David Gower

David Gower

David Ivon Gower OBE (born 1 April 1957) is a former English cricketer who became a commentator for Sky Sports. Although he eventually rose to the captaincy of the England cricket team during the 1980s, he is best known for being one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of the modern era. Gower played 117 Test matches, scoring 8,231 runs. He is thus one of the most capped and highest scoring players in his country's history. He is also one of England's most capped One Day International players, with 114 matches.

Gower led England during the 1985 Ashes series against Australia, and his team was victorious, however two 5-0 whitewashes at the hands of the West Indies (in 1984 and 1985–86) reflected poorly on his captaincy, and Gower was replaced in 1986. Gower 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's complete retirement in 1993. Nevertheless, he ended with an impressive record in first-class cricket, having accumulated 26,339 runs at 40.08, and 53 centuries. His Test match tally includes the world record feat of 119 consecutive innings without registering a duck. Following his retirement, Gower became a successful cricket commentator, and on 16 July 2009, was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.