Martin Love stands at the top of the mountain as the greatest runscorer in Queensland history.

The elegant right-hander finished his career with a flourish in early 2009, scoring a double century against New South Wales and an unbeaten 104 in his last ever inning in the Sheffield Shield final against Victoria.

In doing so he became the only Australian in the history of the game to score a century in both his final Test match, and his last first class game.

Love finished with 11,224 runs at exactly 46.00 for Queensland, and will always hold the record as the first man to breach the 11,000-run barrier.

Had Australian cricket not been so strong and had he not broken his finger at the wrong time in 2003 he might well have added many more than five Tests to his resume.Love played two Tests against England, two against Bangladesh and one against the West Indies in the Caribbean for 233 runs at an average of 46.60, with one century and one fifty. His Test career spanned seven months from December 2002 to July 2003. He made 62 not out and 6 not out in his Test debut against England at the MCG in the 2002 Boxing Day match, a five wicket win by Australia.

He also scored 100 not out from 154 balls in his final Test innings against Bangladesh in Cairns in 2003, with Damien Martyn replacing him after returning from a finger injury himself for the next home series against Zimbabwe.

Love signaled from the outset that he was going to be a star. He was four days short of his 19th birthday when he debuted against New South Wales in the Shield final of 1992-93 at the SCG. He scored 42 and 9, and was dismissed both times by Glenn McGrath.He went on to become the second youngest player to score a century in Queensland history, having done so at the age of 19 years and 278 days against Tasmania at the Gabba in 1993-94.

Such was his class that he scored 146 in the historic Queensland Shield breakthrough final of 1995, adding 192 for the second wicket with Trevor Barsby against SA, just shy of his 21st birthday. Love went on to play in a staggering 11 Sheffield Shield finals in total, scoring 1107 runs at 61.50 with five centuries and a highest score of 169 versus Victoria in the 2006-07 final at the Gabba.He won five Shield titles, the equal most alongside Stuart Law, Jimmy Maher and Wade Seccombe.
 
Love is the only Queenslander to have posted a triple century he scored 300 not out against Victoria at the Junction Oval in 2003-04. He actually holds the first, sixth and 11th highest individual scores for Queensland, having also hit 250 against England at Allan Border Field in 2002-03, and 228 against NSW at the Gabba in 1998-99.

His 31 centuries for Queensland are comfortably the most by any player. Love is also one of only eight Queenslanders in history to have scored a century in both innings of a Shield game, having plundered 187 and 116 against Tasmania in Brisbane in 1994-95.

He twice scored more than 1000 runs in a season: 1189 in 2002-03, and 1097 in 1994-95, and has played the third most Shield games for Queensland (151), behind Stuart Law (158) and Jimmy Maher (155).

Possessing a safe pair of hands, Love was a fine slips fieldsman, taking a record 172 first class catches for the State.
Despite not playing one-day cricket for the last four seasons of his career, Love notched the fifth most number of one-day matches for Queensland (82). He scored four one-day centuries, the fourth most by a Queenslander behind Jimmy Maher (10), Matt Hayden (8), and Stuart Law (6).

He remains the Bulls' fifth-leading one-day runscorer of alltime with 2412 runs at 35.47.
Love announced his retirement on 24 February 2009, two days before the key Sheffield Shield clash with New South Wales at the Gabba - his final home game where he stroked a magnificent 219 not out.

There was typical little fuss and no-nonsense as he calmly outlined why he was retiring from the game after 16 seasons at the elite level.

"When I graduated from physiotherapy in 1997, I learnt a lot about the body. At this point in my career, after seven operations and countless broken fingers, my body is telling me it has had enough," he said simply.

"It's always tough to stop doing something you love doing, and I've always loved playing cricket. It's been a massive part of my life since I was a kid.

"But I'm listening to the body at the moment some days are good days, others it's hard to get out of bed, everything aches.

"I'm not getting any younger and I felt it was the right time. I felt it was better off going out now, when my mind is still good and I'm still hitting the ball well, rather than dragging it out for another year."

Love suffered ongoing soreness in his reconstructed knee through his last two seasons in the game.

While he played 10 of a possible 11 Shield games in his final season, he had to wait until Round 3 to get included in 2007-08. He later missed the final game due to Bell's Palsy, a paralysis of the facial muscles.

Turning 34 in 2008-09, he showed the detractors that he was a classic example for younger players to look up to with his ability to bat for long periods.

When Love was in form, everything apart from the ball seems to move in slow motion. Arguably the game's most graceful driver, he rarely looked flustered and the only signs of extreme effort were the drips of sweat and smears of zinc on his face as he marked another milestone.

He was also a hit in English County cricket in stints with Durham, where he made 251 and 273 in consecutive seasons, and Northamptonshire.

His 300 not out at the Junction Oval beat the 40-year-old mark of 283 set by Peter Burge at the Gabba against New South Wales, and during the innings he sealed the state record for the fifth wicket in a 236-run partnership with James Hopes. Love's name is also etched for the third wicket following a stand of 326 with Stuart Law against Tasmania at the Gabba in 1994-95.

A product of the central Queensland town of Mundubbera, which was unofficially known in cricket circles as Martin Love country during his junior days, Love is a qualified physiotherapist who is keen to retain an involvement with the Bulls.