Christopher Stuart Cowdrey (born 20 October 1957) is a former English cricketer. Cowdrey played for

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

. He is the eldest son of the cricketer and

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

, Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge. He was educated at

Tonbridge School (God Giveth the Increase) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = , president = , head_label ...

Life and career

After a good season for Kent in

County cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

in 1984, Cowdrey was selected for England's 1984–85 tour of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, led by his friend

David Gower David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Te ...

, ostensibly taking

Ian Botham Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham, (born 24 November 1955) is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one ...

's place after Botham had opted out of the tour. In the First Test in Bombay he was fielding at short leg when Gower asked him to bowl. Although he forgot to take off his shin pads he bowled

Kapil Dev Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj (Pronunciation: əpiːl deːʋ born 6 January 1959) is an Indian former cricketer. He was a fast-medium bowler and a hard-hitting middle-order batsman, and was named by ''Wisden'' as the Indian Cricketer of the Centu ...

with his fourth ball, the 19th England bowler to take a wicket in his first over. His father was listening to

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW ( ...

in his car and was so surprised that he drove the wrong way down a one-way street. Following the tour, where he had scored 96 runs and taken four wickets Cowdrey was not selected by England until 1988, and the infamous "

summer of four captains The West Indian cricket team played 16 first-class cricket matches in England in 1988, under the captaincy of Viv Richards. They enjoyed considerable success during the tour, while England endured a "disastrous summer" of continuous change. En ...

". In that year Cowdrey, who had taken Kent to the top of the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

table, was given the job to lead the Test side in the fourth Test of a five match series against the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

. The West Indies by that point were 2–0 up, claiming a convincing innings and 156 run victory in the previous test. "We believe Cowdrey's style of leadership is what is now required", claimed England's chairman of selectors

Peter May Peter May may refer to: *Peter W. May, American businessman *Peter May (cricketer) (1929–1994), English Test cricketer *Peter May (writer) Peter May (born 20 December 1951) is a Scottish television screenwriter, novelist, and crime writer. H ...

, who was also Cowdrey's godfather, amid charges of favouritism. England lost heavily by ten wickets, and his chance to prove his detractors wrong in the final Test never came, as he was injured after the one appearance. Kent would also be pipped to the

1988 County Championship The 1988 Britannic Assurance County Championship was the 89th officially organised running of the County Championship. Worcestershire won the Championship title. Matches played over four days were introduced to the competition this season. Each c ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

by one point. He was never chosen to captain or play for England again. A newspaper article penned by Cowdrey landed him in trouble in the corridors at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

and, in 1990, he joined a

rebel tour The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because the international cricketing bodies Sporting boycott of South Africa, banned South Africa from competitiv ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. Colin and Chris Cowdrey were only the second father and son combination to have both captained England, emulating

Frank Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curre ...

and George Mann. He was captain of Kent from 1986 until 1990. He retired in 1992 after a single season at Glamorgan, and has since been a broadcaster for TalkSport, as well as the occasional project with

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

. In 1986, Cowdrey produced a volume of autobiography, appropriately titled ''Good Enough'', taken from his usual response to comments that he was not as good as his father. Cricket writer Colin Bateman stated, "Cowdrey was fortunate to play Test cricket at all, but he did not deserve the shabby treatment which ended his brief England career". Cowdrey's son

Fabian Cowdrey Fabian Kruuse Cowdrey (born 30 January 1993) is an English former professional cricketer who played for Kent County Cricket Club. He made history by becoming the first third generation player to play for the county, following his father, Chris ...

was awarded a first-team contract at Kent in October 2011, before his May 2012 debut, becoming the fourth Cowdrey to play for the county side and the third generation of the same family to feature on a Kent team sheet.

Honours

* He was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

in 2011.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdrey, Chris England One Day International cricketers England Test cricket captains Glamorgan cricketers Kent cricket captains People from Farnborough, London 1957 births Living people People educated at Tonbridge School Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers Sons of life peers England Test cricketers