Graham Gooch

Graham Gooch was the most prolific run scorer top-class cricket has ever seen. After he retired in 1997, the statistician Robert Brooke calculated that he had scored 21,087 in one-day cricket at first-class level which, added to his 44,841 first-class runs, put him ahead of Jack Hobbs. It was an amazing achievement. He was awarded the OBE for his services to cricket in 1991.

Graham Gooch was raised in East London and it was here that his potential was developed at the Ilford Cricket School by Bill Morris. Gooch made the Essex 2nd XI in 1969, in 1973 he made his first-class debut. He was soon in the runs, and he made his maiden ton a year later.

The most controversial aspect of Gooch’s career came in 1982 when he decided to lead the first England rebel tour of South Africa. He was subsequently banned from test cricket for three years.

1990 was a great year in Gooch’s career, he averaged over 100 with the test match at Lord’s against India being the highlight. In this one match, Gooch hit the world record test run aggregate (456), he became holder of the highest score at Lord’s (333), he was the first ever player to score a triple-century and a century in a match, he took the record for the highest test score against India and achieved the highest score by an England Captain.

In all Gooch led the England side 34 times and was captain in the 1992 World Cup final defeat by Pakistan. He played in two other World Cup finals in 1979 and 1987. Currently he is England’s leading test run maker with a total of 8,900 runs and 20 centuries.

In 1996, Gooch was appointed an England selector and held that position for four seasons. Since 2002, he has been Essex’s Head Coach but as from 2005 he has accepted a wider role within the club. This will include specialist batting coaching and acting as an ambassador for the club’s future commercial development. He has also started the Graham Gooch Scholarship Fund an initiative to raise monies to send some of Essex’s best young professionals on overseas scholarships.

Graham Gooch has acquired a vast fund of stories, which he delivers in his own style. He is articulate and well informed and can motivate, inspire, entertain and create an individual’s awareness of self-achievement and has an established reputation as a humorous after dinner speaker and is in demand at corporate, social and sporting events.