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Graham Gooch
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Graham Alan Gooch, OBE (born 23 July 1953) is a former cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation.
Gooch was born in Whipps Cross Hospital, Leytonstone, in East London. He was educated at Norlington School for Boys, in London.
Gooch played first-class cricket regularly between 1973 and 1997. His debut in Test cricket came in 1975 against Australia, and was marked with a 'pair'. He scored 6 and 31 in the next game of the series, and was dropped from the side.
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Encyclopedia
Graham Alan Gooch, OBE (born 23 July 1953) is a former cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation.
Gooch was born in Whipps Cross Hospital, Leytonstone, in East London. He was educated at Norlington School for Boys, in London.
Gooch played first-class cricket regularly between 1973 and 1997. His debut in Test cricket came in 1975 against Australia, and was marked with a 'pair'. He scored 6 and 31 in the next game of the series, and was dropped from the side. He was not selected again until 1978. Gooch had a further hiatus in his career when he went on the controversial 1982 rebel tour of South Africa, which resulted in all of the players concerned being banned from Test cricket for three years. Gooch claimed in the film "The Wilderness Years" that 'others' decided he "had no place in England cricket", hence his decision to join the tour.
Upon the expiration of the ban, Gooch played for England for many years, but blossomed late in his career after being appointed captain at the end of the "summer of four captains" in 1988. He scored a record 456 runs in the Lord's Test against India in 1990, 333 in the first innings and 123 in the second. As of 2009, this is the only instance in any first-class cricket of a batsman scoring 300 and 100 in two innings of the same match, and his aggregate of 456 for the match remains a world record for a Test match. In the following year against West Indies he scored a match-winning 154 not out, carrying his bat throughout England's second innings against a highly rated pace attack, while only two of his colleagues reached double figures. The veteran sportswriter Frank Keating rated this as the finest Test innings he had ever seen in England. This opinion was vindicated by the ICC rankings, which confirmed it as the highest-ranking innings of all time at any venue.
Rated among the best batsmen in the world for most of the early 1990s, his skills started to fade as his Test match career went on past the age of 40. After the fourth Test match of the 1993 Ashes series fellow opening batsman, Michael Atherton, was appointed his successor as captain. In 1995, at the age of 41, Gooch retired from Test match cricket as England's all-time highest run scorer. Over his 118 Test career, Gooch played with a record 113 different team mates. He scored 44,846 runs in all first-class cricket at an average of 49.01, including 128 centuries. Although a number of players have scored more first class runs, if List A matches are also considered — in which he scored a further 22,211 runs, itself a world record — Gooch lays claim to the title of most prolific top flight batsman of all time. Gooch also bowled occasional medium pace, and took over 200 first-class wickets. He could be a prodigious swinger of the ball if conditions suited. In dead matches he could sometimes be seen doing impressions of fellow professionals' bowling styles, most famously against India in 1979.
Gooch had a public falling-out with David Gower, the contemporary England batsman, particularly after Gower hired a vintage aircraft and 'buzzed' the ground where England was playing during the unsuccessful tour of Australia in 1990/91. Gooch contributed to the decision to omit Gower from England's tour of India in 1993, which proved so controversial that an extraordinary vote of no confidence in the selectors was passed at the MCC. Gower never played another Test, lending an ironic edge to Gooch's surpassing him as England's leading run scorer in the 1993 Ashes series.
Gooch's ruthless approach to physical training also courted controversy during England's 1992 World Cup campaign, especially with Ian Botham. Hints were dropped that Gooch's unrelenting regime had led to burn-out within the team, culminating in their losing the final to Pakistan, whom they had been on course to defeat easily in a rain-affected match earlier in the tournament.
For Essex, Gooch scored 120 in the 1979 Benson and Hedges Cup final against Surrey, a match which saw Essex win a major domestic trophy for the first time in their history. This heralded a highly successful period for the county, with Gooch a key member of a team that won the county championship six times in the years 1979-1992, and also won every other major domestic trophy at least once in the same period. Gooch holds numerous Essex batting records: in particular he scored the most first-class runs in a season (2559, scored in 1984 while banned from playing for England), and made more first-class centuries (94) for the county than any other player. Essex record partnerships for both the first and second wicket were set by Gooch and Paul Prichard.
Upon his retirement, Christopher Martin-Jenkins wrote an article in Wisden Cricketers Almanack arguing that Gooch was the all-time highest run scorer in top level cricket, if one day matches were taken into account.
In the mid-1990s, faced with a receding hairline, Gooch began promoting hair transplants for a London-based clinic, as well as the Australian-based Advanced Hair Studio. Two licensed computer games were made by Audiogenic, Graham Gooch's Test Cricket in 1985 and Graham Gooch World Class Cricket in 1993.
He made a one-off return to first-class cricket in July 2000, just a few days before his 47th birthday, when he captained MCC against New Zealand A at The Parks. It was not a successful comeback: Gooch made only 0 and 5 in the game.
In October 2001, he returned to Essex in the capacity of head coach, taking over from Keith Fletcher. Gooch held this role until stepping down in March 2005, although he remains at the club, continuing as the squad's specialist batting coach whilst also assuming commercial duties for the county.
In 2007 he announced his intention to compete in a beach cricket competition against Courtney Walsh's Team and Allan Border's team.
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