Graham Gooch
Encyclopedia
Graham Alan Gooch OBE
DL
(born 23 July 1953) is a former cricket
er 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. He has the most runs in a career in List A cricket which totals 22211 runs.
In 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame
. He is currently the batting coach for the England cricket team, a role he has performed since November 2009.
, 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 one of the most prolific run scorers top-class cricket has ever seen. On the 8th November 2011, he received an honorary award from University of East London.
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 the twilight years of their cricket careers 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.
Returning for the summer of 1990, Gooch had a golden summer both as batsman and captain against India and New Zealand, scoring runs seemingly at will. Gooch 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 2011, 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, as does his aggregate of 753 for the 3-match series. Both series were won, and in 1990 Gooch was awarded Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year.
The winter tour of Australia did not, however, go according to plan, England losing 3-0 despite holding first-innings leads in the first two tests (both of which were lost), although Gooch scored a marvellous hundred chasing an improbable total in the drawn 4th test.
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.'
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, in overcast conditions on an unpredictable pitch, while only two of his colleagues reached double figures in a total of 252. 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. In the rest of the series (drawn 2-2), Gooch was one of England's most consistent run-scorers, although no further centuries followed.
Gooch made a habit of leading by example, his batting average as captain being almost twice his average in the ranks. New Zealand were beaten in the winter tour of 1991-92, the decisive Second Test including another Gooch century (which he described as his worst ever, but his luckiest). He also led England to the World Cup final later that winter, and batted well during the 1992 series defeat by Pakistan - again, his runs contributing to England's series-levelling victory in the 4th test.
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.
After the fourth Test match of the 1993 Ashes series, and with England now 3-0 down in the series, he resigned as captain: the job being given to his fellow opening batsman, Michael Atherton. Although Gooch continued playing for a couple of years, notably scoring another double century against New Zealand in 1994, 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.
, 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.
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.
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. 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 &mdash
. 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.". He has since remained as England's batting coach on a permanent basis, continuing this role for the 2010 series against Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the winter Ashes series against Australia in Australia. Double-centurion Alastair Cook
(at the first test at The Gabba in Brisbane) hailed Gooch's influence on England's and his own batting prowess. Gooch subsequently has supervised England's batting (or 'run-scoring', as Ian Bell has noted Gooch refers to it) throughout their rise to number 1 in the Test cricket
ICC Rankings. Prior to Gooch taking over, English batsmen had scored 6 test double-centuries in 15 years. 15 months after he became the batting coach, England had already beaten that total.
s, 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.
Graham Gooch is a West Ham United supporter.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
DL
Deputy Lieutenant
In the United Kingdom, a Deputy Lieutenant is one of several deputies to the Lord Lieutenant of a lieutenancy area; an English ceremonial county, Welsh preserved county, Scottish lieutenancy area, or Northern Irish county borough or county....
(born 23 July 1953) is a former cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er who captained
Captain (cricket)
The captain of a cricket team often referred to as the skipper is the appointed leader, having several additional roles and responsibilities over and above those of a regular player...
Essex
Essex County Cricket Club
Essex County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Essex. Its limited overs team is called the Essex Eagles, their team colours this season are blue.The club plays most of its home games...
and England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. 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
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
run scorer for England, and is one of only twenty-five players to have scored over 100 first-class centuries. He has the most runs in a career in List A cricket which totals 22211 runs.
In 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame
ICC Cricket Hall of Fame
The ICC Cricket Hall of Fame "recognises the achievements of the legends of the game from cricket's long and illustrious history". A hall of fame, it was launched by the International Cricket Council on 2 January 2009, in association with the Federation of International Cricketers'...
. He is currently the batting coach for the England cricket team, a role he has performed since November 2009.
Overview
Gooch was born in Whipps Cross Hospital, LeytonstoneLeytonstone
Leytonstone is an area of east London and part of the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It is a high density suburban area, located seven miles north east of Charing Cross in the ceremonial county of Greater London and the historic county of Essex...
, in East London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He was educated at Norlington School for Boys
Norlington School for Boys
Norlington School For Boys is a single-sex comprehensive school located in the borough of Waltham Forest in London, England. The Head Teacher is John Hernandez...
, in London.
Gooch played first-class cricket
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
regularly between 1973 and 1997. Famous for his upright stance, a high bat-lift and heavy bat he became one of the most prolific run scorers top-class cricket has ever seen. On the 8th November 2011, he received an honorary award from University of East London.
Early years
Gooch made his debut in Test cricketTest cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
in 1975 at 21 against the touring Australia side captained by Ian Chappell
Ian Chappell
Ian Michael Chappell is a former cricketer who played for South Australia and Australia. He captained Australia between 1971 and 1975 before taking a central role in the breakaway World Series Cricket organisation...
. 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
South African rebel tours
The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because South Africa was throughout this period banned from international cricket due to the apartheid regime...
, which resulted in all of the players concerned, including Geoff Boycott, Alan Knott
Alan Knott
Alan Philip Eric Knott is a former Kent County Cricket Club and English cricketer, as a wicket-keeper-batsman....
and Bob Woolmer
Bob Woolmer
Robert Andrew Woolmer was an international cricketer, professional cricket coach and also a professional commentator...
, 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 the twilight years of their cricket careers 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 was restored to the England team. His career blossomed later after being appointed captain, a position he held twice: firstly, and briefly, at the end of the "summer of four captains" in 1988, as a replacement for the injured Chris Cowdrey. In his first match (the fifth and last of the series against the West Indies), England at least showed some spirit, taking a first-innings lead for the only time in the series: but Gooch's second-innings 84 stood alone as the rest of the batting collapsed, England losing the match (and with it the series 4-0). His second match, the one-off Test against Sri Lanka, was won, and all seemed fair for Gooch to remain as captain for the tour of India that winter. But that tour was cancelled over the Indian government's refusal to grant visas to the eight players who had sporting links with South Africa, including Gooch himself. Gower was thus returned as captain for the losing 1989 Ashes series.Full-time captain
After Gower's resignation following the 4-0 Ashes defeat of 1989, and the loss of a large number of players with Test experience to a second rebel tour of South Africa under Gatting, Gooch was re-appointed captain for the 1989-90 winter tour of the West Indies. England unexpectedly won the first Test, which was England's first victory over the Windies since 1973 and came close to winning the 3rd. However, Gooch suffered a broken hand and missed the rest of the tour - England lost the two remaining matches and the series.Returning for the summer of 1990, Gooch had a golden summer both as batsman and captain against India and New Zealand, scoring runs seemingly at will. Gooch 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 2011, 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, as does his aggregate of 753 for the 3-match series. Both series were won, and in 1990 Gooch was awarded Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year.
The winter tour of Australia did not, however, go according to plan, England losing 3-0 despite holding first-innings leads in the first two tests (both of which were lost), although Gooch scored a marvellous hundred chasing an improbable total in the drawn 4th test.
Gooch had a public falling-out with David Gower
David Gower
David Ivon Gower OBE is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test...
, 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
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
"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.'
In the following year against the West Indies he scored a match-winning 154 not out, carrying his bat
Carry the bat
In cricket, the term carry the bat refers to an opening batsman who is not dismissed when the team innings is closed...
throughout England's second innings against a highly rated pace attack, in overcast conditions on an unpredictable pitch, while only two of his colleagues reached double figures in a total of 252. 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. In the rest of the series (drawn 2-2), Gooch was one of England's most consistent run-scorers, although no further centuries followed.
Gooch made a habit of leading by example, his batting average as captain being almost twice his average in the ranks. New Zealand were beaten in the winter tour of 1991-92, the decisive Second Test including another Gooch century (which he described as his worst ever, but his luckiest). He also led England to the World Cup final later that winter, and batted well during the 1992 series defeat by Pakistan - again, his runs contributing to England's series-levelling victory in the 4th test.
Gooch's committed approach to physical training also courted controversy during England's 1992 World Cup
Cricket World Cup
The ICC Cricket World Cup is the premier international championship of men's One Day International cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council , with preliminary qualification rounds leading up to a finals tournament which is held every four years...
campaign, especially with another senior player Ian Botham
Ian Botham
Sir Ian Terence Botham OBE is a former England Test cricketer and Test team captain, and current cricket commentator. He was a genuine all-rounder with 14 centuries and 383 wickets in Test cricket, and remains well-known by his nickname "Beefy"...
. 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.
After the fourth Test match of the 1993 Ashes series, and with England now 3-0 down in the series, he resigned as captain: the job being given to his fellow opening batsman, Michael Atherton. Although Gooch continued playing for a couple of years, notably scoring another double century against New Zealand in 1994, 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.
First-class
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 SurreySurrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, 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.
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.
Upon his retirement, Christopher Martin-Jenkins
Christopher Martin-Jenkins
Christopher Dennis Alexander Martin-Jenkins MBE, also known as CMJ , is a cricket journalist and Past President of the MCC. He is also a commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio....
wrote an article in Wisden Cricketers Almanack arguing that Gooch was the all-time highest run scorer in top level cricket. 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 &mdash
Cricket Coach
In October 2001, Gooch returned to his beloved Essex in the capacity of head coach, taking over from Keith FletcherKeith Fletcher
Keith Fletcher is a former English cricketer, who played for Essex and England. He later became England's team manager. His nickname was "The Gnome of Essex", so christened by his Essex team-mate, Ray East, because Fletcher's winklepickers had begun to curl up at the toes due to wear...
. 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
Andy Flower
Andrew "Andy" Flower OBE is a former international cricketer for Zimbabwe and is currently the England coach.-Playing career:...
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
Trent Bridge
Trent Bridge is a Test, One-day international and County cricket ground located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England and is also the headquarters of Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club. As well as International cricket and Nottinghamshire's home games, the ground has hosted the Finals Day of...
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.". He has since remained as England's batting coach on a permanent basis, continuing this role for the 2010 series against Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the winter Ashes series against Australia in Australia. Double-centurion Alastair Cook
Alastair Cook
Alastair Nathan Cook, MBE is an English international cricket player. He is a left-handed opening batsman who plays county cricket for Essex and International cricket for England, where he is their ODI captain. Cook played for Essex's Academy and made his debut for the first XI in 2003...
(at the first test at The Gabba in Brisbane) hailed Gooch's influence on England's and his own batting prowess. Gooch subsequently has supervised England's batting (or 'run-scoring', as Ian Bell has noted Gooch refers to it) throughout their rise to number 1 in the Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
ICC Rankings. Prior to Gooch taking over, English batsmen had scored 6 test double-centuries in 15 years. 15 months after he became the batting coach, England had already beaten that total.
Outside cricket
In the mid-1990s, faced with a receding hairline, Gooch began promoting hair transplantHair transplantation
Hair transplantation is a surgical technique that involves moving individual hair follicles from one part of the body to bald or balding parts . It is primarily used to treat male pattern baldness. It this case, grafts containing hair follicles that are genetically resistant to balding are...
s, for a London-based clinic, as well as the Australian-based Advanced Hair Studio. Two licensed computer games were made by Audiogenic
Audiogenic
Audiogenic Software is one of the oldest United Kingdom video game developers. It was established in 1985 out of the ashes of an earlier Audiogenic company that had been founded in the late 1970s. It published its last new title in 1997, after the core of the development team were taken over by...
, Graham Gooch's Test Cricket
Graham Gooch's Test Cricket
Graham Gooch's Test Cricket is a 1985 cricket game released for the Acorn Electron, BBC Micro, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum by Audiogenic. It was later reissued by budget label Alternative Software as Graham Gooch's Match Cricket.-Gameplay:...
in 1985 and Graham Gooch World Class Cricket
Graham Gooch World Class Cricket
Graham Gooch World Class Cricket is a cricket video game developed and published by Audiogenic in 1993. It is endorsed by former England cricketer Graham Gooch. It is available for the Amiga and PC computer systems.-Game play:...
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
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
against New Zealand A
New Zealand A cricket team
The New Zealand A cricket team is a cricket team representing New Zealand, and is the "second tier" of international New Zealand cricket below the full New Zealand cricket team. The team played its first game, against an England XI, in 1996/97...
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
Courtney Walsh
Courtney Andrew Walsh is a former international cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches...
's Team and Allan Border
Allan Border
Allan Robert Border AO is a former Australian cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the captain of the Australian team. His playing nickname was "A.B.". He played 156 Test matches in his career, a record until it was passed by fellow Australian Steve Waugh...
's team.
Graham Gooch is a West Ham United supporter.
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 HuttonLen HuttonSir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
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 cricketFirst-class cricketFirst-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
) - Equal fourth most centuries in Test Cricket for England, scoring 100 or more 20 times (Geoff Boycott, Colin CowdreyColin CowdreyMichael Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge, CBE , better known as Colin Cowdrey, was the Captain of Oxford University, Kent County Cricket Club and the England cricket team in a career that lasted from 1950 to 1976...
and Walter Hammond all made 22 centuries, Ken BarringtonKen BarringtonKenneth Frank Barrington , better known as Ken Barrington, played for the English cricket team and Surrey County Cricket Club in the 1950s and 1960s. He was a right-handed batsman and occasional leg-spin bowler, well known for his jovial good humour and long, defensive innings "batting with bulldog...
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 StewartAlec StewartAlec James Stewart OBE is a retired English cricketer, a right-handed batsman-wicketkeeper and former captain of the England cricket team...
was capped 133 times) - Most Test runs at Lord's
Test hundreds
- 123 v West Indies (Lords) June 1980
- 116 v West Indies (Bridgetown) March 1981
- 153 v West Indies (Kingston) April 1981
- 127 v India (Chennai) January 1982
- 196 v Australia (Oval) August 1985
- 114 v India (Lords) June 1986
- 183 v New Zealand (Lords) June 1986
- 146 v West Indies (Trent Bridge) June 1988
- 154 v New Zealand (Edgbaston) July 1990
- 333 v India (Lords) July 1990
- 123 v India (Lords) July 1990
- 116 v India (Old Trafford) August 1990
- 117 v Australia (Adelaide) January 1991
- 154 v West Indies (Headingley) 1991
- 174 v Sri Lanka (Lords) August 1991
- 114 v New Zealand (Auckland) February 1992
- 135 v Pakistan (Headingley) July 1992
- 133 v Australia (Old Trafford) June 1993
- 120 v Australia (Trent Bridge) July 1993
- 210 v New Zealand (Trent Bridge) June 1994
One day internationals
- The 4th 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
- Most centuries for Essex, 94
- Highest 1st wicket partnership for Essex, 316 with Paul PrichardPaul PrichardPaul Prichard is an English cricketer who played for Essex County Cricket Club. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He is best known for spending seventeen years as a batsman for Essex at first-class and List A level where he was club captain from 1995-1998...
- 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
List A
- The most runs in a career in List A cricket which totals 22211 runs.
- The joint most 50s with Graeme Hick, 139
- The 2nd most centuries with 44, (1st is Sachin TendulkarSachin TendulkarSachin Ramesh Tendulkar is an Indian cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. He is the leading run-scorer and century maker in Test and one-day international cricket. He is the only male player to score a double century in the history of ODI cricket...
with 59)
Career performance
| Statistics correct as of 22 July 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 CricketArchiveCricketArchiveCricketArchive is a website that aims to provide a comprehensive archive of records relating to the sport of cricket. It claims to be the most comprehensive cricket database on the internet, including scorecards for all matches of first-class cricket , List A cricket , Women's Test cricket and...