Ian Terence Botham,Baron Botham,is an English cricket commentator,member of the House of Lords,a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of the game,Botham represented England in both Test and One-Day International cricket.
Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose KCN is an Antiguan former cricketer who played 98 Test matches for the West Indies. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time,he took 405 Test wickets at an average of 20.99 and topped the ICC Player Rankings for much of his career to be rated the best bowler in the world. His great height—he is 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m) tall—allowed him to make the ball bounce unusually high after he delivered it;allied to his pace and accuracy,it made him a very difficult bowler for batsmen to face. A man of few words during his career,he was notoriously reluctant to speak to journalists. He was chosen as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1992;after he retired he was entered into the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame and selected as one of West Indies all-time XI by a panel of experts.
Joel Garner is a former West Indian cricketer,and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early 1980s West Indies cricket teams. Garner is the highest ranked One Day International bowler according to the ICC best-ever bowling ratings,and is 37th in Tests. Garner was a member of the West Indies team that won their second world title in the 1979 Cricket World Cup.
Courtney Andrew Walsh OJ is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001,captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is a fast bowler and considered one of the all-time greats,best known for a remarkable opening bowling partnership along with fellow West Indian Curtly Ambrose for several years. Walsh played 132 Tests and 205 ODIs for the West Indies and took 519 and 227 wickets respectively. He shared 421 Test wickets with Ambrose in 49 matches. He held the record of most Test wickets from 2000,after he broke the record of Kapil Dev. This record was later broken in 2004 by Shane Warne. He was the first bowler to reach 500 wickets in Test cricket. His autobiography is entitled "Heart of the Lion". Walsh was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1987. In October 2010,he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He was appointed as the Specialist Bowling Coach of Bangladesh Cricket Team in August 2016.
Graham Alan Gooch,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.
An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally,most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are considered specialists. Some wicket-keepers have the skills of a specialist batter and have been referred to as all-rounders,but the term wicket-keeper-batter is more commonly applied to them,even if they are substitute wicket keepers who also bowl.
Walter Reginald Hammond was an English first-class cricketer who played for Gloucestershire in a career that lasted from 1920 to 1951. Beginning as a professional,he later became an amateur and was appointed captain of England. Primarily a middle-order batsman,Wisden Cricketers' Almanack described him in his obituary as one of the four best batsmen in the history of cricket. He was considered to be the best English batsman of the 1930s by commentators and those with whom he played;they also said that he was one of the best slip fielders ever. Hammond was an effective fast-medium pace bowler and contemporaries believed that if he had been less reluctant to bowl,he could have achieved even more with the ball than he did.
Mushtaq Ahmed is a Pakistani cricket coach and former cricketer who currently acts as the spin bowling coach for the Pakistan Cricket Team. A leg break googly bowler,at his peak he was described as being one of the best three wrist-spinners in the world. In an international career that spanned from 1990 until 2003,he claimed 185 wickets in Test cricket and 161 in One Day Internationals. He was at his most prolific internationally between 1995 and 1998,but his most successful years were as a domestic player for Sussex in the early 2000s.
Malcolm Denzil Marshall was a Barbadian cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler,Marshall is widely regarded as one of the greatest and one of the most accomplished fast bowlers of the modern era in Test cricket. He is often acknowledged as the greatest West Indian fast bowler of all time,and certainly one of the most complete fast bowlers the cricketing world ever saw. His Test bowling average of 20.94 is the best of anyone who has taken 200 or more wickets. He achieved his bowling success despite being,by the standards of other fast bowlers of his time,a short man –he stood at 180 cm,while most of the great quicks have been well above 183 cm and many great West Indian fast bowlers,such as Joel Garner,Curtly Ambrose,and Courtney Walsh,were 197 cm or above. He generated fearsome pace from his bowling action,with a dangerous bouncer. He also statistically went on to become the most successful Test match bowler of the 1980s with 235 wickets with an average of 18.47 within a time period of just five years. Marshall was a part of the West Indies team that reached the 1983 Cricket World Cup Final,but lost to India by 43 runs.
Devon Eugene Malcolm is a former English cricketer. Born in Kingston,Jamaica,Malcolm played in 40 Test matches and 30 One Day Internationals for the England cricket team.
John Ernest Emburey is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex,Northamptonshire,Western Province,Berkshire and England.
Michael John Procter is a South African former cricketer. A fast bowler and hard hitting batsman,he proved himself a colossal competitor in English first class cricket. He was denied the international stage by South Africa's banishment from world cricket in the 1970s and 1980s. He was a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1970 and South African cricketer of the year in 1967.
Derek Raymond Pringle is an English former Test and One Day International cricketer for England,and is now a cricket journalist.
Robert Charles"Jack" Russell is an English retired international cricketer,now known for his abilities as an artist,as a cricket wicketkeeping coach,and a football goalkeeping coach.
The England cricket team toured Australia during the 1986–87 cricket season for a five-match Test series to contest The Ashes. While in Australia,England also played a number of tour matches against state and representative teams,and competed in two One-Day International (ODI) tournaments. Under the captaincy of Mike Gatting,England retained the Ashes with a 2–1 series win.
Philip Verant Simmons is a Trinidadian cricket coach and former player. He played international cricket for the West Indies from 1987 to 1999 as an opening batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler. He excelled in the One Day International (ODI) format and represented the West Indies at three Cricket World Cups.
Peter Willey is a former English cricketer,who played as a right-handed batsman and right-arm offbreak bowler. In and out of the England team,he interrupted his international career for three years by taking part in the first of the England players' South African rebel tours in 1982. After his playing career ended,he became a Test umpire.
Robert Andrew Pick is a former English cricketer,and is the former coach of the England Under-19 team and the Canadian national team. He is currently the ICC High Performance Manager for the Americas Region.
The West Indian cricket team played 16 first-class cricket matches in England in 1988,under the captaincy of Viv Richards. They enjoyed considerable success during the tour,while England endured a "disastrous summer" of continuous change.
