David Gower, one of England’s all-time greats, picks out the defining moments of his career in an exclusive chat with Phil Walker. Introduction by Roshan Gede.

Here are the defining moments of his career, picked by the man himself.

Happy birthday @David215Gower, a @WisdenAlmanack Cricketer of the Year in 1979. Here’s what Michael Carey wrote – https://t.co/KEtVpDLgMS #wisdencricketeroftheyear

— Wisden Almanack (@WisdenAlmanack) April 1, 2020

Early Lessons

The King’s School v Stragglers of Asia, School Match, Canterbury | 1974

In what turned out to be my final season at King’s we played a lovely touring side called Stragglers of Asia and I got a hundred. Someone saw my innings and reported back to Leicestershire and on the back of that I got an intro. The following season, I left school in March and decided to take up the option of playing full-time. My heart was not really with the Law; my heart was with Leicester.

Going Big

144* | Leicestershire v Hampshire, County Championship, Grace Road | 1977

This was around the time I’d first started to make hundreds instead of 40s and 50s. There was pressure on me to improve. Illy [Ray Illingworth, Leicestershire captain] had been talking me up, saying to people I would play for England, and it was sort of incumbent upon him to make sure I did. Ray was God knows how many years my senior, and he took what can be best described as a stern fatherly attitude to what I was doing. You needed his backing and from early on he seemed to be optimistic that I would succeed.

Test Centurion

111 | England v New Zealand, 1st Test, The Oval | 1978

Whatever you say about New Zealand in 1978, it was still a Test hundred, and you still have to get to that landmark. I remember going from 95 to 99 straight down the ground off Steven Boock and then I thought, ‘Ok, one more run’ and very gently swept a straight ball around the corner for a single. Halfway through the shot I thought, ‘Hang on a second!’ – because I’d played a similar shot at Lord’s against Iqbal Qasim and got it horribly wrong and was bowled for 50-odd. I got a lecture from Mike Brearley about big scores and Test matches being five days but on this occasion I managed to get enough bat on it. Then Botham ran me out.

Hogg Roast

102 | Australia v England, 2nd Test, Perth | 1978

It was a second-string Australia but in amongst that team was Rodney Hogg. He got a whole stack of wickets and his short bursts were bloody sharp – probably the quickest I’d seen at that stage. He hit me on the neck at Perth, before I got to my hundred, and gave me some abuse as we walked off at tea. I’d played grade cricket in Perth the previous winter so to get a hundred there was quite special.

There were two very distinct parts to that tour. The first where I was getting everything right, and the end bit where it all went horribly wrong. The Sydney game was very important. We’d had a couple of days in the field which hadn’t gone particularly well, and we’d had this sort of Geoffrey Howe speech from Graham [Gooch] – ‘We’ve got to do a bit better, lads’. I’m not saying this to be vindictive but I thought it was too negative and it pissed me off. I said something and Graham wasn’t best pleased. Our relationship hadn’t reached rock bottom yet but there were differences of opinion that were bubbling over. I remember having a fairly sleepless night before I went in to bat. Athers was still there when I came in and I started well and kept going. Athers had this long head start but I almost beat him to the hundred. In the second innings Goochie said, ‘I’d like you to open with me’, and I said, ‘Oh really? Must I?’ I had a bit of a pinch-hit and we gave them a shock for a few overs but the target was always a bit too much.

First published in April 2017