David Gower

David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s.

Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Test matches and 114 One Day Internationals (ODI) scoring 8,231 and 3,170 runs, respectively.

He was one of the most capped and high-scoring players for England during his period, and only Jack Hobbs made more runs against Australia than Gower's 3,269.

Gower was born in Tunbridge Wells in 1957.

His father, Richard Gower OBE, was working for the Colonial Service in a position in Dar es Salaam, capital of the then British-administered territory of Tanganyika Territory, where Gower spent his early childhood.

The family returned to England after Tanganyika was granted independence, when Gower was six years old, settling in Kent and later moving to Loughborough.

Gower attended prep school at Marlborough House School in Hawkhurst from the age of 8 to that of 13, where he leaned towards cricket as his preferred sport.

He was awarded a scholarship to attend The King's School in Canterbury – where his father had once been head boy – as a boarder.

Gower made the school cricket First XI aged 14, and was later made captain.

He also played for the rugby First XV before being dropped from the team for "lack of effort".

While at school, Gower played representative cricket for Public Schools against English Schools at under-16 level.

Gower finished school with eight O levels, three A levels and one S level in history.

He sat the History exam for Oxford University and was offered an interview at St Edmund Hall, but missed a place.

Spurning a place at University College, London, Gower returned to school in an attempt to gain two more A levels but lost interest partway through the year.

Having played some matches for the Leicestershire Second XI the previous summer, Gower tried his luck at the club as a professional for the remainder of the year, for £25 per week.

In the summer, Gower returned to University College, where he studied law, but after six months he returned to professional cricket.

Gower is nicknamed "Lord Gower" by his Sky Sports colleagues, in allusion to his aristocratic ancestry and public school education.

As a member of the Gower family formerly of Glandovan, he is a distant cousin of the Leveson-Gower family, Dukes of Sutherland.

Per Gower's autobiography, An Endangered Species, "there was reckoned to be land in the family in Pembrokeshire two or three generations earlier, which an errant ancestor gambled away in a moment of boredom, and a connection with a place called Castell Malgwyn, now a country house hotel, in Cardigan."

Gower enjoyed one of the most prolific first-class cricket careers in English history, in both domestic and international competitions.

Gower's career run total in test matches of 8,231 is the fifth-highest by an English player, behind only Alec Stewart with 8,463, Graham Gooch with 8,900, Joe Root (still active) with 11,004, and Sir Alastair Cook with 12,472.

He played domestic cricket from 1975 until 1993, largely with Leicestershire until 1989, when he moved to Hampshire.

He was a stalwart batsman at both clubs.

Gower made his debut for Leicestershire on 30 July 1975, during that season's County Championship, against Lancashire at Stanley Park, Blackpool.

Winning the toss, Lancashire chose to bat first and amassed 259, thanks largely to a century by David Lloyd, who would later become Gower's co-commentator.

Gower, batting at number seven, scored 32 before he was dismissed by Ken Shuttleworth, Leicestershire making 321 and taking a first-innings lead.

Lloyd made 90 in the second innings as Lancashire declared on 305, with Gower taking one catch to dismiss Jack Simmons for 17.

The match, lasting only three days with 100 overs as a maximum limit imposed on both teams for each innings, ended in a draw, with Leicestershire reaching 90 without Gower getting to bat again.

Gower continued to make little impression during the rest of the 1975 season, playing in only two more matches and ending the season with 65 runs at 13.00.

He enjoyed greater success in his debut List A season, playing in eight matches, scoring 175 runs at 25.00 with two fifties.

Gower was retained for the 1976 season, however, playing in a total of seven first-class matches.

He enjoyed greater success, with 323 runs at 35.88 including a maiden century, 102*, and a second fifty.

In one-day cricket he played another eight matches, scoring 188 runs at 23.50 with a season–high score of 48.

Gower led England during the 1985 Ashes, and his team was victorious; however, two 5–0 whitewashes against the West Indies (in 1984 and 1985–86) reflected poorly on his captaincy, and Gower was replaced in 1986.

He was briefly reinstated for the 1989 Ashes series, before being replaced as captain by Graham Gooch.

The strained relationship between the pair contributed to Gower retiring from international cricket in 1993.

Nevertheless he ended with an impressive record in first-class cricket, accumulating 26,339 runs at an average of 40.08, and 53 centuries.

As of February 2021, he held the record of 119 consecutive innings without registering a duck in Test cricket.

Following his retirement, Gower became a successful cricket commentator with Sky Sports, and on 16 July 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

On the occasion of England's 1000th Test in August 2018, he was named in the country's greatest Test XI by the ECB.