Herschelle Herman Gibbs (born 23 February 1974) is a South African cricket coach and former cricketer, who played all formats of the game for fourteen years. A right-handed batsman, who mostly opened the batting, Gibbs became the first player to hit six consecutive sixes in one over in One Day International (ODI) cricket, doing so against the Netherlands in the 2007 Cricket World Cup.
Regarded as one of the most naturally talented cricketers South Africa has ever produced, Gibbs was also known as an excellent fielder. A report by ESPNcricinfo in 2005 showed that since the 1999 Cricket World Cup, he had effected the eighth highest number of run-outs in ODI cricket of any fieldsman, with the tenth highest success rate.
Gibbs was schooled at St Joseph's Marist College and then Diocesan College in Rondebosch. Gibbs was a gifted sportsman at school featuring in SA Schools teams for rugby, cricket and soccer.
At Diocesan College Gibbs played for their first rugby XV in the same team alongside Robbie Fleck, Selborne Boome and Dave von Hoesslin who went on to become Springboks. Gibbs also played alongside Springboks player Percy Montgomery for Western Province in Craven Week 1992.
Gibbs fathered a son with partner Liesl Fuller in 1996. In June 2007, Gibbs married Tenielle Povey in St Kitts, but divorced soon afterwards. In 2019, a court ordered him to pay 4500 rands per month for child care of a baby belonging to him and a woman with whom he had an affair. He became engaged to Dana Németh in June 2023.
Gibbs has scored two double centuries in his Test career, both contrasting innings. His first was an innings of 211 not out against New Zealand at Jade Stadium in 1999. His innings took 468 balls while his second double century, 228 against Pakistan came off just 240 balls. In that innings in Newlands, he reached a national record partnership of 368 with Graeme Smith. He has put on a further two 300-run opening stands with his captain, making them the only pair in Test history to break 300 on three occasions. He also holds the South African second wicket record, a partnership of 315* with Jacques Kallis.
Gibbs famously dropped a catch in a World Cup game against Australia in 1999, when he attempted to throw the ball up into the air in celebration before he had full control of it. The player that he dropped, Steve Waugh, went on to make a century and win the game for Australia, a victory which also gave the Australian side the momentum they required to go on and win the tournament. It was claimed at the time that, immediately after the dropped catch, Waugh had "sledged" Gibbs with the statement, "You've just dropped the World Cup", but, in his autobiography Out of My Comfort Zone, Waugh denies this. Waugh did state, however, that teammate Shane Warne had noticed that Gibbs had developed a habit of throwing the ball in the air prematurely after taking catches and instructed his colleagues not to leave the crease too quickly if they happened to be caught by Gibbs, just in case the situation that happened to Waugh should actually occur.
Gibbs is one of only ten batsmen in ODI history to score hundreds in three consecutive innings, the others being Zaheer Abbas, Saeed Anwar, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock, Ross Taylor, Kumar Sangakkara, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Babar Azam. Sangakkara became the only player to hit four consecutive ODI hundreds, during 2015 cricket world cup. On 6 October 2002, in Potchefstroom, in a match against Bangladeshis, Gibbs had a chance to become the first ever batsman to score four hundreds in a row. South Africa was set the target of 155 for victory, and Gibbs fell just three runs short, finishing unbeaten on 97. With just six runs needed for victory, he had the strike on 96, but Alok Kapali bowled a legside wide that went for four and made his task almost impossible.
On 12 March 2006, Gibbs scored 175 off just 111 balls and led South Africa to victory in the 5th ODI against Australia. What made the innings even more remarkable was that he was hungover from the night before after drinking with a friend until about 1 am, something he would reveal in his autobiography years later. He was batting with Graeme Smith after Boeta Dippenaar was out on 1(3) bowled by Nathan Bracken. This was the highest-scoring One Day International match in history, and his innings broke several batting records. It was the highest-ever score made in an ODI against Australia, beating Robin Smith's effort in 1993. By bringing up his hundred off just 79 balls, he also brought up what was at the time the fastest ever ODI century against Australia. More importantly, however, it was the fastest-ever hundred by a South African batsman against any opposition, although the record would be broken later in the year by Mark Boucher. It was also the highest-ever score by a batsman in South Africa. He scored 126 runs in boundaries, the most ever by a batsman. This record stood until 11 April 2011, when Shane Watson hit 150 runs in boundaries against Bangladesh.
In the match against the Netherlands in the group stage of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, Gibbs hit six sixes in an over off the bowling of Daan van Bunge, becoming the first player in One Day International history to do so. Ravi Shastri and Sir Garfield Sobers had previously achieved this feat in first-class cricket, but to date no player has achieved this in Test Cricket. In doing so, he raised US$1 million for the Habitat for Humanity housing projects as part of a contest run by tournament sponsor Johnnie Walker. It is likely that his being awarded citizenship of St Kitts and Nevis was due to this feat.
His six-hitting form continued throughout the tournament; and, when he hit Jacob Oram into the stands during a Super Eight match, he drew level with Australian batsman Ricky Ponting on 28 for most sixes in World Cup history.
In the past two series against England and the West Indies he was brought down the order from the opening batsman to the middle order due to lack of form. After the move he regained form and looked more comfortable batting against the older ball.
On 22 April 2006, Gibbs paid the price for his recent run drought, and was dropped for the second and third Tests against the New Zealand cricket team. He has been short of confidence in Test cricket of late, and scored only 6 and 2 in the First Test at Centurion Park. South Africa's chief selector, Haroon Lorgat, said, "We had a meeting and agreed that a break and a fresh start next season will do him a world of good." This decision was widely viewed as a harsh one.
He came back into the side in the middle order but continued to struggle for runs. On the conclusion of the 1st Test against Pakistan in January 2007 he had gone over 2 years without scoring a century. He had come close on many occasions to ending the drought, getting out in the nineties four times.
In April 2009, his sixteen One Day International innings since the March 2008 one-day series in Bangladesh having yielded just three fifties, even Stuart Hess, his most ardent media supporter, was moved to cast doubt over his future. Hess had famously recommended Gibbs as captaincy successor to Shaun Pollock in 2003, but now, noting that his "average, as an opener, in that same period is 25.25, more than 10 runs below his overall average of 35.87", Hess felt "a sense that Gibbs is living off past deeds and not playing with the requisite form needed to hold on to a national spot." He noted, however, that Gibbs was the only South African with more than 1,000 World Cup runs and that, of the twelve others, only Sachin Tendulkar with 57.93 and Sir Viv Richards with 63.31 had better averages:
Perhaps putting up with Gibbs's current inconsistent streak may just have to be the pay-off South Africa have to make if it means he can help guide the national side to greater glory in two years time.
After being dropped from the side Gibbs stated that he wanted to perform well in the domestic cup and that he was feeling well about it. He stated that his aim was to play in the 2011 Cricket World Cup