Alexander John Bell (15 April 1906 – 1 August 1985) was a South African cricketer who played in 16 Test matches from 1929 to 1935.
Bell was a tail-end right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast-medium bowler. He made his first-class debut for Western Province in two matches in 1925–26 without making much impact, but returned to the team in the 1928–29 season. In his first match back, he took five Orange Free State wickets for 53 runs (and three more in the second innings). That and good performances in two other matches saw him selected for the 1929 South African tour of England.
Tour to England in 1929
As a junior member of the team, Bell played in few of the early matches, but towards the end of May he took six Gloucestershire wickets for 68 in the match at Bristol. He was then given limited opportunities in the first team in the matches leading up to the first Test match, for which he was not selected.
Injuries before the second Test to the bowlers Neville Quinn and Cyril Vincent, however, meant that he was called up for the game at Lord's. He took his opportunity: in England's first innings, following an early three-wicket burst by Denys Morkel, and then a fourth wicket for the same player, Bell took the remaining six wickets at a cost of 99 runs. Wisden Cricketers' Almanack wrote that Bell "maintained an excellent length and owed most of his success to his ability to make the ball swerve". The bowling analysis remained the best of Bell's Test career. He was not able to maintain that form, failing to take a wicket in England's second innings. But the performance, and the team's worsening injury crisis, meant he retained his place in the team for the third Test, played at Headingley. In this match, he was not successful with his bowling, but he made instead an unexpected impact with the bat: in South Africa's second innings, he came in at No 11, his customary place in the batting order, with the score on 172 for nine, a lead of only 80. He and Tuppy Owen-Smith, who made 129, then proceeded to add 103 runs for the final wicket in 65 minutes, with Bell's share an unbeaten 26, which remained his highest Test innings. The partnership was South Africa's highest for the 10th wicket and remained the record until beaten by AB de Villiers and Morne Morkel in 2010–11. Bell retained his place for the fourth match in the series, but was successful with neither ball nor bat and, after a heavy defeat for the South African team which settled the rubber in favour of England, he was dropped for the final game. In all first-class matches on the tour he took 61 wickets at an average of 27.83.
Test cricket in South Africa
In his first match in South African domestic cricket after the tour, for Western Province against Eastern Province, Bell produced the best innings and match figures of his career: eight for 34 in the first innings was followed by five for 27 in the second, with all 13 victims bowled. The following year, 1930–31, England toured South Africa, and Bell kept his name in front of the selectors by taking six for 44 (and three for 44 in the second innings) for Western Province against Griqualand West in one of a limited first-class fixture list outside the tour matches that season. Bell missed out on the first Test match, which was won narrowly by South Africa, but was called into the team for the second game on an easy-paced wicket at Cape Town; he caused a small flurry of excitement by taking three quick wickets, those of Maurice Leyland, Maurice Turnbull, and Percy Chapman in a small England middle-order collapse, but the game petered out to a draw. He retained his place for the rain-ruined third Test at Durban, but the South Africans took only one wicket in the whole match, and he was dropped after this game. He was recalled for the fifth match of the series, but again made little impact. The match proved to be the last that he played in South Africa.
Test cricket overseas
After 1930–31, Bell's first-class cricket was confined to two tours with the South African Test side, one to Australia and New Zealand in 1931–32 and the other to England in 1935, with a solitary further appearance for Rhodesia in 1938–39.
