David Gower

Honored with an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by the British Government, David Ivon Gower is a former English cricket player. He is well-known as the left-handed batsman of the modern century. He was also a right armed off-break bowler and an occasional wicket-keeper. He is one of the few players from England that have captained the team in many matches.

Gower was born in Tunbridge Wells in England but since his father was working in Tanganyika, he had spent most of his childhood growing up there. He was studying at the Marlborough House School when he started developing an interest in the game of cricket. Gower made his debut in 1975 when he started playing for Leicestershire. The affair went further and Gower ended up playing 448 first-class matches and 430 List A matches. He scored 26,339 runs and 12,255 runs from both respectively. His first-class match average was 40.08 with 56.75 for bowling and those for list A matches is 33.3 for batting.

Gower played a total of 117 test matches and 114 one-day international matches for England. He scored 8,231 runs from tests and 3,170 runs from ODIs with averages matching up to 44.25 and 30.77 respectively. Gower scored his maiden test century while playing against New Zealand in 1978. His Ashes debut was the 1978 Ashes played at The Gabba, Australia.

Several cases are recorded that show his lack of commitment for the game and his team. He declined to play at the 1987 Cricket World Cup simply because he did not want to travel, though being a regular and strong player of the team. Another incident that made the news was in 1989, when Gower was the captain of his team and he walked out of a press conference because he had plans to watch a movie. In 1991 Ashes, Gower and his teammate John Morris had been dismissed to play for England but instead of watching his team play, they hired a Tiger Moth biplane and went for a joy-ride. Several other cases are recorded that eventually led to his dismissal from the test squad. He retired from cricket in 1993.

After retirement, he became a cricket commentator and hosted a lot many shows on popular sports broadcasting channels.

Career Highlights

He was named the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1979.

He is inducted in to the ICC Hall of Fame.