Wisden Obituaries - 2011

ABBERLEY, ROBERT NEAL, died on August 8, 2011, aged 67. Neal Abberley served Warwickshire for nearly half a century, first as a selfless opening batsman, then as a coach responsible for a production line of talented cricketers. Born and bred in Birmingham, he was philosophical about his relative lack of first-team opportunities. "He was what we call a real Bear," said former team-mate Dennis Amiss.

Abberley arrived at Edgbaston from Birmingham League side Moseley and marked his debut, against Cambridge University in 1964, with a fifty. Strong on the back foot and especially severe on anything short, he made rapid strides and, in 1966, scored 1,315 runs at 28.58, including an innings of 117 not out against Essex that remained his career-best. Perhaps his most impressive performance of the summer, however, came against Yorkshire on a difficult pitch at Hull, where his unbeaten 54 carried Warwickshire home in a nervy run-chase. His success earned a place on an MCC Under-25 tour of Pakistan that winter, but he returned home after one match, having scored 92, then broken a finger. Nevertheless, he topped 1,000 runs again in 1967, but his appearances began to dwindle in the early 1970s. By then Warwickshire boasted a formidable array of Test talent and, when they won the County Championship in 1972 with a team including Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharran, Deryck Murray and Lance Gibbs, Abberley played in only three matches.

ABED, SALIE, died on July 8, 2011, aged 81. "Lobo" Abed was a wicketkeeper from Western Province who was part of the non-white national side which toured Kenya in 1958. The captain of that unsung team, Basil D'Oliveira, rated him highly, while businessman Bree Bulbulia - who that year almost managed to persuade Frank Worrell to bring a West Indian side to South Africa to play non-white teams - thought Abed a better keeper than South Africa's long-serving incumbent John Waite.

He retired in 1979 after scoring 10,082 runs at 24.47 in 261 matches, and soon succeeded Derief Taylor as club coach, a job to which he proved ideally suited. "He was a great identifier of talent," Amiss said. "Once, when Mike Smith was chairman, he fetched us both to see a lad in the nets who had come up from Surrey. He said we had to sign this young man called Ashley Giles straight away." Dougie Brown, Graeme Welch, Dominic Ostler, Roger Twose and Trevor Penney were also graduates of Abberley's tough regime. But the player he became most identified with was Ian Bell. "I worked with him since I was nine, and by the end he was like a father figure," Bell said. "We didn't just talk cricket - it was more about shaping me as a person and developing me as a cricketer. He was the one guy I always went back to."

ANGOVE, JOHN PEARCE, died on August 2, 2011, aged 89. Jack Angove was a Cornish cricket institution, playing for the county side for more than 15 years (he captained them in 1961 and 1962) and serving the Troon club for over 60. He was born in Kellogg, Idaho, but his family returned to their home county when he was two. His son, Trevor, also played for Cornwall, and opened the batting for Troon when they won the National Village Championship at Lord's in 1976.

ARSHAD SHAMI, who died in Arizona on November 12, 2011, aged 77, was a fast- medium bowler who played 11 first-class matches in Pakistan. He took 28 wickets, including six for 15 (from 19.1 overs) for Bahawalpur against Quetta in January 1960. Four years previously he had captained Pakistan Universities at Lahore against an MCC team, on a tour which became controversial when some of the English players were accused of dousing umpire Idris Begh with cold water.

AYAZUDDIN, MOHAMMAD, died on September 16, 2011, five days after being badly injured in a motorcycle accident that also claimed the life of his cousin. Ayazuddin, 19, was the son of the former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin, and had shown promise as a cricketer himself while at school in Hyderabad, batting in a wristy style reminiscent of his father.

BALDOCK, DARREL JOHN, AM, died on February 2, 2011, aged 72. A rare modern example of a man who combined sporting versatility and civic duty, Baldock played twice for Tasmania in 1960-61; on debut, against Frank Worrell's West Indian tourists, he made a fighting 54 before he was bowled by Lance Gibbs. After that, it was all Australian Rules football. Already a big name in Tasmania, he moved to St Kilda in Melbourne, captaining them to what remains their only premiership title, in 1966, and securing himself a reputation as one of the sport's greats. He represented the Australian Labor Party in the Tasmanian House of Assembly from 1972 to 1987, when he returned to St Kilda to coach. But he suffered a stroke in 1989 and, thereafter, increasing ill health.

BARKER, RALPH HAMMOND CECIL, died on May 16, 2011, aged 93. A wartime pilot, Barker was also a keen cricketer who captained his Surrey club side for many years. He wrote several books on aviation, then turned to cricket, compiling Ten Great Innings in 1964 and Ten Great Bowlers three years later. John Arlott described him as "a master of the reconstruction of past cricket matches". In 1969 he co-produced, with Irving Rosenwater, a history of England-Australia Tests, and wrote three further cricket books, including one on the Edrich family. However, Barker's most significant contribution, said fellow historian David Frith, may have been his trip to France in the 1960s to explore the circumstances of the death in 1912 of the Surrey and England fast bowler Tom Richardson: his investigations ruled out the suicide which had often been suggested.

BASHARAT SHAFI, who died on October 14, 2011, aged 67, played one first-class match for Multan in 1972-73, scoring one run and taking one wicket. But he became better known as the president of the Multan Cricket Association; a shrewd businessman, he owned a ground in Sahiwal. When Mike Gatting's England team took on the Punjab Chief Minister's XI in the town on their 1987-88 tour of Pakistan, they were accommodated in the rest-houses of Shafi's nearby Montgomery Biscuit Factory. He received the ICC's 2009 centenary medal.

BATTERSBY, Dr CAMERON, AM, died on October 3, 2011, aged 76. When Cam Battersby was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2000, the citation neatly encapsulated the two dominant components of his life: it emphasised his achievements in medicine, both as an academic and as a practising specialist in liver transplants, and underlined his long service as a cricket administrator. He was a member of the executive of the Queensland Cricket Association from 1972 to 1991, after which he chaired its new embodiment, Queensland Cricket, until 2000. He was also a member of the Australian Cricket Board for 15 years from 1987, becoming the last of the old-style managers of Australian touring teams. However, he was anything but mustily out of date, seeking to engage with players in a mature and open fashion. Battersby managed the first post- apartheid tour of South Africa, in 1993-94. In Sri Lanka the previous season, he did not formally report Dean Jones's revelation that he had been offered payment for information about pitch conditions, an omission which drew a rebuke in a 1998 report into allegations of corruption in Australian cricket.

BHUDIA, ALPESH PREMJI, who died in a road accident on January 20, 2011, was one of the leading batsmen for Nairobi's Kanbis club, frequent winners of Kenya's national league. Bhudia, who was 25, played for the national age-group sides, and had represented Kenya A. His club-mate Harshal Sanghani, a 22-year-old off-spinner, also died in the crash, near the town of Eldoret in western Kenya.

BISHOP, ALASTAIR ERNEST, died on October 21, 2011, aged 87. Former Southgate player "Tim" Bishop was later a prominent umpire in London club circles who stood in several minor matches at Lord's. In 1975 he achieved brief notoriety by no-balling Australia's Jeff Thomson eight times for over-stepping during a World Cup warm-up match at Southgate's Walker Ground.

BOOBBYER, BRIAN, who died on January 17, 2011, aged 82, was one of a number of high-profile sportsmen drawn to the cause of Moral Re-Armament, a worldwide religious organisation aimed at promoting peace and reconciliation. In committing his life to the movement in 1952, Boobbyer turned his back on an established place as an England rugby union international and lost the chance to develop his undoubted promise as a cricketer. Boobbyer's prowess was first revealed at Durston House prep school in Ealing, where he once went an entire season without being dismissed. While at Uppingham, he scored a hundred for the Public Schools against Combined Services at Lord's; he went up to Oxford in 1948, making his first-class debut the following season against Yorkshire - and the young Fred Trueman.

His returns were modest, but he improved considerably in 1950, making a maiden century against Sussex at Chichester. In 1951, his most notable contribution was a carefully compiled 80 - the highest score of the match - to help beat Cambridge. He showed a liking for Sussex, with a second century against them the following summer, but his final first-class match was a fourth appearance in the Varsity fixture. He scored 1,970 runs at 26.98. Boobbyer was a cautious, obstinate opener, but on the rugby field he was a flying centre who played for Rosslyn Park, made his debut for England against Wales in 1950, and won nine caps in all. A committed Christian, he became involved with MRA at Oxford and, after a rugby tour of Japan in his final term, decided to stay on and work for post-war reconciliation, spurning an opportunity to join Middlesex.

BREWER, JOYCE PHYLLIS, OAM, died on June 26, 2011, aged 96 years. Born in the small sugar-cane town of Capalba, to the south of Bundaberg in Queensland, Joyce Brewer (later Joyce Bonwick) came from a cricket-drenched family in which she and two of her sisters, Jean and Dulcie, represented their state, while a fourth, Pearl, joined them in playing for the Eastern Suburbs club in Brisbane. An all-rounder who bowled accurate medium-pace, she made her Queensland debut at 16 in 1931-32, the start of a 17-year state career. She played against England in the Second and Third Tests of the inaugural women's series in 1934-35, compiling a determined 34 in two hours at Sydney to give some substance to the Australian total then cracking 31 out of 104 for eight in a draw at the MCG. Brewer spent over 20 years as honorary secretary of the Queensland Women's Amateur Athletic Association, earning the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1988. Her death left Anne Palmer, who was also born in 1915 and played with Brewer in the 1934-35 series, as Australia's oldest living woman Test cricketer.

BUTLER, LENNOX STEPHEN, died on September 1, 2009, aged 80. At a time when West Indies' bowling centred on the spin of Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine, "Bunny" Butler's fast-medium swing over six seasons for Trinidad - and a career-best five for 89 against the Australian tourists - earned him selection for the Second Test on his home ground at Port-of-Spain, in April 1955. On the newly laid turf pitch that had replaced the old coir matting at the Queen's Park Oval, Butler laboured for 40 overs to take two for 151, as Arthur Morris, Colin McDonald and Neil Harvey helped themselves to hundreds. It was Butler's solitary Test. He played only one more first-class match, but later served as a Trinidad selector.

CHALMERS, WALTER ROCHFORT, died on July 18, 2011, aged 76. Wally Chalmers was considered by many to be the best left-arm spinner in South Africa for much of a career that brought him 167 wickets at 24.41, mostly in the 1950s for Border, where he formed a potent partnership with off-spinner Edwin Schreiber. But Chalmers's batting was negligible - he averaged under five - and his fielding poor, at a time when South Africa prided themselves on the world's best out-cricket. As a result he was confined to the domestic scene, where he took six for 55 against North Eastern Transvaal in 1954-55. Two seasons later he claimed a five-for against Peter May's MCC tourists.

CHATTERJEE, PREMANGSU MOHAN, who died on July 12, 2011, aged 83, was the proud holder of the best bowling figures by an Indian: 19-11-20-10 for Bengal against Assam at Jorhat in January 1957. Only Yorkshire's Hedley Verity (ten for ten in 1932) and George Geary of Leicestershire (ten for 18 in 1929) have produced better returns in first-class cricket. Chatterjee was a left-arm medium-pacer and "a great swinger of the ball", according to another Bengal player, Chuni Goswami. The season before his ten- wicket haul, he had taken 15 for 109 to help Bengal defeat Madhya Pradesh in the Ranji Trophy semi-final; they lost the final to Bombay, despite Chatterjee's seven for 101 in the first innings. In total, he took 134 wickets in 32 first-class matches - all but four of them for Bengal - at 17.75. He never won a Test cap, a fact Goswami blamed on poor backing from Bengal's administration.

CHESTERFIELD, OWEN MURRAY TREVOR, died on April 6, 2011, aged 75. Trevor Chesterfield was a globetrotting cricket writer who was born in New Zealand, moved to South Africa, where he was for many years cricket correspondent of the Pretoria News, and eventually settled in Sri Lanka, where he died shortly after covering the 2011 World Cup. A small, endearing man with a limp as a result of an accident on a bus when young (his father also limped after falling off a horse; many thought the son had inherited the condition), he had a matchless attachment to the game and its heritage, and wrote with a flinty integrity. He umpired two Currie Cup matches in the 1960s.

CHOTHIA, SULEIMAN, died on August 25, 2011, aged 70. Solly Chothia was a useful all-rounder who represented Transvaal's non-white team in the 1970s in matches only later accorded first-class status, although he also made four Currie Cup appearances for Transvaal B in 1976-77. Chothia took seven for 29 in his second match, against Eastern Province in the 1971-72 Dadabhay Trophy, and in November 1975 made his highest score of 85 not out, against Natal. He later coached, and was a referee during the Women's World Cup in South Africa in 2004-05.

CLAY, JOHN DESMOND, who died on February 11, 2011, aged 86, grew up in West Bridgford, close enough to Trent Bridge to hear the five-minute bell and run to the ground before the players had reached the middle. In those pre-war years he loved to watch the exuberant strokeplay of the amateurs, though his own batting in the 1950s was less glamorous. He was keenly aware of his limitations. "The crowd weren't interested in watching me," he said of the years he opened with the fast-scoring Reg Simpson. "If we were 100 for none and I'd got 20, they were happy and so was I." For all that, he scored 1,000 runs in a summer six times, and was a capable slip fielder. He hit 11 centuries, though none gave him as much pleasure as his double of 89 and 58 against eventual champions Surrey in 1953. Few visiting batsmen prospered at The Oval, but in that match Clay tran- scended his usual workaday concentra- tion to achieve rare freedom, his joy heightened by the bellyaching all around him: "Stuart Surridge was giving Locky some terrible stick, Locky was getting redder and redder, and the Bedsers were niggling each other in their mardy way."

Clay ceased to be a county regular after 1957 but, for 1961, with a year to fill between Simpson's retirement and the arrival of the Oxford amateur Andrew Corran, Nottinghamshire broke with tra- dition and asked Clay, a professional, to captain a struggling side. He was not at ease in his hired dinner jacket, and could barely afford the hospitality he had to dispense at the bar. The team finished bottom, but he was a popular captain; for the following seven summers, he nurtured the youngsters in the Seconds. In old age, still living in West Bridgford, he walked more slowly to the ground, where he sat at midwicket, well away from the politics of the pavilion, his love of the game intact.

COPELAND, WILLIAM JOHN, died on September 18, 2011, aged 82. Bill Copeland was a policeman from Victoria who umpired 14 first-class matches, the last of them the low-scoring Test between Australia and England at Sydney in 1979-80. He also stood in a solitary one-day international, earlier that same season, and one women's and one Under- 19 Test, both in early 1979.

COVENTRY, CHARLES KEVIN, died of a heart attack on August 7, 2011, aged 52. "Chuck" Coventry was a prominent Bulawayo umpire who officiated in five one-day internationals in Zimbabwe in 2000 and 2001. His prospects of further appointments were hampered by the rise of his son - also Charles Kevin - to the national side. Watched by his proud father from the Queens Sports Club pavilion, he scored a then-record 194 not out in a one-day international against Bangladesh at Bulawayo in August 2009.

COWAN, GRAHAM IAN JAMES, who died on July 20, 2011, aged 70, was an umpire from Hamilton who stood in 46 first-class matches in a 21-year career that also included five one-day internationals in New Zealand. He was secretary of the Auckland Cricket Association for several years.

DALRYMPLE, STUART, died of cancer on December 26, 2011, aged 48. While Warwickshire's marketing manager, he was one of the pioneers of floodlit cricket in England: the 40-over match against Somerset at Edgbaston in 1997 was the first competitive county game played under lights. He also worked for Newcastle United FC and at Wembley Stadium.

DAS GUPTA, AJIT KUMAR, who died on July 10, 2011, aged 86, was one of three brothers - all, rather confusingly, called A. K. Das Gupta - who appeared for Bengal in the 1950s. He scored 117, one of four centuries as Bengal ran up 760, against Assam at Calcutta in January 1952. One of his brothers, Asoke Kumar "Benu" Das Gupta, died (previously unrecorded by Wisden) on April 22, 2010, aged 82. Like Ajit, Benu made one first-class century - 104 against Bihar in only his second match, in 1952-53. All three A. K. Das Guptas played together for Bengal against Mysore at Calcutta that season.

DAVIS, EDWARD, died on July 16, 2011, aged 89. Eddie Davis was the younger brother of Percy, a Northamptonshire legend both as player and coach, and followed him into the team in 1947. He played over the next decade, and made 171 against Leicestershire in 1949, but his appearances became more intermittent as the team grew stronger in the 1950s. Frank Tyson said "he had the potential but not the confidence" to be a great batsman: he could hook skilfully, but was easily put off. Fred Trueman once marched into the opposing dressing-room, drew an X on Davis's forehead and said: "That is where I am going to hit you." He was also a nervy fielder. When he found himself under a steepling catch one day, the cry of his captain, Freddie Brown, echoed round the ground when he realised who it was: "Oh Christ, Eddie!" He moved on to be professional at Wisbech, where he helped the club become one of the best in the area, and grew into a local institution as coach and groundsman. "He was a true club man," said chairman Gavin Plume. He was less successful as a footballer, playing in the Newport County team that lost 13-0 to Newcastle United in a Second Division match in 1946-47.

DAVISON, GEORGE WILLIAM, who died on November 30, 2011, aged 77, operated the magnificent scoreboard in the Leslie Ames stand at Canterbury for three decades, latterly in a formidably efficient double act with his wife, Doreen. A hugely popular figure at the St Lawrence ground - as the attendance at his funeral testified - he began working on the board with his predecessor Peter Brown, before taking full responsibility when Brown died. A keen club cricketer in the Medway area, he spent his entire working life in the same Gillingham engineering company. His trade was put to good use. Mick Mercer, who worked alongside the Davisons at one-day matches, explained: "George rigged up a pulley system that meant he could operate all the main numbers on the board without leaving his seat."

DEMPSTER, ERIC WILLIAM, MBE, who died on August 15, 2011, aged 86, was a slow left-armer who was controversially preferred to Tom Burtt - a better bowler but an inferior batsman and fielder - for New Zealand's tour of South Africa in 1953-54. Dempster, who had displaced Burtt against the South Africans at home the previous season, took a career- best five for 46 early on, against Orange Free State in Bloemfontein - but he struggled to make an impact in the Tests, taking only one wicket in four games. He never featured in the national side again, although his career with Wellington stretched to 1960-61 and included four Plunket Shield titles. Later Dempster turned to umpiring, and stood in three one-day internationals in New Zealand in the 1970s. He received an MBE for services to cricket and the disabled: he worked in a centre fitting artificial limbs in Dunedin.

DENNIS, DEREK JAMES, who died on October 23, 2011, aged 82, was a first-class umpire in 1979 and 1980, and was a rarity at the time because he had never played first- class cricket. A Welshman with a bouffant hairstyle, Dennis continued umpiring - and training aspiring officials - after leaving the first-class panel. As a youngster he had played football alongside the Welsh legend John Charles.

DOIG, CHRISTOPHER KEITH, OBE, CNZM, who died on October 13, 2011, aged 63, was a left-field choice as chief executive of New Zealand's cricket board in 1995. He was an international opera singer - a tenor - but also an astute businessman, and stirred what had been a conservative institution into life. "He was the can-do person at anything he turned his attention to, and his appointment was the perfect selection," said the local journalist Lynn McConnell. Doig - an "insightful and astute administrator", according to a later NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan - oversaw the development of the NZ Academy at Lincoln and was credited (along with board chairman Sir John Anderson) with successfully pushing through the ICC's Future Tours Programme. After stepping down in 2001, Doig returned to the music world, and - although suffering from terminal cancer - persuaded Placido Domingo and Katherine Jenkins to perform in Christchurch to raise funds after the earthquakes there in 2010 and 2011. He died a week after their successful concert, having recently been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

DOUGLAS-BOYD, RICHARD DONALD BLACKBURN, DSC, died on June 17, 2011, aged 88. The world of cricket publishing must have seemed rather sedate to Dickie Douglas-Boyd after his wartime exploits as a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm. In 1944 he was involved in two dive-bombing raids on the German battleship Tirpitz while it was hiding in the Norwegian fjords; and in the Far East the following year he was decorated for bravery after he took part in raids on heavily defended Japanese positions. He initially worked in book sales but later became the publisher for Pelham, an imprint specialising in sports books. Among numerous titles, he launched the Pelham Cricket Year in 1979, which continued in various guises until 2010, and published autobiographies by Imran Khan and Viv Richards. Pelham published books about dogs, too, but it was said Douglas- Boyd's enthusiasm waned when he severed his big toe inspecting a lawn-mower: before the toe could be recovered, it was eaten by the family spaniel.

DUNCAN, CLYDE RORY, who died on July 27, 2011, aged 57, was an umpire who stood in two Tests, 21 one-day internationals and six Twenty20 internationals. His last match was Pakistan's tour game against Guyana in his native Georgetown in May 2011. In his first Test, at the old Bourda ground in March 1991, Duncan was involved in controversy. After Dean Jones was bowled by a Courtney Walsh no-ball, he set off for the pavilion, having not heard Duncan's call. Carl Hooper ran from slip and broke the wicket, and Clyde Cumberbatch at square leg gave Jones out, even though the Laws stated: "If a no-ball has been called, the striker shall not be given run out unless he attempts to run." Jones obviously wasn't trying to run, but he was not recalled, despite Australia's coach Bob Simpson showing the umpires the relevant Law in Wisden.

EVANS, JOHN BRIAN, died on May 1, 2011, aged 74. Glamorgan began the 1960s with high hopes of a lively home-grown new-ball partnership between the hostile Brian "Ginger" Evans and left-armer Jeff Jones, who would go on to win 15 England caps. Evans, five years older, was the first to make a mark, taking 87 wickets in 1960 and 82 in 1961, including eight for 42 against Somerset at Cardiff Arms Park, where he bowled "with great fire and accuracy", according to Wisden (he later made the winning hit, too). Three days earlier, he had taken seven for 32 against Leicestershire, which included a stunning spell of six for eight in 33 balls. But by the time Jones finally established himself, Evans was struggling with persistent injuries, and he was released after playing only twice in 1963. He moved to Lincolnshire, as a pro in the county's league, and helped them win their first Minor Counties Championship in 1966. He also worked as a groundsman, and took up umpiring. He remained, according to the former Glamorgan captain Steve James, "a lively presence at former players' get-togethers".

FAIRWEATHER, LUKE, was shot dead outside the Newlands ground in Cape Town on January 5, 2011, after a day in the presidential suite watching South Africa's Test match against India. He became involved in an argument with a police officer after his mother's car was issued with a ticket for parking in a zone set aside for disabled drivers. Fairweather, described as "quick to anger", apparently threw the policeman against the car windscreen, smashing it, then was shot twice in the stomach in the resultant scuffle. Fairweather, who was 49, had played twice for Western Province B in the 1980s, and had managed their junior side. Murder charges against the policeman were later withdrawn.

FLOCKTON, RAYMOND GEORGE, who died on November 22, 2011, aged 81, was educated close to the Sydney Cricket Ground at Crown Street Public School in Surry Hills, where Victor Trumper had been a pupil. Naturally, local legend had it that the young Ray occupied Victor's desk half a century later. The fluent power of his batting and his useful leg-spin brought Flockton selection for New South Wales in 1951-52. He trapped Ken Mackay lbw with his first ball, and later made a rousing 85 against the visiting West Indians. Bill O'Reilly loved his aggressive approach, and he was quickly hailed as a Test prospect. But after a poor second season he disappeared from the state selectors' notebooks for nearly seven years. Arthur Morris observed: "He was as good as any of us, but he was one of those cricketers selected a bit early."

In 1959-60, with five state players absent on tour, Flockton was recalled. He batted with authority and consistency, the crowning effort 264 not out against South Australia at the SCG, still the highest maiden first-class century in Shield cricket. By now, he was bowling accurate medium-pacers, yet - given NSW's strength at the time - his place in the side was still not assured: in 1961-62, when there were no home Tests, he carried the drinks in seven successive matches. A gregarious and much-loved man, he was a natural raconteur whose humour delighted the then Australian prime minister, Robert Menzies - so much so he insisted Flockton be part of his team to play the 1962-63 MCC tourists. Flockton worked initially as a police officer and, when on traffic duty, was known to persuade fellow cricketers to join him in the middle of the intersection. He subsequently spent a number of years coaching and playing in Canberra before turning to selling insurance.

FREDRICK, NORTON, who died on August 10, 2011, aged 73, was a stocky fast bowler who played for Ceylon in pre-Test days, quick enough to share the nickname "Fiery Fred" with F. S. Trueman. Fredrick, who played for the Bloomfield club, enjoyed his finest hour in an unofficial Test against India at Ahmedabad in January 1965, when his seven wickets in the match were all Test players, including India's captain, the Nawab of Pataudi, and opener Dilip Sardesai in both innings. Ceylon won that match - their only such victory in India, where Sri Lanka have never won an official Test. A road near Fredrick's home in Wattala, outside Colombo, is named after him.

GABRU, AHMED, who died on July 22, 2011, age unknown, was a batsman who played 19 matches later given first-class status for Transvaal's non-white team in the 1970s. He scored 127 against Natal in the Dadabhay Trophy in January 1973, sharing a competition- record stand of 273 with his captain, Ismail Garda. Gabru later moved to Botswana, where he was instrumental in setting up a cricket ground still in use.

GHAFOOR BUTT, ABDUL, who died on April 23, 2011, aged 74, had a long career in Pakistan domestic cricket, mainly with Railways. A left-arm medium-pacer, he took six for 56 against Punjab A in 1956-57, and two years later made 89 not out against Pakistan Universities, which earned him what amounted to a Test trial, for the Commander-in- Chief's XI against the West Indian tourists, and a similar one against the Australians the following season. Ghafoor later turned to umpiring, and stood in a one-day international against Sri Lanka at Karachi in March 1982.

GILL, HAROLD CHARLES ANTHONY, died on November 30, 2011, aged 75. Tony Gill lived long enough for the wandering club he founded, the Jack Frost XI, to celebrate its half-century with a dinner in the Long Room at Lord's. Sadly, he was not well enough to attend. The club got its name because, in its early years, fixtures were fulfilled throughout the year: one Boxing Day, TV cameras captured Gill - who modelled his own playing contributions on the Victorian lob bowlers - sweeping snow off a pitch in the New Forest. The Jack Frost XI play mainly around the Home Counties but, inspired by Gill's enthusiasm, have toured countries as diverse as Thailand and Latvia.

GREASLEY, DOUGLAS GEORGE, died on December 9, 2011, aged 85. Doug Greasley was a Yorkshire exile who made a promising debut for Northamptonshire in 1950, taking four for 36 against his birth-county, bowling what Wisden called "steady" slow left-arm. Though he was to play 58 county matches spread over six seasons, he took only a dozen more wickets. Against Leicestershire the next summer, his fourth game, he made 104 not out, batting at No. 8 - but he never scored another century. He remained a serviceable standby until 1955, when he was released and became a pro in Scotland.

HARVEY, RAYMOND, died on January 6, 2011, aged 85. Sporting ability coursed through the six Harvey brothers: they all played first-grade cricket for Fitzroy, in inner Melbourne; five represented Victoria at baseball; four turned out in Sheffield Shield cricket; two wore the baggy green; and one umpired Test cricket. Ray, an electrical fitter with the Melbourne tramways, was the fourth of the six and, from 1947-48, had a 12-year career for Victoria, in which the charm and power of his strokeplay was bedevilled by inconsistency. It was cruel that his best year of 1953-54, when he made 699 runs at 49.92, including a century under pressure against a Test-standard NSW attack, came in a season with no home Tests. When Len Hutton's MCC tourists arrived the following summer, Ray Robinson nominated Harvey as "easily the finest batsman in Australia outside the Test XI". However, his chances of joining his illustrious younger brother Neil in the Test side evaporated when he averaged less than 20 over the season. He was the cornerstone of the Fitzroy club for over 20 years, scoring 9,146 runs at 36, taking 217 wickets with his leg- breaks, and holding 183 catches as a sure-handed close fielder. Neil said: "Ray was a much better batsman than his first-class record suggests. In full flight, he was worth going a long way to see."

HAZARE, VIVEKANAND SAMUEL, died on January 25, 2011, aged 91. Vivek Hazare was the younger brother of the great Indian batsman Vijay, and enjoyed a long first-class career of his own, although it was an unspectacular one - just two fifties and no five-fors in 49 matches, spread over nearly 21 years. His most famous innings came early on, alongside his brother, in the final of the 1943-44 Bombay Pentangular. After the Hindus had declared at 581 for five (Vijay Merchant 250 not out), The Rest struggled, and were 60 for five in the follow-on when the Hazares joined forces. Vijay recalled: "I tried to play from both ends. The result was I scored 309 and Vivek only 21." They put on 300; Vivek batted for five and a half hours. The Rest still lost by an innings; their total of 387 remains the smallest to contain an individual triple-century. Vivek also played in four Ranji Trophy finals for Baroda, winning the second - when Vijay scored 288 and Gul Mahomed 319 - in March 1947, and the fourth three years later.

IBRAHIM, THAZHATHOTTIL ABDULREHMAN MOHAMMED, died on November 24, 2011, aged 61. Mohammed "Unny" Ibrahim was a useful left-arm fast-medium bowler who played 39 matches for Kerala between 1967 and 1980. His best figures of six for 34 came in only his fourth match, against Andhra at Vijayawada in November 1968; two years later, also against Andhra, he made his highest score of 73 not out. In a school game he reportedly once made 237, then took ten for 15, including a hat-trick.

INDRAJITSINHJI, KUMAR SHRI MADHAVSINHJI JADEJA, died on March 12, 2011, aged 73. Prince Indrajitsinhji was a member of the Nawanagar royal family, and thus a relative of Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji. "Inder" was a polished wicketkeeper and a handy batsman for Saurashtra (and briefly Delhi), but won only four Test caps in the 1960s, finding it hard to interpose himself in the decade-long rivalry for the gloves between Farokh Engineer and Budhi Kunderan. "He was considered to be a better keeper than either," said Yajurvindra Singh, later a Test player himself, "but unfortunately their batting prowess caused him to be left out of the Indian side on many occasions." When Indrajitsinhji did get a chance, though, against Australia at home in 1964-65, he made it count: in the Second Test in Bombay he entered with India 224 for eight, 30 short of a famous victory. Chandu Borde was entrenched at the other end. "The Nawab of Pataudi was the eighth man out," he recalled. "There was only Chandrasekhar to come. But Indrajitsinhji came up to me and said 'Chandu, we will do it.' His confidence really surprised me - and made me equally confident and more assured about the victory, which we finally achieved." Indrajitsinhji was to win only one more cap after that series, five years later when Engineer was injured.

JACOBS, WILLIAM LAWSON, died on July 29, 2011, aged 93. Bill Jacobs kept wicket for Fitzroy in the Melbourne District competition for 266 consecutive matches between 1937-38 and 1955-56, holding 279 catches and making 169 stumpings, his nickname of "Fagin" testimony to his sharpness. But it was as an administrator that he became an integral part of Australian cricket, starting as a Victorian selector from 1959-60 to 1971-72 (he returned in 1982-83 and the following season). Managing Australian teams had previously been a long-service entitlement for board members, but Jacobs's talents meant he was drafted from outside the hallowed halls to take charge of the tours of South Africa in 1966-67 and the West Indies in 1972-73. Don Bradman approached him personally to manage the World XI side which toured Australia in 1971-72 as a hastily organised replacement for South Africa, and Jacobs did much to make that tour a happy success. His willingness to call a spade a shovel ensured a wide hearing for his incisive analysis of many sports, particularly as a commentator on Melbourne radio. His son, Ken, ran the Victorian Cricket Association (later Cricket Victoria) from 1980 to 2007.

JOHNSON, JOSEPH, died on January 16, 2011, aged 94. Joe Johnson was a good all- round sportsman: a footballer on the books of Doncaster Rovers and Southport, and a slow left-armer who made three appearances for Yorkshire in the 1930s, the first two while Hedley Verity was away playing for England. He wasn't given much bowling, though, and all five of his wickets came at a cost of only 16 runs against Leicestershire in August 1939, when Yorkshire won the Championship by a distance. Johnson ended proceedings at Aylestone Road by taking wickets with the final two balls of the match. The Second World War meant he never played again, so he remained on a hat-trick of sorts for the last 71 years of his life.

JOWELL, Professor Sir ROGER MARK, who died of a heart attack on December 25, 2011, aged 69, settled in London when he left his native South Africa in the early 1960s, and was an enthusiastic anti-apartheid campaigner. He joined protestors at the Lord's Test against his home country in 1965, but could not contain his admiration of a particularly sumptuous shot by Graeme Pollock and dropped his banner to applaud. Jowell became one of the most respected and influential social statisticians, and was a stalwart of the Pretenders club, based in Dulwich. One of the Americans he succeeded in converting to the game was Eli Segal, chief of staff of Bill Clinton's first election campaign.

KAMATH, DAYANAND, who died on January 19, 2011, aged 67, played 22 first-class matches in India in the 1960s, mainly for Mysore. He took seven for 42 with his left-arm spin against Kerala in his second match, and made an unbeaten 100 against Madras in his fourth, both in 1963.

KAMM, ANTONY, died on February 11, 2011, aged 79. Tony Kamm kept wicket in a few matches for Oxford in the early 1950s, but his only Blue came in 1954, when he played against Cambridge in a side captained by Colin Cowdrey and including Mike Smith (who made 201 in a drawn game). Kamm also deputised for Leslie Compton behind the stumps in Middlesex's Championship match against Sussex at Lord's in 1952. After university, Kamm turned to writing and editing, producing many books, including the Collins Biographical Dictionary of English Literature and a biography of John Logie Baird, the inventor of television. He was also instrumental in commissioning English translations of the Asterix cartoon books.

KEEN, DAVID ALAN, who died on November 10, 2011, aged 73, was Labour MP for Feltham and Heston from 1992 until his death. For many years Alan Keen was joint secretary of the Lords and Commons, parliament's cricket team, which he represented against similar sides from overseas, including Greece. As chairman of all-party groups on football and athletics, and a long-serving member of the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, he worked tirelessly for grassroots sport.

KELLAND, PETER ALBAN, who died on October 24, 2011, aged 85, was a fast bowler who played 12 matches for Cambridge University, winning a Blue in 1950 as part of arguably their strongest-ever side: led by Hubert Doggart, who had played two Tests for England the previous month, it also included two future Test captains in Peter May and David Sheppard. Kelland played in the famous match at Fenner's when Cambridge declared at 594 for four against the 1950 West Indian tourists, who replied with 730 for three. He finished with one for 105, dismissing Jeff Stollmeyer for 83 but failing to dislodge Everton Weekes, who made 304 not out. Kelland finished with 27 first-class wickets, including six for 58 in the match against Warwickshire, also in 1950, and later played three games for Sussex. He went on to teach at Highgate School, where the young Phil Tufnell came under his watch. "He was a tough fellow, a great big bloke with grey swept-back hair," said Tufnell. "I think he saw a bit of talent in me, in cricket and football, and tried to get the best out of me."

KENTISH, ESMOND SEYMOUR MAURICE, was the oldest West Indian Test cricketer when he died, aged 94, on June 10, 2011. He was a tall, strong, accurate bowler somewhat below genuinely fast, and his career typified the contemporary first-class game in the West Indies. Regional matches were spasmodic and, like most others, Kentish was an amateur, his priority a banking job in which he would eventually rise to be governor of the Bank of Jamaica. His two Tests, both against England at Sabina Park, were six years apart; his 11 matches for Jamaica spanned 1947 to 1957. His longest first- class stint came in the summer of 1956, while he was on a government scholar- ship at Oxford University. He took 44 wickets in 14 matches and, at 39, remains the oldest player to appear in the Varsity Match.

Kentish's moment of triumph came in the First Test of England's tour, in January 1954. With Peter May and Tom Graveney together at 277 for two on the final day, and another 180 needed for an unlikely victory, Jeff Stollmeyer instructed him to bowl a leg-stump line, with seven fielders on the on side. After he accounted for May to a leg-side tickle to the keeper, and Graveney to Everton Weekes's sharp catch at leg slip, Kentish polished off the innings, finishing with five for 49 from 29 overs: West Indies won by 140 runs. But Kentish was 37, and this was his last Test. "It has always been a source of regret to me that he never played again," Stollmeyer later wrote. Kentish subsequently served on the Jamaica and West Indies boards. Softly spoken and respected by the players, he managed the West Indian teams to England in 1973 and Australia in 1975-76.

KESSEL, YORAM JERROLD, died on February 24, 2011, aged 66. Jerrold Kessel was a good-standard wicketkeeper for Israel in three ICC Trophies and their captain at the inaugural tournament in 1979. He distinguished himself by stomping into the United States dressing-room, after a 41-run defeat, to berate them for cheating: the Israelis were convinced the American keeper had fooled the umpire by dislodging a bail with his pad. Many of the American players would see Kessel plenty more times without realising it: he became Jerusalem correspondent of CNN, reporting on 13 years' worth of Middle Eastern torment. A big man, who emigrated from South Africa in his youth, he was calm on the screen, gregarious in private, but a force of nature on the field - "ultra-competitive, to put it mildly," said Stanley Perlman, chairman of the Israel Cricket Association.

KHALID AZIZ, who died on July 2, 2011, aged 73, umpired three Tests (all in Faisalabad) and seven one-day internationals - including one in the 1987 World Cup - between 1977-78 and 1993-94. He had previously had a long career as a batsman for various Lahore sides, scoring 106 in Punjab University's 702 against the Sind students in January 1959. He was pleased that, when MCC asked for suggestions for changes to the Laws for a redraft in 1980, six of his 12 recommendations were adopted.

LAWRENCE, MARK PHILIP, who died of a brain haemorrhage on August 20, 2010, aged 48, won three Blues between 1984 and 1986 by virtue of being, in his own words, "the least bad slow left-armer at Oxford". A bowling average touching 71 from 30 matches suggests he was not being unduly modest, although his 42 wickets did include some distinguished names: he was the first to dismiss Graeme Hick in a first-class match in England, against Worcestershire in 1985 (returning to the Parks a few weeks later, with the Zimbabweans, Hick retaliated with 230). Later that season Lawrence removed Geoff Boycott and Dennis Amiss in successive matches, and Mike Gatting followed in 1986. An old boy of Manchester Grammar School, Lawrence claimed to have been the first to tag Mike Atherton as a "Future England Captain": on spotting him as a 13-year-old at the school in 1981, he remarked that the lad would lead England before he was 27. (Atherton took over from Graham Gooch when he was 25.) After his university days Lawrence returned to club cricket, becoming a popular chairman of Lindfield in Sussex.

LEADBEATER, EDRIC, died on April 17, 2011, aged 83. Until the recent emergence of Adil Rashid, Eddie Leadbeater was the only specialist leg-spinner to hold a regular place in the Yorkshire side. Almost as remarkably, he played two Tests for England without ever being awarded a county cap. A short man with an infectious cheeriness, he played for Yorkshire mostly in 1950 and 1951, while Brian Close, then their regular off- spinner, was away on National Service. Leadbeater took more than 80 wickets in both seasons, but conceded runs too freely. "At Yorkshire," he said, "when you ran in to bowl, always at the back of your mind you were thinking, 'I hope this isn't a full toss... I hope this isn't a short one.'" Once, in a Roses match, he dismissed Geoff Edrich with a surprise off-break. His captain Norman Yardley told him off: "I set your field for leg- spin." Hampshire tried to lure him south at the end of his first full season, and he would later wonder if he should have accepted their offer.

MCC toured India and Pakistan in the winter of 1951-52 with a second-string side; early on, Dusty Rhodes of Derby- shire was taken ill, and the search for a replacement went through several leg- spinners before Leadbeater was invited. He flew in, played one warm-up match, and was pitched into the Second Test at Bombay, where he had a nightmare first day, dropping two slip catches and leaving the field with a pulled thigh muscle. He did take the vital wicket of Polly Umrigar, however, and in the next Test removed Vinoo Mankad, but they were to be his only successes. The following summer he lost his place in the Yorkshire side and, after several seasons on the fringes, signed for Warwickshire, playing for them throughout 1958, when he scored his only first-class century, 116 against Glamorgan at Coventry.

After cricket he became a travelling salesman, and returned to the Almondbury club in the Huddersfield League, where he had made his first-team debut as a 13-year-old in 1941 and where he would continue to play until he was 68. His final tally of over 1,700 first- team wickets was for some years the league record.

LIVINGSTONE, DAVID, who died on February 9, 2011, aged 83, was an accomplished off-spinner from the Poloc club in Glasgow who took 50 wickets in 18 first-class games spread over a decade from 1957. He claimed 11 for 51 in the annual match against Ireland in 1957 and, two years later, five for 47 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston to help Scotland to a rare victory over a county. In 1964, Livingstone took six for 93 in a two-day game against the Australians at Aberdeen, his victims including Bob Simpson.

MAHON, Sir JOHN DENIS, CH, CBE, died on April 24, 2011, aged 100. The longest- standing MCC member when he died, Denis Mahon was a scion of the Guinness Mahon banking family, and developed a considerable reputation as an art expert, unafraid to cross swords with celebrity adversaries. "Anthony Blunt, the art historian and traitor, quailed before his onslaught," reported the Sunday Times in 2003, adding: "Tony Blair has been seen to panic at the sight of him. Gordon Brown, wisely, did what he was told." Mahon built up a collection estimated to be worth well over £50m; many of his works of art were loaned to museums and galleries on the strict proviso that they were to be returned if the institution started charging for entry. He was an MCC member for 82 years, having been elected in 1929, and one of the functions to celebrate his 100th birthday in November 2010 was a lunch at Lord's attended by the Prince of Wales.

MAKA, EBRAHIM SULEMAN, died on September 7, 1994, aged 72. He had long been thought dead, but the exact date was confirmed only in 2011. Maka was a wicketkeeper from Gujarat, who also represented Bombay. He played in two Tests in 1952-53 - a rain- affected draw against Pakistan at Madras, and another in Trinidad a few months later, when he broke his left hand while batting and was unable to keep wicket. He played occasional first-class matches for another ten years.

MALLET, PHILIP LOUIS VICTOR, CMG, who died on December 1, 2011, aged 85, needed all the skills acquired in his long career in the diplomatic service when, as British High Commissioner in Guyana early in 1981, he found himself at the centre of what became known as the Jackman Affair. When Robin Jackman arrived to reinforce the England touring party for the Second Test, the government of Forbes Burnham revoked his visa because of his close links with South Africa. With the England management insistent on the right to select him, a stand-off ensued, lasting more than a week. When the assembled press visited Mallet, he told them: "I know I'm playing a bit like Boycott, but it's up to the Guyanese to do the bowling." In the end, his diplomacy was in vain: the Test was abandoned, although some players used the long hours in the Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown to recruit for the following winter's rebel tour of South Africa.

MARSHALL, CECIL ALPHONSO, who died on September 10, 2011, three days short of his 72nd birthday, was a useful all-rounder who did much to help Canada into the 1979 World Cup. In the ICC Trophy - whose semi-finals, a few days before the main tournament, determined the non-Test qualifiers - Trinidad-born Marshall made 77 and took three for 16 against Malaysia. He did little in the World Cup itself, scoring eight against Pakistan, then two as Canada were shot out for 45 by England, but afterwards had the satisfaction of making 55 against Sri Lanka in the ICC Trophy final, at Worcester. Marshall remained devoted to cricket, whose statistics he knew intimately.

MARTIN, BRYN, disappeared off Cottesloe Beach near Perth in Western Australia on October 10, 2011, aged 64, the apparent victim of a great white shark. He was last seen a few hundred metres from the shore on his regular morning dip, but a pair of damaged swimming trunks were discovered later. Martin had represented WA Colts in his youth, and had a season as professional for the Scottish club Selkirk in 1974, scoring 920 runs and taking 90 wickets.

MASIKAZANA, LULAMA, who died of lung failure on October 7, 2011, aged 38, was a wicketkeeper who never quite fulfilled his promise. He emerged from the township of New Brighton in Port Elizabeth, and played for various Eastern Province age-group sides before making his first-class debut for their B team in November 1993, taking five catches in Boland B's first innings. A month later, he was set to play for the first team against England A, but was forced to miss the game to attend his tribal circumcision ceremony. In August 1995, he toured Sri Lanka with a national Under-24 team - alongside Jacques Kallis, Lance Klusener and Shaun Pollock - and later that year appeared for a South African Invitation XI against the England tourists at Soweto, where Wisden commended his "neat keeping and brisk hitting". Generally, though, Masikazana was let down by his batting: he made only one half-century in 38 games, and drifted out of first-class cricket at the end of 1999, amid rumours he was fond of a drink. "What's wrong with having a beer with my team-mates or friends in a shebeen after a game?" he asked. The South African journalist Neil Manthorp said: "Five or six years ago, I persuaded TV to give him a go as a commentator. He wasn't very good, but we had a lot of fun."

MITCHELL, IAN NORMAN, who died on June 4, 2011, aged 86, was offered the Gloucestershire captaincy for the summer of 1951. An Old Harrovian who had played twice for Cambridge without winning a Blue, he was a free-scoring batsman good enough to top the Second Eleven averages in 1950. He would have been a popular choice with the professionals, who warmed to his positive personality. But he declined: Mitchell had just got married and was working hard to build up the farm he had taken on near Tetbury. The county turned to their second choice, Sir Derrick Bailey, son of the South African diamond tycoon Abe Bailey. Though a fine all-round sportsman, Mitchell appeared only nine times over three summers for Gloucestershire, with little success; thereafter he played his cricket for the Arabs, I Zingari and the Gloucestershire Gipsies. He was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1969.

MOHAMMAD ASLAM KHOKHAR, who died on January 22, 2011, aged 91, was an attacking batsman who scored the first first-class century in independent Pakistan - 117 for Punjab against Sind at Lahore in December 1947. He toured England with A. H. Kardar's side in 1954 but, not helped by a foot injury, played in only one Test, an innings defeat at Trent Bridge. He made 16 and 18 from No. 9, but his occasional leg-breaks did not receive an airing, despite England running up 558 for six (Denis Compton 278). Although he had a long career - his second and final century came in the 1960-61 Ayub Trophy final, when he was 41 - Aslam never played another Test. He later turned to umpiring, and stood in three home Tests against England in the 1970s, including one at Karachi, in 1972-73, in which three batsmen were out for 99 (only one of them - Mushtaq Mohammad, run out - required a decision). He also coached at Aitchison College in Lahore, and was Pakistan's oldest Test cricketer at the time of his death. "He was a jolly man, friendly with everyone," remembered his former team-mate Hanif Mohammad.

MOHAMMAD ALI JAFRI, who died on April 22, 2011, aged 67, was Sharjah's official scorer, recording 200 one-day internationals there between 1984 and 2010. He also acted as scorer for internationals in Dubai and Morocco. He had a heart condition, and collapsed while shaking hands with the imam after prayers at a mosque in Karachi.

MUKHERJEE, DURGA SHANKAR, who died on February 2, 2011, aged 77, was an energetic medium-pacer from Calcutta who claimed five for 55 on first-class debut for East Zone against the 1958-59 West Indians. His victims included Garry Sobers and Basil Butcher, although East Zone were later bowled out for 39. Mukherjee's next match was the Ranji Trophy semi-final, in which he took six wickets as Bengal beat Rajasthan. He claimed five more in the final, but in vain, as Bombay cruised to victory by 420 runs. The following season Mukherjee took eight for 46 against Bihar and, by the end of 1962-63, he had 88 wickets at 17 apiece. But he played only six more games.

NAUMAN HABIB was found dead in a sack near his home in Hayatabad, a suburb of Peshawar in northern Pakistan, on October 11, 2011. He was 32, and had not been seen since setting off for the gym two days earlier; he had just claimed match figures of seven for 59 in Peshawar's victory over Multan in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, which finished on October 8. A medium-pacer, Habib took 221 first-class wickets, including 11 for 77 for Peshawar against Quetta in January 2009.

NIGHTINGALE, ALAN FRANCIS, who died on June 16, 2011, aged 82, played a dozen first-class matches for Wellington in the 1950s, but managed only a solitary half-century. In 1949 he had hit hundreds for Hutt Valley in Hawke Cup Challenge Matches against Taranaki and Waikato.

NUR KHAN, Air Marshal MALIK, who died on December 15, 2011, aged 88, was the president of the Pakistan Cricket Board from 1980 to 1984. Previously the commander-in- chief of the Pakistan Air Force, Nur Khan became a national hero during a brief war with India in 1965, when he maintained aerial supremacy despite having only about a third of the planes at India's disposal. He took charge of much of Pakistan's sport, unafraid to introduce new ideas into hockey and squash, which he regarded as more manly pastimes than cricket. Despite this, he helped push through the establishment of the Asian Cricket Council. The day after India's surprise win in the World Cup final at Lord's in 1983, Nur and the Indian administrator N. K. P. Salve conceived over lunch the idea of taking the next tournament to the subcontinent: in 1987, the World Cup was co-hosted by India and Pakistan. He also lobbied for the introduction of neutral umpires in international cricket.

OAKDEN, ROBERT PATRICK, died on July 20, 2011, aged 73. Pat Oakden was a fast bowler who took 17 wickets in eight matches for Nottinghamshire in 1960 and 1961 before an Achilles tendon injury ended his serious cricket. He later played county golf, and is thought to be the only man to represent Nottinghamshire at both sports. He was buried in his county blazer.

OVENSTONE, DOUGLAS MACPHERSON, who died on November 6, 2011, aged 90, was a stylish wicketkeeper who toured England with South Africa in 1947. He was in line for a Test cap after the first choice, Johnny Lindsay, underperformed. But he broke a finger, and George Fullerton, not a regular keeper, took the gloves for the last two Tests instead. Ovenstone, who was wounded at El Alamein, represented Western Province, but retired in 1948 to concentrate on business.

POSTLES, BRYCE JOHN, who died on January 19, 2011, aged 79, played 19 matches for Auckland in the 1950s, never surpassing the 80 he made in his second, against Otago on New Year's Day, 1953. His father also played for Auckland, while his son represented their Under-23 side.

RAFIQUDDIN AHMED KAZI, who died on July 7, 2011, aged 74, was a right-arm fast-medium bowler who played for various first-class teams in Pakistan. Rafiq Kazi - "Mushki" to his team-mates - also toured England in 1954 with the Pakistan Eaglets, who contained a number of future internationals. In 21 first-class matches he took 46 wickets at 27.84, including five for 28 (nine for 50 in the match) while captaining Hyderabad against Khairpur in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in January 1960.

RANJANE, VASANT BABURAO, who died on December 22, 2011, aged 74, made a dream start in first-class cricket for Maharashtra against Saurashtra at Khadakvasla in November 1956. Taking the new ball, he claimed the first nine wickets, including a hat- trick, for 35 runs, still the best debut figures in the Ranji Trophy. "The ball was moving well," he said. "I would have got the tenth wicket too, but a catch went over the slips." Confirmation that he would be denied all ten came when the Test spinner Bapu Nadkarni dismissed the No. 11, but Ranjane added four more in the second innings to finish with 13 for 71. Unsurprisingly, he never quite approached such heights again, although his first- class career spanned 14 years and he did win seven Test caps. "He was a very fine bowler," said former Test batsman Chandu Borde. "He used to produce a ball that came in and troubled all the top batsmen. He would have been the ideal bowler in English conditions." But Ranjane never did make it to England, missing out on the sorry 5-0 whitewash in 1959. He had made his Test debut against West Indies the previous December, this time playing the spoilsport himself by taking the other wicket as leg-spinner Fergie Gupte claimed nine for 102 at Kanpur. Ranjane toured the Caribbean in 1961-62, but appeared only in the final Test at Kingston. He took a Test-best four for 72 in the first innings, removing Conrad Hunte, Rohan Kanhai, Frank Worrell and Garry Sobers. His son, Subash, also played for Maharashtra. Hailing from a poor background in Poona, where his house was damaged by floods in the 1960s, Ranjane struggled financially, and was awarded a benefit match by the BCCI against the 1983-84 West Indian tourists.

RAYNOR, SHERIDAN STEEDE, who died on December 10, 2011, aged 77, was a legendary figure in Bermudian cricket. A left-hander, he made a century against a side of county players assembled by former Surrey captain Stuart Surridge in 1961 and, in 1969, shared an opening stand of 253 with Dennis Wainwright against a similar XI during a tour of England. When Yorkshire visited Bermuda in 1964 Raynor was bowled by Garry Sobers, guesting for the English county despite being born some way beyond its boundaries; it is said Sobers suggested Raynor be given a Test trial, but was turned down as Bermuda were not affiliated to the West Indies board. Proceedings were held up in the island's parliament as MPs paid tribute after his death.

REIFER, ELVIS LEROY, died unexpectedly in his sleep on August 26, 2011, aged 50. A nippy left-armer, Elvis Reifer had the unenviable task of filling in at Hampshire in 1984 for Malcolm Marshall, who was touring England with West Indies. Reifer had not previously played a first-class match and, as Wisden put it, "although bowling well on occasions, he did not make the hoped-for impact". He started with eight wickets against Cambridge University, but found it harder against the counties, finishing with 49 at 35.93. He failed to strike in his first game for Barbados in January 1986, and was never selected again. Cricket ran strong in the family: his twin George and another brother, Leslie, played for Barbados; nephew Floyd had six Tests for West Indies, two as captain; and his son Raymon represented the Combined Colleges & Campuses team (alongside Floyd) in the West Indian first-class competition in 2010-11.

ROBERTS, PASCALL RONALD, died on June 20, 2011, aged 73. For a dozen years from 1960-61, Pascall Roberts's versatility as a left-arm seam and swing bowler or an orthodox spinner made him a regular for Trinidad & Tobago. He took five for 79 on his debut, against Barbados in January 1961, but was not called up by West Indies until the 1969 tour of England, after the culling of the entire fast-bowling unit - including Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith - from the preceding Australasian trip. But at 31 Roberts was past his best, and did not come close to Test selection. He was Lowerhouse's professional in the Lancashire League in 1963 and 1965.

RODWELL, EDWIN EMERSON, MM, who died on February 27, 2011, aged 89, was an important figure in Tasmanian cricket over many decades. The most productive of his 18 matches between 1947-48 and 1955-56 was against Victoria at the MCG in 1949-50, when he scored 45 and 104. He also made runs against several touring attacks, including 65 off the 1952-53 South Africans and 70 against Len Hutton's MCC team two years later. Emerson Rodwell's domination of Hobart grade cricket was recognised by the Tasmanian Cricket Association in 2007, when the medal for the "best and fairest" grade cricketer of the year was named after him. He also became a familiar voice - and face - on TV and radio with his pithy commentaries, often reminding the rest of Australia that there was a state named Tasmania where they also played cricket. In the closing stages of the Second World War he was awarded the Military Medal for conspicuous gallantry in leading a Bren gun attack on a Japanese post in Borneo.

ROY, MIHIR KIRAN, who died on May 23, 2011, aged 70, played 16 Ranji Trophy matches for Bihar from 1958-59, making his top score of 59, against Assam, in his penultimate season, 1965-66. He also took 15 wickets.

SAHU, SUDHIR KUMAR, who died on July 26, 2011, aged 72, played 33 first-class matches, mostly for Vidarbha in India, over 14 years from 1956-57. He was a rather stodgy batsman whose only century, an undefeated 116, came against Uttar Pradesh at Nagpur in December 1961. He later became involved in the administration of the state association, and selected Vidarbha's teams too.

SAXENA, RAMESH CHANDRA, who died on August 16, 2011, aged 66, was a youthful prodigy who never quite fulfilled his early promise. He was only 16 when he made 113 not out on his first-class debut, for Delhi against Southern Punjab in the 1960-61 Ranji Trophy; a few weeks previously he had amassed 349 for Delhi Schools. Correct and stylish, Saxena continued to score consistently and, after moving to Bihar, his 625 runs at 69.44 in 1966-67 won him a place on India's 1967 tour of England. But he struggled on the early-season pitches, and it was a surprise when he was asked to open in the First Test at Headingley. He made nine in an opening stand of 39 with Farokh Engineer, and dropped down to No. 7 in the follow-on, scoring 16. That turned out to be his only Test, although he did tour Australia and New Zealand later in the year. He remained in the runs at home, hitting 202 not out for Bihar against Assam in December 1969, but Bishan Bedi lamented that Saxena, a fine player of spin bowling, "lacked in mental application and had no one to guide him". He finished with 17 hundreds and a first-class average of over 40, and was a handy leg-spinner and good fielder. Saxena served for a time as a Test selector, and was part of the panel which chose 16-year-old Sachin Tendulkar for his first senior tour, to Pakistan late in 1989. His son, Vineet, also played for Bihar.

SEARBY, MARTIN BURTON, who died on June 13, 2011, aged 72, was one of the great journalistic characters of the declining years of the county circuit. He travelled with Yorkshire from the 1980s, freelancing for papers and radio stations with whom he had not yet fallen out. He began his career as an ice-hockey reporter, using the peculiarly appropriate byline "Chippy". In drink, he was often unpleasant, but mostly he was good company, a good operator and a good judge of the game - even if a rant of one kind or another, usually about Yorkshire's latest iniquity, was never far away. Stories attached themselves to Searby, most of them true. He much enjoyed cruises (he was on one, in Venice, when he died), and on one trip claimed to have been approached in the swimming- pool by a vaguely familiar woman. "Excuse me," she said, "but are you Martin Searby?" "Who wants to know?" he demanded, with Searbyish suspicion. "I was your first wife," came the reply. But he cared deeply about cricket, and he was, beneath the bluster, a kindly man. "There was a softness as well as a virulent temper," said his colleague David Hopps. "All his rages in print were to do with people who he thought had not respected the game. And he was usually justified." The remarkable turnout of umpires at his funeral supported this theory.

SHEARING, Sir GEORGE ALBERT, OBE, who died on February 14, 2011, aged 91, was a dazzlingly talented jazz pianist, the first British musician in his field to achieve superstar status in the United States. He created his own style - "the Shearing sound" - by defying accepted wisdom that saxophone or trumpet must dominate a jazz composition. And he achieved all of this despite being born blind. Nor did his handicap hinder his love of cricket, which remained with him through the many years he spent in America. His agent was instructed to arrange London concert appearances to coincide with the Oval Test, and his relish for puns stretched to inserting cricketers' names into the titles of jazz standards: Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe becoming Atherton, Topeka and the Santa Fe.

SMITH, LESLIE, who died on April 1, 2011, aged 97, worked as a cricket journalist in Fleet Street for 45 years. He was nicknamed "Tiger" - after the old England wicketkeeper - as soon as he joined the Cricket Reporting Agency in 1932. They supplied all the cricket, rugby and football news for the Press Association before amalgamating with it in 1965. Smith covered five England tours in the 1950s and '60s, plus numerous home Tests. He was a prolific contributor to Wisden, which was then produced by the agency, and compiled the records section for many years. "He was a quiet, efficient, old-school type," said David Frith, "probably writer of more in Wisden than can ever be known because he didn't always have a byline." Smith eventually became the Press Association's sports editor, before retiring in 1977, and was also chairman of the Cricket Writers' Club.

SNEDDEN, COLIN ALEXANDER, who died on April 23, 2011, aged 93, was a member of a well-known Auckland cricket family. His father, Nessie, captained New Zealand in pre-Test days, his brother also played first-class cricket, and his nephew, Martin, followed a long international career with a stint as the New Zealand board's chief executive before moving over to head up the organisation of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. Colin was a tall - over 6ft 6in - purveyor of quick off-breaks, although largely because of the Second World War he played only nine first-class matches. One of those was a Test, against England at Wellington in 1946-47; he failed to take a wicket in 16 overs in a rain-affected draw. Shortly before this he had taken six for 59 against Canterbury at Auckland. After retirement he commentated on cricket and rugby on the radio for more than 30 years.

SOBERS, GERALD FITZROY, who died on June 2, 2011, aged 76, grew up in the Bayland district, just outside Bridgetown, sharing with his younger brother Garry the varied sporting life of their youth. Garry, later famous in his own right, wrote that Gerry, a stylish right-hander, was once "classed alongside Seymour Nurse, with Gerry just having the edge". For many years, the popular story had it that the G. Sobers named to make his debut for Barbados against the Indians early in 1953 was supposed to be Gerry, rather than 16-year-old Garry. "It could have been our sister Greta," was Garry's habitual response. Gerry later played alongside his illustrious sibling for Norton in the North Staffordshire and South Cheshire league, where he had the satisfaction of topping the batting averages in 1964, with 50.12 to his brother's 49.90. He also turned out for the International Cavaliers in the late 1960s. But he never did play for Barbados.

SPIRO, COLIN MICHAEL, who was found dead on July 7, 2011, aged 41, was a writer who was instrumental in the launch of Spin magazine in 2005. He also wrote for Wisden Cricket Monthly and the Daily Telegraph, and worked on Channel 4's Test coverage. A talented schoolboy all-rounder, he once took nine for 37 in an innings for Clifton College against Taunton. The former England all-rounder Dermot Reeve, who worked with him at Channel 4, said: "I have not met a more wonderful man."

SPROAT, IAIN MacDONALD, died on September 29, 2011, aged 72. "Anyone got a Wisden? Anyone got a Playfair? Anyone got a Sproat?" It is a considerable achievement to have your creation turned into an instantly recognised press-box short-form, but the Conservative politician Iain Sproat gained that distinction with his Cricketers' Who's Who. Launched in 1980 and edited by him until 1993, it remains an indispensable companion for county cricket lovers. Several generations of players have tackled, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, Sproat's annual questionnaires. Records can be gleaned from Playfair, but only the Who's Who gives the answers to in-depth questions about family links with cricket, other sports followed and opinions on how to improve the game (usually by extending the tea interval). As Minister for Sport in John Major's government between 1993 and 1997, he was an early champion of a return to competitive school sport, and took steps to end the historic feud between the two rugby codes.

SWINBURNE, JOHN WARWICK, who died on August 19, 2011, aged 71, was a tall Yorkshireman with a dry wit who bowled off-breaks for Northamptonshire in 1970 and 1971. He was plucked from schoolteaching to make a brief comeback in 1974. His finest hour came at Northampton in 1971, when he extracted bounce and turn from a dusting County Ground pitch and took ten for 102 against a Warwickshire side that was challenging for the Championship. "Very nice man," recalled his team-mate David Steele. "Big hands, big fingers, and he got good wickets." He also played for Devon and Shropshire.

VIJAYAKAR, PRADEEP, who died on January 1, 2011, aged 59, was a writer on cricket - and many other sports - for the Times of India, which he joined in 1975. He wrote the Cricketer of the Year essay on Zaheer Khan for the 2008 Wisden.

WEBB, HUBERT EUSTACE, died on November 8, 2010, aged 83. Hughie Webb was a talented all-round sportsman who won four Blues while at Oxford - for cricket, golf, rackets and squash - and might have added one for tennis had it not clashed with cricket. He hit a fine undefeated 145 in the 1948 Varsity Match ("no one could check Webb in his forcing game," wrote Wisden), having warmed up a few days earlier with an equally forthright 126 in a two-day game against MCC, also at Lord's. After university, though, Webb concentrated on medicine - apart from one match for Hampshire in 1954 - and specialised in diseases of the nervous system, rising to become Professor of Neurovirology at St Thomas' Hospital in London.

WIGHT, DEREK BRIAN, who died on November 26, 2011, aged 79, was a leading figure in the development of cricket in the Cayman Islands, for which he received the ICC Centenary Medal in 2009. Born in British Guiana into a prominent cricketing family that included two Test cricketers (Vibart and Leslie), and four first-class players (among them Derek's father Oscar, and Somerset's long-serving batsman, Peter), Derek Wight became actively involved in the game only after settling in Grand Cayman in 1961. Four of his ten children represented the Caymans at various levels. He was also a founder member of the Cayman Islands National Bank and the Chamber of Commerce.

WINSLOW, PAUL LYNDHURST, who died on May 24, 2011, aged 82, had one great day in Test cricket, smiting 108 at Old Trafford in July 1955. It was his maiden first-class century, and helped turn the match decisively South Africa's way: when he came in they were 245 for five, still 39 behind, but the bespectacled Winslow put on 171 with John Waite, then a national sixth-wicket record. South Africa eventually reached 521, and went on to win. Winslow's century included some of the clean hitting for which he was noted: there were 13 fours and three sixes, one of which brought up his hundred. Frank Tyson, one of England's bowlers that day, remembered: "He was batting at the City End, and hit Tony Lock over long-on, over the stands and across the practice ground." The ball ended up in the car park. The crowd loved it: Lock, typically, did not. Denis Compton thought it was the "most riotously acclaimed" six he had ever witnessed. Winslow had got his eye in at Old Trafford a month earlier, during the tour game against Lancashire, when his rapid 61 included 30 (446646) in one Jack Ikin over. Winslow's attacking instincts, however, gave international bowlers too much of a chance, and he played only one more Test: apart from that century, he never reached 20.

He had won the first of his five caps when only 20, against Australia in 1949-50, after just two first-class matches at home for Transvaal, given a chance when the selectors had a clearout. He had made his first-class debut in England in 1949, during an abortive attempt to qualify for Sussex, for whom his grandfather, Lyndhurst Winslow, scored a century on debut in 1875; Paul was less successful, making eight and 16 in his only match, against Cambridge University. Winslow's father, Charles, won two tennis gold medals at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, while his mother Olive won several South African championships and was, apparently, the first woman player to show an ankle at Wimbledon.

After the 1955 tour, Winslow was largely confined to domestic cricket, latterly with Rhodesia, where he ran a sports shop. He made one more century, 139 at Salisbury in the first match of Australia's 1957-58 tour, after clobbering 81 in the first innings. That briefly excited talk of a Test recall, but two low scores for a South African XI against the tourists shortly afterwards scotched that. After four family members died in a car accident in 1985, Winslow and his wife Moira - an English actor he had met during the 1955 tour - set up Drive Alive, an organisation aimed at promoting road-safety awareness in South Africa.