The Yorkshire and England seamer Chris Old overcame years of injury problems to enjoy a golden summer in 1978. He was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year at the start of the following season.

The now-indisputable talents that lifted Chris Old to a distinguished career with Yorkshire and England might never have been allowed to develop had two older Olds had their way. The youngest Old was an impressionable four years of age when he was allowed to take part in his first cricket match, and older brother Alan and eldest brother Malcolm nominated him as wicket-keeper, declaring sternly that he was not allowed to bat or bowl.

Happily, Christopher Middleton Old outgrew his penance as wicketkeeper and his awe of older brothers, but he never outgrew his love of cricket. The 1978 season, which he regards as the most satisfying of his career to date, revealed him at 29 as a mature bowler, a model of accuracy and control. Brother Alan, perhaps as a result of so much early batting and bowling practice, has played for Durham and has won greater honours as an England and British Lions rugby union fly-half.

Indeed, Chris and Alan provide the only instance, it is thought, of brothers playing for England at different sports on the same days. It happened while Chris Old was with England in the West Indies in 1974. On February 2, Chris played in the first Test at Port-of-Spain and Alan appeared for England against Ireland at Twickenham; on February 16, when Chris played in the second Test at Kingston, Alan played against Scotland at Murrayfield.

Only injuries have threatened his career with England, but that threat alone has been real and insistent. Operations on both knees in 1970 and 1971 were followed in 1976 by the possibility of major surgery which might have finished him as a player. There was no guarantee of success and a real possibility that knee operations might leave him badly incapacitated. “I might have still been in a wheelchair,” he recalls.

But Old was determined to take the risk; indeed, was already booked in for surgery when it was suggested that special remedial treatment might stimulate dormant thigh muscles. A severe course of weight training and electric impulse treatment produced amazing if painful results.

He is still dogged by shoulder trouble which makes throwing from the outfield uncomfortable without seriously impairing his bowling action. Yet that did not prevent him from making 1978 a year to remember. After bowling well on England’s tour of Pakistan and New Zealand, Old demoralised the Pakistanis with six wickets for 36 for MCC at Lord’s and then decimated them in the Edgbaston Test match, where he took seven for 50, including four wickets in five balls. “Bob Willis and I switched ends at lunch and I was just plugging away trying to keep the runs down,” he says disarmingly.

His fine form for Yorkshire reached a pinnacle at Old Trafford, where he took nine wickets and scored 100 not out against Lancashire, statistically the best all-round performance of his career.

On other occasions, Old has revealed his power of stroke with the bat. Indeed, he is credited with the second-fastest century in first-class cricket – thirty-seven minutes with six sixes and 13 fours, his second 50 coming in only nine minutes. That was against Warwickshire at Edgbaston in 1977 at the expense of some very ordinary bowling.
It was suggested that Old’s bowling success last year was attributable to a shortened run-up, but he still bowls off his normal length of about 20 yards. “The difference was probably that I stopped trying to bowl really quick. My run-up has always been the same but I feel now that my mental attitude is a lot better.”

Chris Old played his 46th and final Test in the 1981 Ashes series. He took 143 wickets at 28.11.