97: David Gower

117 matches. 8231 runs @ 44.25. 18 hundreds. Highest score: 215

15 years. 2x good. 3x excellent. 1x outstanding.

The discussion

I must admit I have no memories of watching David Gower bat when I was a child. I am sure that I watched him at some point, I just have no memory of having done so. Now, after trawling back through the archives, I can say with confidence that watching David Gower’s classic style and effortless elegance is something I should have recalled. With a classic stance and low backlift, Gower’s strength was his hands and wristwork. He had an uncanny ability to guide the ball into gaps, expertly manipulating the field, particularly on the offside and down the ground off the front foot.

Despite being great to watch, David Gower had his share of critics during his career. Gower’s level of stroke-play was so exceptional, almost sublime, that mistakes were often described as laziness. For someone with such skill, any error was attributed to a lack of application, rather than good work on behalf of the bowler. Strangely in the world of cricket, the more skilful you are the more careless the mistakes you make appear to be. Of course, that is not necessarily true. A ball that moves two inches off the pitch catches the edge of every bat, regardless of the batter holding it.

Some players play more attacking shots than others. It is in their nature. These players often look streaky scoring runs early in their innings, and at the same time give the bowler more chance of dismissing them. Ricky Ponting is one name that springs to mind.

David Gower also seems to me to have been one such player. Want proof? It is in the numbers. Check the average and compare it to the rate at which he converted innings to 50s and 100s. For a player with over 8,000 Test runs, Gower’s conversion rate of hundreds per 100 innings ranks 153rd among 226 batters considered for the Hall of Fame. His rate of fifties per 100 innings ranks 139th. Hardly statistics that jump off the page. But think about the way Gower played. These stats tell me that his intent remained the same throughout his innings, always playing strokes in the pursuit of scoring runs, particularly before he reached 50 or 100. Perhaps that is what most frustrated his critics. Perhaps it was an inability to put the expansive strokes away until he had made a start. Some players are more adept at ‘building their innings’ and ‘changing gears’ than others.

Even after a disastrous 1989 Ashes campaign, in which his English side lost to the visiting Australians, Gower bounced back with 291 runs at 72.75 against India the following northern hemisphere summer, before his star started to fade. He retired from Test cricket in 1992, aged 35.

So why does David Gower appear in the Hall, while Mark Waugh (see entry 101) misses the cut? After all, a lot of the wow words used to describe David Gower could easily apply to Mark Waugh. Classic, elegant, prone to risk. Frustrating. The difference is again in the numbers. Gower has more runs, at a slightly higher average across his career. The difference between an average of 41.16 (Waugh) and 44.27 (Gower) is a full 40 places in the rankings, and that’s just in the sample of 226 players I considered for inclusion. Gower’s peak is also higher than Waugh’s — multiple series with multiple centuries, and an average higher than 70 in all three of those series. The comparison is a close one, but Gower has a slight edge on both fronts.

The verdict

David Gower just edges Mark Waugh for the Hall of Fame with a slightly higher run count, better average, and propensity to get big(ger) hundreds and assert more dominance in his peak series. Like Gooch and Ian Bishop, the emergence of new talent in world cricket could one day bump David Gower from the list, particularly if the 8,000 (or 9,000!) Test runs club gains a few more members.

Gower continued his legacy with his work as a media personality, pundit and commentator, but do not forget he was also a great batter. I’m just fractionally too young to remember him play.

In one word

Graceful

Bio

Record

Source: ESPN CricInfo

career peak

Source: ESPN CricInfo