The sun scarcely graced the English cricket scene with its presence in 1978, but when it did it seemed to adorn the blond head of David Gower. The young Leicestershire left-hander could do little wrong. He typified a new, precocious breed of stroke-players, imperious and exciting, who added colour and glamour to an otherwise bedraggled English summer. Plucked, to his astonishment, from Grace Road to play for MCC in their early-season showcase for maturing talent, Gower went on to make runs in one-day internationals and Tests almost as of right, becoming the youngest batsman to make a hundred for England since Peter May.
The arrival of David Gower as a Test player in 1978 was a breath of fresh air to the English game. Wisden wasted no time in making him a Cricketer of the Year in 1979.
Had all this been combined with helping Kent to cut a controversial swathe through the land as they lifted two trophies, the image would have been complete, for David Ivon Gower was born in that county, in Turnbridge Wells, on April 1, 1957. Leicestershire’s secretary-manager Michael Turner has never disguised his astonishment and delight that when he wrote to Kent for permission to offer terms to Gower, it was unhesitatingly granted.
Gower is something of a cerebral cricketer. Away from the game he likes to relax with crossword puzzles or to listen to classical music. He plays squash to maintain his fitness. He may be the envy of hundreds of young players throughout the country, but his rise to fame has not affected his polite, level-headed, and easy-to-approach attitude to life. The world of cricket may, in the next few years, lie at his feet, but at the moment those feet are planted firmly on the ground.
David Gower went on to become one of England’s greatest batsmen. His career continued until 1992, by which time he had scored 8,231 runs at 44.25 in 117 Tests.
