Graham Gooch

Graham Alan Gooch, (born 23 July 1953) is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England.

He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning 1973 until 1997, he was the most prolific run scorer of all time, with 67,057 runs across first-a class and limited-overs games.

His List A cricket tally of 22,211 runs is also a record.

He is one of only 25 players to have scored over 100 first-class centuries.

Internationally, despite being banned for three years following a rebel tour to ostracized South Africa, Gooch is the third highest Test run scorer for England.

His playing years spanned much of the period of domination by the West Indies, against whom his mid-forties batting average is regarded as extremely creditable.

Gooch played first-class cricket regularly between 1973 and 1997.

Famous for his upright stance, a high bat-lift and heavy bat he became one of the most prolific run scorers top-class cricket has ever seen.

Gooch made his debut in Test cricket in 1975 at 21 against the touring Australia side captained by Ian Chappell.

His debut was not a great success as Gooch got a pair, and England lost the first Test by an innings and 85 runs.

In the second Ashes Test in the series he scored 6 and 31 and was then dropped from the side.

He was not selected for the Test team again until 1978 (although making his one-day international debut in 1976), when his scoring rate for Essex meant that he could not be ignored and he became a mainstay in the England line-up.

In 1980 he was awarded the Wisden Cricketer of the Year.

His first three Test centuries all came against the West Indies.

Gooch had a further hiatus in his career when he went on the controversial 1982 South African rebel tour, which resulted in all of the players concerned, including Geoff Boycott, Alan Knott and Bob Woolmer, being banned from Test cricket for three years.

Geoffrey Boycott was generally perceived as the key player organising the tour party but it was Graham Gooch as captain of the team who gained the most media attention and in some cases vilification.

Gooch was not handed the captaincy until the team arrived in South Africa at the beginning of March.

It could be argued that more attention was on Gooch however as he was reaching his peak as a Test player, others were in the twilight years of their cricket careers and so the ban was arguably felt more acutely by the captain.

Gooch claimed in the film "Out of the Wilderness" that 'others' decided he "had no place in England cricket", hence his decision to join the tour.

Upon the expiration of the ban, Gooch was restored to the England team in 1985.

Opting to miss the 1986–87 tour of Australia for personal reasons, a severe loss of form resulted in failing to win back his England place for the 1987 summer and Test series against Pakistan – indeed at one stage he was even dropped to the Second XI at Essex, but his form returned at the end of the summer, with a superb century in the MCC Bicentennial match.

He returned to the England team for the Cricket World Cup in India and Pakistan, and the subsequent winter tour of Pakistan.

His career blossomed later after being appointed captain, a position he held twice: first briefly, at the end of the "summer of four captains" in 1988, as a replacement for the injured Chris Cowdrey (who never played another Test).

In his first match (the fifth and last of the series against the West Indies), England at least showed some spirit, taking a first-innings lead for the only time in the series.

Gooch's second-innings 84 stood alone as the rest of the batting collapsed, England losing the match (and with it the series 4–0).

His second match, the one-off Test against Sri Lanka, was won, and all seemed fair for Gooch to remain as captain for the tour of India that winter.

But that tour was cancelled over the Indian government's refusal to grant visas to the eight players who had sporting links with South Africa, including Gooch himself.

David Gower returned as captain for the losing 1989 Ashes series – in which, for a second time, Gooch's loss of form with the bat resulted in his being dropped, by his own request this time.

His score of 154 against them at Headingley in 1991 is regarded as one of the greatest centuries of all time by many critics and former players.

His career-best score of 333 was against India at Lord's.

In that match, he also scored a century in the second innings, 123, for a match total of 456, which remains the highest aggregate in a test match.

He was the first player to make 20 Test

appearances at Lord's. As captain, Matthew Engel noted, "his fanatical fitness and work-ethic gave the team more purpose than it had shown in a decade."

After 118 Tests, aged 42, he retired into coaching and as team selector, before becoming a commentator.

On his return to Test cricket he immediately had more success, making a first Test half-century, and 91 not out in his fifth Test, although it was his 22nd Test and five years after his debut before he made his first Test (or any international) century.

In 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

On 8 November 2011, he received an honorary award from the University of East London.

He returned to coach Essex, before becoming England batting coach in 2012.

Gooch was born in Whipps Cross University Hospital, Leytonstone, London.

He was educated at Norlington School for Boys and Leyton County High School for Boys, in Leyton.