Famous English cricket player: Mike Gatting

by on July 5, 2011
in Famous cricket players profiles

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Mike Gatting is known to be a bold and dynamic player of the English cricket team. He played for England between 1977 and 1996, and led the national side as a captain in 23 Test matches during 1986 to 1988. Today, he is working as the ECB Managing Director of Cricket Partnership.

Looking back at Gatting’s playing career, he was quite a productive batsman in domestic cricket. However, it took him some while to carve a firm niche in the English cricket team. Nonetheless, in 1986-87, Gatting was given the responsibility to captain the team for the victory of the Ashes series. It was in June 1993 when during England’s first innings, Gatting faced Shane Warne’s first bowling delivery during an Ashes innings as Gatting was dismissed with the accuracy Warne pitched the ball outside the leg stump and spun it past the player’s bat. This delivery by Warne is regarded as the Ball of the Century at times.

During the course of a one day match in 1986, playing against West Indies, Gatting’s nose was crushed due to the ruthless delivery by Malcolm Marshall. On the whole, Gatting was quite a fertile right-arm medium-pace bowler. His finest performance of bowling was when he played against South Africa during an ODI where his feat of 6-26 contributed to his team’s victory.

He was also awarded with an OBE and was amongst the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1984. After announcing his retirement from first-class cricket back in 1998, Gatting has been working as a coach and a commentator ever since.

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