Graham Gooch

Graham Gooch

Personal information
Full name	Graham Alan Gooch
Born	23 July 1953 (1953-07-23) (age 56) Whipps Cross, Leytonstone, England
Nickname	Zap, Goochie
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Batting style	Right-handed
Bowling style	Right-arm medium
Role	Batsman
International information
National side	England
Test debut (cap 461)	10 July 1975 v Australia
Last Test	3 February 1995 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 34)	26 August 1976 v West Indies
Last ODI	10 January 1995 v Australia
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1973 – 1997	Essex
1975 – 2000	MCC
1982/3 – 1983/4	Western Province
Career statistics
Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	118	125	581	614
Runs scored	8900	4290	44846	22211
Batting average	42.58	36.98	49.01	40.16
100s/50s	20/46	8/23	128/217	44/139
Top score	333	142	333	198*
Balls bowled	2655	2066	18785	14314
Wickets	23	36	246	310
Bowling average	46.47	42.11	34.37	31.15
5 wickets in innings	0	0	3	1
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	0	n/a
Best bowling	3/39	3/19	7/14	5/8
Catches/stumpings	103/–	45/–	555/–	261/–
Source: Cricinfo, 7 December 2007

Graham Alan Gooch, OBE, DL (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 and in 2009 was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.^[1]

Overview

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. Famous for his upright stance, a high bat-lift and heavy bat he became the most prolific run scorer top-class cricket has ever seen.^[2]

Test cricket

Early years

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'^[3], and England lost the first Test by an innings and 85 runs. The second Ashes Test in the series wasn't much better, he scored 6 and 31 and was then dropped from the side. He was not selected again until 1978 where 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.

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 who captained the team who gained the most media attention and in some cases vilification.^[4] 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 their twilight years as Cricket Professionals and so the ban was arguably felt more acutely by the captain. 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.

Later years

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,^[5] and his aggregate of 456 for the match remains a world record for a Test match.^[6] In 1990 Gooch was awaded Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year. 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.^[7] This opinion was backed up by the ICC rankings, which listed 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^[8] — 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.^[9] 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^{[citation needed]}, 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.

First-class

Graham Gooch made his debut for Essex in 1973 at the age of 19, and played for the county until his retirerement as a player in 1997. 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.

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.

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.

Outside cricket

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 2007 he announced his intention to compete in a beach cricket competition against Courtney Walsh's Team and Allan Border's team.

Records

Test matches

• The most Test runs for England, with 8,900
• 9th most runs in Test cricket (when he retired Gooch was the 3rd highest run scorer in Tests)
• The third highest score for England in a single Test innings with 333 (only Len Hutton and Walter Hammond made higher scores for England)
• The most runs scored in a single Test, 456 (333 and 123) against India at Lords 1990 (Gooch is the only player to score a triple hundred and a hundred in a match in all first-class cricket)
• Equal second most centuries in Test Cricket for England, scoring 100 or more 20 times (Geoff Boycott made 22 centuries, Ken Barrington also made 20 centuries)
• Most fifties (and over) for England: reached fifty 66 times
• The most runs scored in a three-Test series for any team, 752 against India 1990
• The second most capped England player with 118 (Alec Stewart was capped 133 times)
• Most Test runs at Lord's

One day internationals

• The 3rd most ODI runs by an Englishman with 4290
• The 2nd most ODI centuries by an Englishman with 8

First class

• Most runs in a season for Essex CC 2,559 in 1984
• Most first-class runs in a career for Essex 30,701
• Highest 1st wicket partnership for Essex, 316 with Paul Prichard
• Highest 2nd wicket partnership for Essex, 403 with Paul Prichard
• With 44,846 first-class runs plus 22,211 list A runs, Graham Gooch is the most prolific top flight batsman of all time

Career performance

Graham Gooch's Test career performance graph.

References

External links

• Player Profile: Graham Gooch from Cricinfo
• Graham Gooch at CricketArchive
• 'Essex turn to Gooch', BBC Sport
• 'Gooch switches to ambassador role', BBC Sport

v • d • e England squad – 1979 Cricket World Cup (runners-up) 1 Brearley (c) • 2 Botham • 3 Boycott • 4 Edmonds • 5 Gooch • 6 Gower • 7 Hendrick • 8 Larkins • 9 Miller • 10 Old • 11 Randall • 12 Taylor (wk) • 13 Willis

v • d • e England squad – 1987 Cricket World Cup (runners up) 1 Gatting (c) • 2 Athey • 3 Broad • 4 DeFreitas • 5 Downton (wk) • 6 Emburey • 7 Foster • 8 Gooch • 9 Hemmings • 10 Lamb • 11 Pringle • 12 Robinson • 13 Small

v • d • e England squad – 1992 Cricket World Cup (runners-up) 1 Gooch (c) • 2 Botham • 3 DeFreitas • 4 Fairbrother • 5 Hick • 6 Illingworth • 7 Lamb • 8 Lewis • 9 Pringle • 10 Reeve • 11 Small • 12 Smith • 13 Stewart (wk) • 14 Tufnell