the game.

[36] Describing Pollock's innings, Wisden said "[he] looked without peer and his timing, placing and wristwork were an object lesson for the purist.

[38] The Third Test was played at Kingsmead in Durban and Pollock made 67 not out in the second innings, with Ali Bacher batting South Africa to an eight wicket victory.

[41] For the series, Pollock scored 537 runs at an average of 76.71, trailing only Denis Lindsay on both measures for the South Africans.

Pollock had a poor series by his standards, but he did make 114 in the final match at The Oval, sharing in a fifth wicket partnership of 165 with Gary Sobers.

International isolation was keenly felt by the South African team at the time, including Pollock, and the players took measures to try to reverse the looming sporting boycott.

[45] In 1971, Pollock took part in a protest organised by Barry Richards and Mike Procter against the South African government's apartheid policy as it referred to cricket.

During a match to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the formation of the Republic of South Africa, the players from both teams walked off after one ball, issuing a joint statement: We cricketers feel that the time has come for an expression of our views.

[45]During South Africa's international isolation, Pollock played in 16 unofficial Test matches against breakaway teams from England, Sri Lanka, the West Indies and Australia.

In 1974–75 Pollock scored 222 not out for Eastern Province against Border in the Gillette Cup,[48] this was the first double century in List A cricket and remained the highest individual innings until 2002 when surpassed by Ali Brown.

[52] Pollock, together with Gary Sobers, was honoured by being chosen to present the match awards following the 2003 Cricket World Cup Final in Johannesburg.

[55] His style of batting was aggressive, not waiting for poor deliveries when looking to score: Pollock does not need a half-volley or a long hop to score fours: he will drive on the up, or cut, force and pull anything even fractionally short of a good lengthAside from his batting abilities, Pollock was also an occasional leg-spinner.