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Michael ("Mike") William Gatting OBE (born Kingsbury 6 June 1957), is a former English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club (1975–1998; County Captain 1983–1997). He also played for the English cricket team from 1977 to 1995, captaining it in 23 Test matches between 1986 and 1988. He is currently the ECB Managing Director of Cricket Partnerships.

Career

In domestic cricket, Gatting was one of the most prolific batsmen in England for most of his career, but it took him several years to establish himself in the England team. He initially had great difficulty converting fifties into centuries at Test match level and he did not achieve a Test century until his 54th Test innings; he went on to accumulate ten hundreds in all. His highest Test score of 207 was scored in Madras (now Chennai); this was the second double century by an English cricketer in India in the same innings as Graeme Fowler, who scored the first double century: this was the first time that two English batsmen had made double centuries in the same Test innings.

He captained England to an Ashes series victory in Australia in 1986/87. Later that year came the "Shakoor Rana affair" when Gatting argued with a Pakistani umpire in Faisalabad. The England hierarchy supported him in Pakistan, but he was sacked as England captain the following summer over an alleged encounter with a barmaid, triggering the "summer of four captains". He subsequently led a highly controversial rebel tour to South Africa. Gatting hit the headlines during the tour for describing a protest outside the rebel team's hotel as "a few people singing and dancing".^[1]

In June 1993 during England's first innings at Old Trafford Gatting received Shane Warne's first delivery in an Ashes match. Warne pitched the ball a foot outside leg stump, and spun the ball past Gatting's bat to clip the off bail. This is sometimes referred to as the Ball of the Century. His dismissal in the second innings was also unusual in that he was bowled off the very last ball of the fourth day's play by Merv Hughes, meaning he was unable to help England to bat out the last day (Australia eventually won in the last session on the 5th day).

Perhaps equally infamously, Gatting was hit full on the nose by West Indies great Malcolm Marshall during a one day match in 1984, shattering it. The bowler later finding shards of Gatting's nose embedded in the leather. This would set the tone for the series, as the West Indies fearsome pace attack thrashed England 5-0.^[2]

Another mishap for which Gatting will be remembered is being caught by Australian wicketkeeper Greg Dyer after trying to play a reverse sweep off opposing captain Allan Border's first ball during the 1987 World Cup final.

His last Tests were played on tour in Australia in 1994/95. Graham Gooch and himself were the only two members of the original touring party to be fit for all matches, although they were the two oldest in the squad. In the first innings of the Adelaide Test he scored his final century (117), a battling effort where he spent a lot of time in the nineties, which helped England to the only win of the series.

Gatting was a useful right arm medium pace bowler. He averaged under thirty with the ball in both first-class and List A cricket, but he did not bowl with great frequency. Perhaps his finest bowling performance was against South Africa during the final One Day International of the 1989/90 rebel England tour to South Africa where his 6/26 helped England to a comfortable 134 run victory.^[3]

Gatting was named as one of Wisden's five Cricketers of the Year in 1984, and was awarded an OBE in 1987.

Retirement

Mike Gatting's Test career batting performance graph.

He retired from first-class cricket in 1998 and has since worked as a coach and commentator. He was the President of the Lord's Taverners for 2005/2006 and an elected member of the M.C.C. Committee.

Mike Gatting is not the only member of his family to have been a professional sportsman; his brother, Steve Gatting, was a professional footballer for Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion. Steve's son, Joe, played for Brighton & Hove Albion, having progressed from their youth scheme, however Joe is now a professional cricket player with Sussex.

He appeared as himself on The Archers on 9 September 2007 at the centre of a misunderstanding between Sid and Jolene Perks during the npower Village Cup Final at Lord's cricket ground^[4]

References

External links

• Player profile from Cricinfo

England squad – 1983 Cricket World Cup Semi-Finalists 1 Willis (c) • 2 Allott • 3 Botham • 4 Cowans • 5 Dilley • 6 Fowler • 7 Gatting • 8 Gould (wk) • 9 Gower • 10 Jesty • 11 Lamb • 12 Marks • 13 Randall • 14 Tavaré

England squad – 1987 Cricket World Cup (runners up) 1 Gatting (c) • 2 Athey • 3 Broad • 4 DeFreitas • 5 Downton (wk) • 6 Emburey • 7 Foster • 8 Gooch • 9 Hemmings • 10 Lamb • 11 Pringle • 12 Robinson • 13 Small