Ian Bell is an established name in the field of English cricket. He has played in all forms of international cricket i.e. T-20, One Day International or Test matches for the England cricket team. As of now, he is playing for Warwickshire County Cricket Club and is best recognized as a right-handed higher/middle order batsman. The Times described him as “exquisite rapier” because of being excellent as a good cover driver on the off side. He is amazing as a slip fielder and as a bowler, he is known for being an occasional right-arm medium pace bowler. His is also noticed for close catching positions.
For his professional cricket career, Bell has scored about 22 centuries in Test Cricket format and 4 in One Day International 100 format. Except for Zimbabwe, he has scored a century against all the test playing nations. For his successful Ashes campaign of 2005, Bell received to be honored is the Member of the Order of the British Empire during the 2006 New Year Honours List. Let’s explore in detail about Bell’s biography below:
Early Life and Education
The English cricketer was born as Ian Ronald Bell on11 April 1982. His place of birth is in Walsgrave, Coventry, England. Considering his date of birth, Ian Bell is at the age of 36 as of 2018. His parents hailed from Dunchurch. Talking about Bell parents’ profession, his father used to work as an accountant whereas his mother was a staff at a tax office in Rugby. Bell has a brother named Keith who is also a cricketer. He started playing from his early age as a junior for a local team. He attended Princethorpe College nearby village of Princethorpe which is a Roman Catholic independent school. At the age of seven, he made the 1st XI. Although being the supporter of Aston Villa, he joined Coventry City’s football school of excellence. Later he started playing for Coventry and North Warwickshire Cricket Club.
Career and Professional Life
His professional sports career started from his junior phase. In 1988, he appeared for Warwickshire’s second team for three times. He made his senior level appearance with the England Under-19 cricket team when the team was in the tour to New Zealand. In his first Test, he scored 91. New Zealand former cricketer Dayle Hadlee named Bell as “the best 16 years old I’ve ever seen.” Those days, he was compared with legend Mike Atherton. He captained the Under-19 team in 2000 at home where the match against Sri-Lanka and later in 2000/01 tour to India.
In September 1999, he appeared for the Warwickshire first team which was his first-class debut. He scored 836 runs in 16 innings in 2001 into the Warwickshire first-team which include 3 centuries alongside the score of 98 for two times. At the age of 19 years and 56 days, he became the youngest capped player in the country to be a centurion.
Bell’s international debut was in the year 2004 where he played at The Oval against the West Indies in the final match of the Test Series. He scored 70 appearing as the fifth batsman in England’s first innings. In the match, the England team won the match by ten wickets.
He was announced to be the part of the squad for Zimbabwe and South Africa tour and made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe at Harare alongside Kevin Pietersen. He opened the innings and amazingly scored 75 making him receive One Day International Man Of The Match award. For the series, his average score was 40.75. However, he was not able to score as expected against South Africa. Later, he presented a crucial role in the successful Ashes campaign (2005) for which Bell was mentioned in the 2006 New Year Honours List being the part of the Member of the Order of the British.
For the winter tour of Pakistan, Bell was included in the 17-man squad. He got the opportunity to be the part of the Test Team after the injury of Michael Vaughan. In the three-match series, he scored twp half-centuries alongside a century which made him the top scorer with an average 52.16 and a total run of 313. He also took the wicket of Mohammad Yousuf. Bell scored 78 runs in Mumbai against India on 18 February 2006 in England’s first warm-up.
For 2006’s ICC Champion Trophy, Bell was named in the squad and was also announced to be the part of the squad to tour Australia. In the tournament, England lost the first two matches against Indian and Australia. He was also the part of England’s 15-man squad for the world cup 2007 that was going to be held at West Indies. Initially, he was positioned at number three to bat but later was promoted to open with captain Michael Vaughan by dropping Ed Joyce from the top of the order being defeated to Sri-Lanka. Being the opener, he opened 77 against Australia but later scored 0 and 7 against Bangladesh and South Africa respectively.
Bell made his maiden ODI century against India on 21 August 2007, where he scored 126 runs off 118 balls. He has been into the 2007/8 tour to New Zealand and 2008’s South Africa, India and West Indies.
The 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup was hosted together by India and Bangladesh in February and March. The first match of England was against the Netherlands which England won where Bell scored 33 runs. The second match was against India to which England successfully ended with a tie with Bell scoring 69 runs.
Retirement
There is no official news regarding Ian Bell retirement from the Cricket playing world. Bell’s last test Match was against Pakistan played on 1 November 2015. Similarly, he played his last One Day International match against Afghanistan on 13 March 2015.
Personal Life
Moving to his personal life, English cricketer Bell is married to wife Chantal. The enjoyed their wedding ceremony in 2011 and for the honeymoon, the couple enjoyed their vacation in the Maldives. David Lloyd described Bell’s wife Chantal as “A star of a missus.” In November 2012, the couple welcomed a baby boy named Joe during which Bell was in a tour to India. Apart from cricket, Bill loves football and is a great supporter of Aston Villa. He is regularly spotted at Villa Park for various games.
Body Measurements
The English cricketer Bill has a perfect eight of 5 feet and 10 inches or 1.78 m. He has a maintained body statistics as he follows his fitness instructor advice and a strict diet and workout plans. He is sincere at practice and training which makes him a renowned right-handed batsman.
Salary and Net worth
According to The Times from its online post published on November 20, 2015, Ian Bell was paid £5,700 per week for 11 months from England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The NEO Prime Sports has mentioned Bell at number three in the list of “Top 10 Richest Cricketers in England till now”. This fact makes us assume that Ian Bell has a jaw-dropping amount of net worth.
Wiki and Facts
Bell’s biography is prepared by most of the wiki sites including Wikipedia. Find him on his official Facebook page @IanBellOfficial where he has over 761k followers. Join him on Twitter @ian_bell where Bell has garnered more than 201k. For inquiries, send him a message at his email address [email protected].