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David Gower
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David Ivon Gower, OBE (born 1 April 1957 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent) is a former English cricketer and current cricket commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to be captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test matches or England between 1978 and 1992, scoring over 8,200 runs. He is one of the most capped and highest scoring players in English Test cricket history, and with 18 centuries he is joint 4th with fellow captain Michael Vaughan in the most hundreds scored by an England player.
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Encyclopedia
David Ivon Gower, OBE (born 1 April 1957 in Tunbridge Wells, Kent) is a former English cricketer and current cricket commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to be captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test matches or England between 1978 and 1992, scoring over 8,200 runs. He is one of the most capped and highest scoring players in English Test cricket history, and with 18 centuries he is joint 4th with fellow captain Michael Vaughan in the most hundreds scored by an England player. He is also one of the most capped One Day International players, with 114 matches, however his record of 3,170 runs at 30.77 is less impressive.
Gower led the England cricket team during the 1985 Ashes series against Australia, where England enjoyed success, however Graham Gooch regained the captaincy in 1989 and the a strained relationship between the latter and Gower contributed to Gower's eventual retirement from all cricket in 1993. Nevertheless, he left behind him an impressive record in first-class cricket, with 26,339 runs at 40.08, and 53 centuries. Following his retirement, Gower became a cricket commentator "so successful that his cricket seemed mere preparation."
Early life
Gower was born in Tunbridge Wells in 1957. At the time his father was working for the Colonial Service in a position in the then British colony of Dar Es Salaam in Tanganyika, where David spent his early childhood. The family returned to England after Tanzania was granted independence, when Gower was six years old, settling in Kent and later moving to Loughborough. Gower attended prep school at Marlborough House School from the age of 8 to 13, where he started to lean towards cricket as his preferred sport.
He was awarded a scholarship to attend The King's School Canterbury—where his father was an earlier head boy—as a boarder. Gower made the school cricket First XI aged 14 and and he would later be made captain. He also played for the rugby First XV before being dropped from the team for "lack of effort". While at school, Gower would play representative cricket for Public Schools against English Schools at under-16 level.
Gower finished school with eight O levels, three A levels and one S grade in history. He sat the History exam for Oxford University and was offered an interview at St Edmund Hall, but missed a place. Spurning a place at University College, London, Gower returned to school in an attempt two more A levels but lost interest partway through the year. Having played some matches for the Leicestershire Second XI the previous summer, Gower tried his luck at the club as a professional for the remainder of the year, for £25 per week. In the summer, Gower returned to University College, where he studied law, but after six months he returned to professional cricket.
Playing career
Gower enjoyed one of the most prolific first-class cricket careers in English history, in both domestic and international competitions. His 117 Test matches lies behind only Alec Stewart with 133 and Gooch, with 118. Gower's career run total is also the third highest by an English player, again behind only Stewart, with 8,463, and Gooch with 8,900. He played domestic cricket from 1975 until 1993, largely with Leicestershire until 1989, where he moved to Hampshire, a stalwart batsman at both clubs.
Domestic cricket
Gower made his debut for Leicestershire on 30 July 1975, during that season's County Champsionship, against Lancashire at Stanley Park, Blackpool. Winning the toss, Lancashire chose to bat first and amassed 259 thanks largely to a century by David Lloyd, who would later become Gower's co-commentator. Gower, batting at number seven, scored 32 before he was dismissed by Ken Shuttleworth, Leicestershire making 321 and taking a first-innings lead. David Lloyd made 90 in the second innings as Lancashire declared on 305, with Gower taking one catch to dismiss Jack Simmons for 17. The match, lasting only three days with 100 overs as amaximum limit imposed on both teams for each innings, ended in a draw, with Leicestershire reaching 90 without Gower getting to bat again. Gower continued to make little impression during the rest of the 1975 season, playing in only two more matches and ending the season with 65 runs at 13.00. He enjoyed greater success in his debut List-A season, playing in eight matches, scoring 175 runs at 25.00 with two fifties.
Gower was retained for the 1976 season, however, playing in a total of seven first-class matches. He enjoyed greater success, with 323 runs at 35.88 including a mainden century, 102*, and a second fifty. In one day cricket, he played another eight matches, scoring 188 runs at 23.50 however failing to reach fifty, falling short on one occasion with a season-best of 48. The 1977 season saw Gower play 25 matches, with another career best of 144*, his only century of the season. He amassed 745 runs at 23.28, with three other half centuries. In the one day format he was far more prolific, he played 24 matches, scoring 867 with a best of 135*, one of two hundreds that year, along with four fifties, all at 48.16. After two first-class matches against Sri Lankan domestic teams over the winter of 1977-78, in which he scored 76 runs at 38.00 in first-class and a score of 22 in the only one day fixture, Gower topped 1,000 runs in a season for the first time in his career, scoring 1098 runs at 37.86 including two hundreds, five fifties and a call up to the national team.
Gower enjoyed his most prolific one day form yet in Australia over 1979-80, scoring 160 runs at 53.33, the majority of which coming from an unbeaten 101*. In first-class matches, however, he found less with 623 runs over 12 matches at 32.78, despite one century and three fifties. His return to England in 1979, in contrast, was heralded with a career best 200*, forming part of his 957 runs for the season at 41.60, with eight fifties to go with that one hundred. A return to Australia that winer, however, saw him fail to reach a century in 14 innings, scoring a low 338 runs at 28.16. A single score of 16 in India followed, before the 1980 season in England, where Gower again topped 1,000 runs, with 1142 at 48.89, including five hundreds and a career best 156*. This was the most prolific first-class season of Gower's career thus far. He also played 21 one day matches, with 616 runs including another century. That winter, Gower toured the West Indies, scoring 726 runs from a total of eight first-class matches at an excellent 55.84, and then followed that up with a prolific performance during the 1981 season, which including the 1981 Ashes series. During this season, Gower played 19 matches, scoring a career best 1418 runs at 48.89, including one knock of 156*.
ain that winder
Gower toured India that winter, playing 11 matches with a return of 606 runs at 46.61, and then played two matches against Sri Lanka, scoring one fifty but earning an average of 74.50. He returned to England to peak 1,000 runs again with a career-best 1530 at 46.36, with two hundreds, and twi more hundreds followed in Australia as he took 821 runs at 45.61. He scored five hundreds in a season for only the second time in 1983, where he again topped 1,000 runs, 1,253 this time at 46.40. That winter, his tours of New Sealand and Pakistan found mixed success. In New Zealand he scored only 296 runs at 33.00, however against Pakistan he scored two centuries, at 112.25. He came narrowly close to 1,000 runs in the 1984 season, ending with 999 at 35.67, and then scored a total of 476 runs in India and Sri Lanka that winter. The 1985 season was another in which he scored 1,000 runs, including a then career-best of 215, at 54.70, while following tours of the West Indies returned only 447 runs at 27.93. Gower scored one century in England and Australia in the next two seasons, before topping 1,000 runs for three consecutive series', in 1987, 1988 and 1989, with a total of seven centuries including his career best 228.
In 1989, he moved to Hampshire, and upon return from the 1989–90 tour of the West Indies, where he scored only four in one match, he scorred 1,263 runs for his new club at 46.77, an after 58 runs at 32.11 in Australia, he scored 1,142, 1,225 and 1,136 in his final three seasons, ending his last, 1993, with four centuries at 42.07. This was depite being so out of form at times that Brian Mason, a personal counsellor, was asked to work with Gower on his poor form. His final three seasons had seen poorer returns in one day cricket, with his last century comng in 1992, and with his final season returning 347 runs at 26.69. In his final first-class match, Gower faced Essex at Chelmsford on 16 September 1993. Batting at number four, he made a farewell century of 134 before he was stumped in the first innings, and with future captain Nasser Hussain and then captain Graham Gooch both making centuries as Essex fell short of Hampshire's 347 with their own innings of 268, Gower came out to bat fo the final time in Hampshire's second innings. He made 25. Gooch, then the England captain having succeeded Gower, came back onto the field for Essex to score his second century of the match.
International
Gower was selected to play for the England Young Cricketers in 1976 against the West Indies equivalent team. Gower played one match, on 27 August, at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain. Opening the batting, Gower made only 10 runs in the first innings as England were bowled out for 164, however after the West Indies had made 201 Gower fell short with 49 in the second innings, stumped off a spin bowler. England were dismissed for 202, and bowled the West Indies out for 143 to take a 22-run victory. He made his debut in Test cricket in 1978 at Edgbaston, scoring a boundary via a pull shot off his first delivery, bowled by Pakistan's Liaqat Ali. He went on to make 58 in England's only innings, followed by 56 at Lord's and 39 at Headingley. On 27 July, Gower played against New Zealand, scoring his maiden Test hundred, 111 off of 253 deliveries in the first innings, and making 11 in the second. He made scores of 46, 71 and 46 in the rest of the series, the latter including his first Test six, earning him selection for the following Ashes Tests in Australia.
Gower made his Ashes debut at The Gabba, Brisbane on 1 December 1978. He made 44 and 48* in the first Test, before making his maiden Ashes hundred, 102 from 221 balls at the Perth oval. These were to be his only significant contributions, however, and he saw out the rest of the series with scores of 29, 29, 7, 34, 7 and 21, until a meticulous 65 in the final Test at Sydney. He then faced four Test matches against Indiea over the summer of 1979, beginning the series with a fast-paced 200* at Edgbaston, followed by an 82 at Lord's. Ducks at Leeds and The Oval followed, however, and he struggled against Australia in the winter of 1979 with 7, 17, 23 and three. A battling 98* at Sydney was again followed by another duck and 11 as Gower's form deserted him. After 16 against India in February 1980, and 20 and one against the West Indies, Gower's form picke dup marginally with scored of 45, 35 and 48 against Australia and the West Indies. One more fifty followed at Bridgetown, however Gower eventually broke the run of poor form with a hard-fought 154* from 403 deliveries at Kingston.
Gower's timely revival of form ensured his selection for the 1981 Ashes series, however apart from an 89 at Lord's, Gower failed to convert the success he was having in the domestic game to the Test matches, with many scores in the 20s or lower. Two scores in the 80s against India, one against Sri Lanka and two 70s against Pakistan over the winter of 1981/82 kept in him contention for an international place, however centuries were lacking in his game. In August 1982, however, Australia received the England touring team at Perth, where Gower made 72 and 28. He followed this with 18, 34 and 60 as Brisbane and Adelaide before a compact 114 in the second innings of the Adelaide match revived his hundred count. Two more hundreds in the summer of 1983 against New Zealand, and knocks of 152 and 173* against Pakistan in 1984 ensured his place in the side.
Following his 173* in the last Test against Pakistan, Gower suffered another drop in form, managing only three fifties in the next 18 Test innings against the West Indies, Sri Lanka and India. In 1985, however, after low scores at Leeds, Gower enjoyed a "golden season." He scored 86 and 22 at Lord's against Australia, and 166 at Trent Bridge. Following this, he scored 47 at Old Trafford, and then at Edgbaston on 15 August, scored 215 from 314 balls, his career best score, and immediatley followed this with 157 at The Oval. In addition, he forged two partnerships over three-hundred runs, with 331 scored with Tim Robinson (148) during Gower's own double-century, and 351 with Gooch's 196 at The Oval. He ended the series with 732 runs at 81.33, leading England to a 3:0 victory.
In 1987 Gower declined to play in that year's Cricket World Cup as he did not wish to travel, having been on nine successive winter tours since his debut. He never again declined an opportunity to play for England, however. Yet rumours that Gower lacked serious committment gained currency in 1989 when, as England captain he walked out of a press conference claiming he had tickets for the theatre.
Most controversially, during the 1991 Ashes Tour in Australia, England were playing a warm up match in Queensland when Gower together with batsman John Morris, chose to go for a joy-ride in two Tiger Moth biplane without telling the England team management. Both had been dismissed earlier that day, however they decided not to remain at the ground to "watch Allan Lamb and Robin Smith flat the Queensland attack before a small crowd". For this, Gower was fined £1000, a penalty that could have been steeper had he released the waterbombs he had also prepared. Gower added insult to injury by posing for press photographs with the plane the next day.
Gooch was enraged, as he was by Gower's mode of dismissal at a crucial stage of one of the Test matches. During the fourth Test at Adelaide, Gower walked out to the crease to the tune of Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. The last ball before lunch was bowled down the leg side to a leg trap, and all Gower needed to do was block. However, Gower flicked idly at the delivery and was caught at leg-slip. According to Michael Atherton in his autobiography, "Gooch was at the other end and as he walked off his face was thunderous". Gooch, it is widely believed, was instrumental in Gower being left out of the following tour of India. That selection decision prompted a vote no confidence in the selectors at the MCC, but it was to no avail as Gower was not included.
Style
Gower was an elegant left hand batsman and had a reputation for being aloof. Considered a graceful player, his languid style was often misinterpreted as indifference and a lack of seriousness, an air he bolstered with a variety of "misdemeanours" from apparently "lazy" shots, to practical jokes, even to his preference for blue (not white) socks. Wisden described him as "fluffy-haired, ethereal-looking" who played "beautifully, until the moment he made a mistake. Sometimes, the mistake was put off long enough for him to play an innings of unforgettable brilliance." Gower, a left-handed batsmen, played with a dominant top hand, and a "liquid, graceful" style.
He was repeatedly lambasting by the media as "laid back" with a "devil-may-care" approach found infuriating, as Wisden records, "the difference between an exquisite stroke and a nick was little more than an inch" in his style of batting. Peter Roebuck recorded that "Gower never moves, he drifts" while Frances Edmonds in the Daily Express spoke of Gower in 1985: "Difficult to be more laid back without being actually comatose." Gower was also a right-arm off break spin bowler despite batting left-handed, who took one Test wicket at 20.00 out of the six overs he sent down in the occasional instances when called on to bowl. His domestic cricket added another three wickets to give him an overall average of 56.75.
In the field, Gower is noted by biographer Meher-Homji as being a "magnificent outfilder who took amazing catches and threw with accuracy and power to run out the blasé batsman." Ambidextrous in the field and when bowling, Gower also played both golf and hockey, writes and kicks right-handed.
Commentating
Since leaving the game, Gower has enjoyed a new career as a cricket broadcaster and television personality, including being one of the team captains on the popular BBC comedy sports quiz, They Think It's All Over from 1995 till 2003. He also presented four series of the BBC2 cricket magazine show, Gower's Cricket Monthly from 1995-1998 and, at the same time was one of the BBC's main cricket commentators. He is now the main presenter of international cricket coverage for Sky Sports and also commentates on the matches - a role he has also played in Brian Lara International Cricket series. David was awarded the "Oldie Of The Year" award in 1993.
Ever since his childhood in East Africa, David has maintained an interest in wildlife. He is a Patron of the David Shepherd Foundation and also the World Land Trust. He is also a director of an Internet wine company.
Achievements
Awards
Test match performance
Records:
Test centuries:
| # | Date | Opponent | Ground | Score | Result |
|---|
| 1 | | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | 5 | | | | | | | 6 | | | | | | | 7 | | | | | | | 8 | | | | | | | 9 | | | | | | | 10 | | | | | | | 11 | | | | | | | 12 | | | | | | | 13 | | | | | | | 14 | | | | | | | 15 | | | | | | | 16 | | | | | | | 17 | | | | | | | 18 | | | | | | |
Career performance:
| Statistics correct as of March 9, 2009 | Batting | Bowling |
|---|
| Opposition | Matches | Runs | Average | High Score | 100 / 50 | Runs | Wickets | Average | Best (Inns) |
|---|
| Australia
| 42
| 3269
| 44.78
| 215
| 9 / 12
| -
| -
| -
| - | | India
| 24
| 1391
| 44.87
| 200*
| 2 / 6
| 15
| 1
| 15.00
| 1/1 | | New Zealand
| 13
| 1051
| 50.04
| 131
| 4 / 4
| 5
| 0
| -
| - | | Pakistan
| 17
| 1185
| 49.37
| 173*
| 2 / 9
| -
| -
| -
| - | | Sri Lanka
| 2
| 186
| 93.00
| 89
| 0 / 2
| -
| -
| -
| - | | West Indies
| 19
| 1149
| 32.82
| 154*
| 1 / 6
| -
| -
| -
| - |
Man of the match awards:
| Date | Opponent | Ground | Record/Scorecards |
|---|
| | | | |
One Day International performance
Records:
One Day International centuries:
| # | Date | Opponent | Ground | Score |
|---|
| 1 | | | | | | 2 | | | | | | 3 | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | 5 | | | | | | 6 | | | | | | 7 | | | | | |
Career performance:
| Statistics correct as of March 9, 2009 | Batting | Bowling |
|---|
| Opposition | Matches | Runs | Average | High Score | 100 / 50 | Runs | Wickets | Average | Best |
|---|
| Australia
| 32
| 794
| 28.35
| 102
| 2 / 5
| -
| -
| -
| - | | Canada
| 1
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| -
| - | | India
| 16
| 469
| 31.26
| 81
| 0 / 4
| -
| -
| -
| - | | New Zealand
| 24
| 874
| 39.72
| 158
| 3 / 4
| -
| -
| -
| - | | Pakistan
| 15
| 451
| 34.69
| 114*
| 1 / 0
| -
| -
| -
| - | | Sri Lanka
| 4
| 178
| 59.33
| 130
| 1 / 0
| -
| -
| -
| - | | West Indies
| 22
| 404
| 18.36
| 59
| 0 / 1
| 14
| 0
| -
| - |
Man of the match awards:
| Date | Opponent | Ground | Record/Scorecards |
|---|
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External links
| David Gower's career achievements |
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