The tall and assertive Matthew Elliott – known to all as Herb after the famous Australian athlete – played for Glamorgan at various times between 2000 and 2007. His first season in Wales saw the Welsh county play at Lord’s in the final of the Benson and Hedges Cup, whilst during 2004 he played several important innings as the Club won One-Day League.
Indeed, 2004 was Herb’s most productive summer in Glamorgan’s ranks with the left-handed opener scoring four centuries and helping to lay the foundation of several successful run chases, as the Welsh county won promotion into Division One of the County Championship. He ended a prolific summer as the Club’s leading run-scorer with 1,346 first-class runs to his name and returned to the Australian Test side for the series with Sri Lanka
Herb played in 21 Tests for Australia, although the Victorian’s international career was halted as he damaged a knee colliding in the field with Mark Waugh at Sydney in 1996/97. He subsequently regained full fitness and was the leading run scorer on the Ashes tour in 1997, during which Herb made a highly impressive 199 in the Test Match at Headingley and was fittingly chosen as one of Wisden`s Cricketer of the Year in 1998.
However, he was beset by another knee injury in mid-June 2005 and missed the remainder of the season with Glamorgan. After rehabilitation in Australia, Herb returned to State cricket, and in 2006/07 was the Ford Ranger Player of the Year in Australian one-day cricket. `Herb` originally agreed to rejoin Yorkshire, for whom he had played in 2002, for the start of the 2007 season as a temporary replacement for Younis Khan who was on World Cup duty. But the early elimination of Pakistan from the competition meant that Younis was now fully available for Yorkshire, and with Jimmy Maher not joining Glamorgan until mid-May, Herb spent the first six weeks of the 2007 season back in Wales.
Herb retired from playing at the end of the 2007/08 season to focus on his career as an engineer, but he subsequently became a batting consultant and youth coach for Victoria, working alongside David Hemp his former Glamorgan colleague. During February 2017 Herb was appointed to a coaching role at Australia’s National Cricket Centre in Brisbane.
ELLIOTT, Matthew Thomas Gray
Born – Chelsea, Victoria, 28th September 1971.
Best performances for Glamorgan:
In first-class cricket – 177 v Sussex at Colwyn Bay, 2000.
In List A cricket – 156 v Dorset at Bournemouth, 2000.
In T20 cricket – 52* v Gloucestershire at Sophia Gardens, 2005.
| M | I | NO | RUNS | AV | 100 | 50 | CT | ST | |
| First-class | 39 | 67 | 1 | 3419 | 51.80 | 10 | 17 | 46 | – |
| List A | 44 | 42 | 9 | 1859 | 56.33 | 4 | 11 | 21 | – |
| T20 | 9 | 9 | 1 | 276 | 34.50 | – | 2 | 3 | – |
| Balls | M | R | W | AV | 5wI | 10wM | |
| First-class | 159 | 5 | 89 | 0 | – | – | – |
| List A | 86 | 1 | 89 | 0 | – | – | – |