Heroes: David Gower

This weekend sees the birth of a new feature on The Reverse Sweep. Our Cricket Heroes & Zeroes. Each week a new hero (hooray!) will be added on a Saturday, whilst a devilish zero (boo, hiss!) will follow on the Sunday; well that is the intention anyway. The aim is not to provide a long diatribe as to why a cricketer (or occasionally something else cricket related) is good or bad in our eyes, but to provide no more than five reasons why they are a Hero or a Zero.

So, to our first hero, which appropriately enough is our actual first ever cricket hero - David Gower.

Hero 1: David Gower (117 tests, 8231 runs at 44.25, 18 100s, 39 50s, HS 215)

Our first cricketing memory was the sight of David Gower creaming a glorious and effortless cover drive against India at Edgbaston in 1979. Gower scored 200 not out that day and we have been smitten ever since. Despite being a right hander, I used to stand with bat in front of the mirror, so I could try and replicate the shots I had seen my hero play. Funnily enough on the few occasions I tried it at the crease, I turned from a dour right handed opener into a exuberant left hander with a natural bon viveur!

Here are five reasons, why David Gower is a Reverse Sweep cricket hero:

1. Grace and elegance - Has there ever been a more graceful and elegant England batsman to watch than Gower? We certainly haven't seen one in over 30 years. We lost count of the number of brilliant innings he made and it all seemed to be so effortless.
2. He scored heavily against Australia-  Gower scored half of his 18 test match hundreds against Australia, which certainly endeared him further to an impressionable young Reverse Sweep. We particularly enjoyed the summer of 1985, when as captain Gower struck 732 runs at 81.33 with three glorious hundreds as England won the series 3-1.
3. Joie de vivre - Whether it is batting, partaking in his love of drinking fine wine and vintage champagne, and now commentating, Gower applies natural bonhomie and joie de vivre to everything he does. This love of life probably led to one of our favourite incidents involving Gower, where he buzzed the ground where England were playing a warm-up game against Queensland in 1991 in a Tiger Moth.
4. A hark back to a bygone era - Gower's approach to batting and life in general would have been more at home at the time of the British Empire and cricket's golden age between the wars - an era we certainly would have preferred to live in ourselves. This is summed up by an assessment Scyld Berry made on Gower in 1984 "Gower might have been more at home in the 1920s or 1930s, cracking a dashing hundred for MCC, the darling of the crowds, before speeding away in a Bugatti and cravat for a night on the town" - Would there be a better way to live a life?
5. He had flaws - We like our heroes to have some flaws and Gower certainly had a few of those. Has there ever been a batsman who can look so good and so in command who could get out so often to a poor shot? It could certainly be frustrating to watch at times - just ask Graham Gooch! And Gower wasn't the greatest England captain ever either as the 1989 Ashes painfully showed. But these minor flaws do not diminish him in our eyes. 

Comments

[Dave (World Cricket Watch)]

Hey David,

I trust you're well. Speaking of hero worship, I stumbled across somebody who holds a very contrasting viewpoint on one Douglas Jardine.

http://cricketpodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=634405

Definitely worth a listen.

[The Cricket Couch]

I remember reading and listening about Gower in the 1985 test series in India, in the papers. This was the debut series of Azharuddin when he scored three tons on the trot.

I will always remember the elegance he brought to the crease very fondly and he does a fabulous job on air as well. Not to mention, the blond-fro which was just bitchin'.

[Phillip Hill]

Dear David,
I am the bloke who put Jardine into proper context at cricketpodcast.com. When Gower was in Australia with that "kill joy" Gooch as captain you should have heard the standing ovation that Gower received at the Boxing Day test. Gooch was fired by a terrible decision,which put us all in a good mood, and soon after EVERYONES hero David Gower came out and played beautifully for a 100 under pressure. Great stuff.

[The Reverse Sweep]

That series in 1984/85 was a pretty special one Cricket Couch. If I remember rightly England came from 1-0 down to win the series 2-1. Azharuddin was a special player - it's a shame how his career ended.

[The Reverse Sweep]

Thanks Dave, I'll give it a listen, but I may have to hold my ears given Jardine is an all-time hero of mine!

[The Reverse Sweep]

Hi Phillip, Gooch may well feature in the Zeroes in the future, although despite his ending of Gower's test career, I still can't help but forget when he carried his bat for 154 against the Windies at Headingley in 91. I enjoyed your podcast by the way, but we'll just have to agree to disagree about Jardine!!

[Jon]

Let's not forget that Gower was always there, he never cried off a tour(unlike Botham), never took south africa's money (unlike Gooch). And he played in a floppy sunhat quite a lot too!

[The Reverse Sweep]

Exactly Jon. Gower was a great in so many ways. And that floppy sunhat was a classic 80's fashion statement!

[Evan]

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