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Colin Cowdrey

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Colin Cowdrey
Personal information
Full name
Michael Colin Cowdrey
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight arm leg spin
RoleAdministrator
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 379)26 November 1954 v Australia
Last Test13 February 1975 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 2)5 January 1971 v Australia
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1950 – 1976Kent
1952 – 1975MCC
1952 – 1954Oxford University
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 114 1 692 87
Runs scored 7624 1 42719 1978
Batting average 44.06 1.00 42.89 29.52
100s/50s 22/38 0/0 107/231 3/12
Top score 182 1 307 116
Balls bowled 119 – 4876 59
Wickets 0 – 65 3
Bowling average – – 51.21 14.33
5 wickets in innings – – 0 –
10 wickets in match – – 0 n/a
Best bowling – – 4/22 1/0
Catches/stumpings 120/– 0/– 638/– 38/–
Source: Cricinfo, 4 December 2000

Michael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, CBE (24 December 1932–4 December 2000) was an English amateur cricketer and later cricket administrator, who was posthumously inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame on 24 June 2009.[1] With 114 Test matches and over 7,600 runs, Cowdrey was a stalwart batsman for England. His 22 centuries is a record held jointly with two other players, and he is one of only a handful of batsmen to have scored over 100 first-class centuries.

Career

Colin Cowdrey was born in Bangalore, India. His father named him Michael Colin Cowdrey, to give him the same initials as cricket's most famous club the Marylebone Cricket Club. He was educated at the Bishop Cotton Boys' School, Bangalore, Homefield Preparatory School, Sutton, Tonbridge School and Brasenose College, Oxford, which he left without taking a degree. He became the youngest player ever to appear in a match at Lord's when, at the age of 13, in July 1946 he played for Tonbridge against Clifton. He scored 75 and 44 and took eight wickets in the match. Four years later he made his first-class debut for Kent County Cricket Club, where he would remain a player until his retirement in 1976. He played for Oxford University in 1952-1954 (Captain). He was appointed captain of Kent in 1956 and in 1970 he led Kent to their first County Championship since 1913.

Cowdrey made his England debut on the 1954-55 tour of Australia and New Zealand and made his maiden Test hundred at Melbourne in the Boxing Day Test match 1954. He was appointed England Captain in 1959 for a Test match against the country of his birth - he captained England 27 times, appointed and re-appointed due to ill health in 1959-62, 1966, and 1967-69 (Won 8, Drawn 15, Lost 4).[2] After losing the First Test against Australia in 1968 he won 1 and drew 6 of the next 7 Tests, which Ray Illingworth extended to a record run of 27 Tests without defeat between 1968-69. Cowdrey had snapped an Achilles tendon in the summer of 1969 and Illingworth was appointed in his stead, but proved so successful that he was retained even after Cowdrey recovered in 1970. He toured Australia a record six times in 1954–55, 1958–59, 1962–63, 1965–66, 1970–71 and 1974–75, each time under a different captain and four times as vice-captain[3]

In 1963, facing the West Indies in a Lord's Test match, he came in to bat with a broken wrist in plaster (fortunately he did not have to face a ball; if it had been necessary, he said he would have done so holding the bat with one hand). Had he not batted, England would have lost, but his appearance caused the match to be drawn.

At the beginning of the 1973 English season Cowdrey headed the list of the then all time highest aggregate Test match run scorers with 7700 runs. He ended his career after playing his final Test against Australia in 1974-75. He was called up for this series in the middle of the winter when England batsman had been ruled out due to injury after the 1st Test.[4] Although some in the Australian press ridiculed his recall at 41 (he had been preferred over younger batsmen thanks to good form in the previous season and experience of Australian conditions, although he had not played in Tests for 3½ years), he was given a warm reception when walking out to bat in the 2nd Test of that series at Perth and reported to have shown guts and good technique against the fast bowling of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, despite having not played cricket since the English summer and having only 3 days to prepare himself for the Test after a long, delay-stricken journey to Australia.[5][6][7] In making this tour he became only the second English player to tour Australia six times.[8] He had some success in the 2nd Test (his first match), making 22 and 41, but he struggled thereafter, ending the series with only 165 runs at 18.33.

In total he played 114 Tests and scored 7624 Test runs at an average of 44.06, including 22 centuries (the 241 runs he had scored against the Rest of the World in 1970 no longer count as Test match runs).

Following his retirement in 1976, Colin Cowdrey worked closely behind the scenes at Kent, became President of the MCC in 1986 and was Chairman of the International Cricket Council from 1989-1993. He was President of Kent County Cricket Club in 2000.

Other sports

Cowdrey won a rackets blue in his first term at Oxford. He was also a useful golfer playing off a six handicap. He won a prestigious Pro-Am tournament at Turnberry with Brian Huggett. In 1970 he had a hole in one at the 195-yard first hole playing for the Cavaliers against Caymanus Golf Club in Kingston Jamaica.

Honours

Colin Cowdrey was awarded a CBE in 1972, a knighthood in 1992 and became a life peer as Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, of Tonbridge in the County of Kent in 1997, on the recommendation of outgoing Prime Minister John Major to whom he had become a personal friend and confidant. Cowdrey was one of only two cricketers to be given a life peerage for their services to the game (the other being Learie Constantine).

In 1997 a cricket club in Cowdrey's hometown Tonbridge was renamed in his honour; Cowdrey Cricket Club (formerly Tonbridge Printers CC) plays in the Readers Kent Feeder League West, and can be found here: [1]

Family life

Cowdrey was twice married:

  • Penny Chiesman (1956–1985), with whom he had four children:

Test career

Colin Cowdrey made 22 Test Centuries to match Wally Hammond's England record, subsequently equalled again by Geoffrey Boycott. England suffered only one defeat in the 65 Tests in which Hammond, Cowdrey or Boycott made a hundred (when Cowdrey made 105 against South Africa at Trent Bridge in 1965, but England lost by 94 runs). Of the 22 Tests in which Cowdrey made a hundred they won 10, drew 11 and lost 1 and Cowdrey scored a Test century against all the Test teams he played both home and away.

Colin Cowdrey's 22 Test Centuries
No Century Test Opponents Season Venue City Country Result
1 102 Third Test  Australia 1954-55 Melbourne Cricket Ground Melbourne  Australia  England won by 128 runs
2 101 Second Test  South Africa 1956-57 Newlands Cricket Ground Cape Town  South Africa  England won by 312 runs
3 154 First Test  West Indies 1957 Edgbaston Cricket Ground Birmingham  England Match Drawn
4 152 Second Test  West Indies 1957 Lord's Cricket Ground London  England  England won by an innings and 36 runs
5 100* Third Test  Australia 1958-59 Sydney Cricket Ground Sydney  Australia Match Drawn
6 160 Third Test  India 1959 Headingley Stadium Leeds  England  England won by an innings and 173 runs
7 114 Third Test  West Indies 1959-60 Sabina Park Kingston  Jamaica Match Drawn
8 119 Fifth Test  West Indies 1959-60 Queen's Park Oval Port of Spain  Trinidad and Tobago Match Drawn
9 155 Fifth Test  South Africa 1960 Kennington Oval London  England Match Drawn
10 159 First Test  Pakistan 1962 Edgbaston Cricket Ground Birmingham  England  England won by an innings and 24 runs
11 182 Fifth Test  Pakistan 1962 Kennington Oval London  England  England won by 10 wickets
12 113 Second Test  Australia 1962-63 Melbourne Cricket Ground Melbourne  Australia  England won by 7 wickets
13 128* Second Test  New Zealand 1962-63 Basin Reserve Wellington  New Zealand  England won by an innings and 47 runs
14 107 Third Test  India 1963-64 Eden Gardens Calcutta  India Match Drawn
15 151 Fourth Test  India 1963-64 Feroz Shah Kotla Delhi  India Match Drawn
16 119 Second Test  New Zealand 1965 Lord's Cricket Ground London  England  England won by 7 wickets
17 105 Second Test  South Africa 1965 Trent Bridge Nottingham  England  South Africa won by 94 runs
18 104 Second Test  Australia 1965-66 Melbourne Cricket Ground Melbourne  Australia Match Drawn
19 101 Second Test  West Indies 1967-68 Sabina Park Kingston  Jamaica Match Drawn
20 148 Fourth Test  West Indies 1967-68 Queen's Park Oval Port of Spain  Trinidad and Tobago  England won by 7 wickets
21 104 Third Test  Australia 1968 Edgbaston Cricket Ground Birmingham  England Match Drawn
22 100 First Test  Pakistan 1968-69 Gaddafi Stadium Lahore  Pakistan Match Drawn
Red lines are Cowdrey's individual Test innings scores (blue dot indicates finished not out). Blue line is the average of the past ten innings

Career highlights

  • 1950: Made first appearance for Kent County Cricket Club, the start of a 26-year playing association with the county.
  • 1954: Chosen for Australian tour and made England debut in the first Test. Maiden Test century in the third.
  • 1957: Partnership of 411 with Peter May to save Test against the West Indies. Appointed captain of Kent.
  • 1959: Captained England for the first time.
  • 1962: Highest first-class score, 307 for MCC against South Australia.
  • 1963: Batted with a broken wrist to help England avoid defeat by the West Indies at Lord's.
  • 1965: His best season for Kent with 2,039 runs at average of 63.42.
  • 1968: Captained England to a 1-0 Test series victory in the West Indies.
  • 1970: Led Kent to their first County Championship since 1913.
  • 1971: Played last home match against Pakistan, and retired from Kent captaincy.
  • 1972: Awarded the CBE.
  • 1975: Final Test, his 114th, at the age of 42 as an emergency replacement on tour of Australia.
  • 1976: Retired from first-class cricket with 42,719 runs at an average of 42.89, including 107 centuries, highest score 307.
  • 1986: President of the MCC in its bicentennial year, later chairman of ICC.
  • 1992: Knighted for services to cricket.
  • 1997: Appointed to the House of Lords as Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge

He was the first cricketer to play 100 Test matches.

Death

The MCC flag flying over Westminster Abbey on the day of Cowdrey's memorial service

Lord Cowdrey died of a heart attack on 4 December 2000, aged 67, having suffered a stroke earlier that year. His memorial service at Westminster Abbey on 30 March 2001 was attended by many luminaries of the cricket world and the tribute was given by John Major. Major said:

"He left us too soon, but it was a gem of an innings. He lived life with a clear eye, a straight bat and a cover drive from heaven. He was a true Corinthian."

Colin, The Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge, CBE, is buried in the churchyard of the tiny Pre-Conquest church of St Nicholas in Poling, West Sussex, the church that he attended regularly. The epitaph on his simple headstone was written by John Woodcock and reads...

"...some journey, some life, some coverdrive, some friend."

Further Reading/References

  • "The Last Roman" unauthorised biography by Mark Peel (1999) ISBN 0 233 994610
  • "MCC. The Autobiography of a cricketer" (1976)
  • "Cricket Today" by Colin Cowdrey (1961)
  • "Time for Reflection" (1962) Early autobiography
  • "The Incomparable Game" by Colin Cowdrey (1970)
  • "The Cowdreys" unauthorised biography by Ivo Tennant (1990) ISBN 0 671 65323 7
  • "Wisden" 2001 Obituary and tributes ISBN 0 947766 63 4
  • "Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge, C.B.E. (2003) – Famous Cricketers Series No.72" by Howard Milton. The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians. ISBN 1 902171 70 5
  • "Colin Cowdrey in Test cricket" by Bernard Black ISBN 0 9549517 0 0
  1. ^ "Colin Cowdrey inducted into Cricket Hall of Fame".
  2. ^ p222-223, Peter Arnold, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of World Cricket, W.H. Smith, 1986
  3. ^ p36-38, E. W. Swanton (ed), The Barclays World of Cricket, Collins, 1986
  4. ^ .Cricinfo - Michael Colin Cowdrey 1932-2000
  5. ^ Cricinfo
  6. ^ Cricinfo - Once more into the breach
  7. ^ "Obituary: Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge". The Daily Telegraph. London. 5 December 2000. Retrieved 30 April 2010.
  8. ^ Cricinfo
Sporting positions
Preceded by English national cricket captain
1959
1959/60–1961
1962
1966
1967/68–1968
1968–1968/69 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Kent County Cricket Club captain
1957–1971 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Post created
 President of the ICC
1989–1993 		Succeeded by

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