Graham Gooch

Graham's Cooch

Personal information
Full name	Graham Alan Gooch
Nickname	Zap, Coochie
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	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 through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, he became the most prolific run scorer of all time with 67,057 runs. He is the leading Test run scorer for England, and is one of only twenty five players to have scored over 100 first-class centuries. In 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

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.

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', 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. 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, and his aggregate of 456 for the match remains a world record for a Test match. In 1990 Gooch was awarded Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year. In the following year against the 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 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 — 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 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. It is this relationship between the two men that perhaps highlights best the differences between their approaches to the game, as Gower himself identified in 1995 in an interview in The Independent "I was never destined to be on the ball 100 per cent of the time. I don't have the same ability that Graham Gooch has, to produce something very close to his best every time he plays.'

Gooch's committed approach to physical training also courted controversy during England's 1992 World Cup campaign, especially with another senior player 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.

First-class

Graham Gooch made his debut for Essex in 1973 at the age of 19, and played for the county until his retirement 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.

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.

Cricket Coach

In October 2001, Gooch returned to his beloved Essex in the capacity of head coach, taking over from Keith Fletcher. Gooch held this role until stepping down in March 2005 to Paul Prichard, his long running opening partner. Gooch remains at the club, continuing as the squad's specialist batting coach whilst also assuming commercial duties for the county.

In November 2009 Gooch was selected as a "temporary" batting coach for the impending four test tour of South Africa and to support ex-Essex colleague, Head England Coach Andy Flower

Gooch's commitment to England cricket and passion for the game remains. When commenting on the new England coaching role he said: "It came out of the blue. I met Andy at Trent Bridge when I was working for radio and I was a bit surprised when he asked me to do it. But you spend your career trying to do your bit for England and when you're asked to help again the call of your country is special."

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 fourth most centuries in Test Cricket for England, scoring 100 or more 20 times (Geoff Boycott, Colin Cowdrey and Walter Hammond all 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.

Statistics correct as of July 22, 2009		Batting
Opposition	Matches	Runs	Average	High Score	100 / 50
Australia	42	2632	33.31	196	4 / 16
India	19	1725	55.64	333	5 / 8
New Zealand	15	1148	52.18	210	4 / 3
Pakistan	10	683	42.68	135	1 / 5
Sri Lanka	3	376	62.66	174	1 / 1
West Indies	26	2197	44.83	154*	5 / 13
South Africa	3	139	23.16	33	0 / 0

External links

• Graham Gooch at ESPNcricinfo
• Graham Gooch at CricketArchive