Everything about Chris Old totally explained
Christopher Middleton Old (born
22 December 1948 in
Middlesbrough,
Yorkshire) is a former
English cricketer who played in 46
Tests and 32
ODIs from 1972 to 1981.
Chris Old played first class cricket for 20 years between 1966 and 1985 and was a regular member of the England side for a decade. A skillful and accurate right arm swing bowler and powerful late order left handed hitter, he was once described by his England Captain
Mike Brearley as a talent to rival
Ian Botham. He won his
Yorkshire cap in 1969 and was named as the
Cricket Writer's Club Young Cricketer of the Year in 1970. Despite being a fine natural athlete, standing 6 feet 3 inches and possessing a glorious natural sideways on action, his career was hampered by regular injury problems and his tendency to fall prey to 'niggles' in his back and legs became legendary in the game.
"Chilly" played county cricket for his native
Yorkshire, making his debut at 17, and captained the county in 1981 and 1982 before moving on to
Warwickshire towards the end of his illustrious career when also appeared for
Northern Transvaal in South Africa.
Although best remembered as a bowler supreme in English conditions, he thrashed the third fastest Century of all time at
Edgbaston in 1977 with 100 runs from 72 balls in 37 minutes and the final 50 taking just 9 minutes. This feat won him the
Walter Lawrence Trophy for the fastest century of the year. In 379 first class matches he took 1070 first class wickets at the remarkable average of 23.48 and scored 7756 first class runs with 6 centuries.
He famously took four wickets in five balls on the opening day of the
Test Match against
Pakistan at Edgbaston on the first of June
1978, the wicketless third ball of the series being a no ball. Bowling at pace from the City End, the second ball of his 19th over was top edged by
Wasim Raja to keeper
Bob Taylor before his third ball nipped back though the gate to remove
Wasim Bari's off stump. Old's fourth ball, the no-ball, was edged by
Iqbal Qasim into the ground but Qasim nicked a late outswinger to the keeper off the next legitimate delivery before
Sikander Bakht found the safe hands of
Graham Roope at second slip. Old thus equalled the record of four wickets in five balls set by
Maurice Allom on his Test debut at
Christchurch in 1929-30, a feat which has since been repeated by Pakistan's
Wasim Akram.
Often remembered as one of
Ian Botham's partners at the wicket during the memorable
Headingley Ashes game of 1981, he also took the key wicket of
Allan Border for 0 in the
Australian 2nd innings. It was his second last test match. He was the only England cricketer to play in both
Centenary Test Matches against Australia and was one of
Wisden's five cricketers of the year in 1979. Chris Old turned down an invitation from
Tony Greig to play in
Kerry Packer's rebel
World Series Cricket, fearing the withdrawal of the traditional benefit season offered by Yorkshire C.C.
After struggling to cope with retirement for several years Chris now runs his thriving 'Clipper Restaurant' in
Praa Sands,
Cornwall with his second wife Letitia. In addition to his successful business, he coaches a local club in Falmouth, tutors cricket coaching courses and took charge of Cornwall U-17s in 2001.
His brother,
Alan Old, is a former England
rugby union international who briefly played alongside his brother for Yorkshire.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chris Old'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://chris_old.totallyexplained.com">Chris Old Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
