99: Graham Gooch

118 matches. 8900 runs @ 42.58. 20 hundreds. Highest score: 333

17 years. 3x good. 1x excellent. 2x outstanding.

The discussion

The Packer era brought great innovation to the game of cricket: floodlights, coloured clothing, helmets and the Rest of the World XI to name a few. World Series Cricket might not have been directly responsible for the return of the moustache, but the two definitely coincided. There were some great moustaches in the 1970s and 1980s — including greats of the game like Dennis Lillee, Kapil Dev, Javed Miandad, Sir Richard Hadlee, and of course big Merv Hughes. And if you were putting together a Mount Rushmore of cricketing moustaches, Graham Gooch would almost certainly be on the shortlist.

With the bat in hand, the rollercoaster of Graham Gooch’s career is an interesting one.

The start was inauspicious: a pair on debut in 1975. After this humble beginning, he had to wait until 1978 for another opportunity at Test level, and made his first century in 1980, against the West Indies. Dropped again after the 1981/82 series against Sri Lanka, Gooch served three years in the wilderness for leading the rebel tour to South Africa. Returning for the Ashes in 1985, Gooch seemed to alternate one good series with one average series throughout the 1980s. Perhaps it was an aversion to touring — Gooch averages a healthy 46.22 at home with 15 centuries. Away from England, Gooch averaged only 36.82, with 5 centuries.

Gooch’s nadir came in the 1989 Ashes. 183 runs at 20.33 in a losing series as captain as Allan Border’s men wrestled back the urn. An urn they were not to relinquish from 1989 until 2005.

I know what you’re thinking. So far, we haven’t described a career worthy of a Hall of Famer. An average of under 40 away from home, with a total average of only 42 and change. In fairness, I had serious questions about whether Gooch was deserving of a spot in the Hall of Fame, particularly under scrutiny from the rest of the Top Order, who could point to several cricketers with a similar number of hundreds in fewer Tests (Warner, Crowe) or had vastly superior averages (Barry Richards, Compton, et al). I gave very strong consideration to leaving Gooch off the list. Bear with me though, because I hope to turn you around in a similar way that I turned myself around.

From the annus horribilis in 1989, Gooch bounced back in a big way. 1990-91 was a real purple patch. During those two years, he averaged more than 50 in five out six series — his first real run of consistently top-class performances. In 1990, he broke all sorts of records in the first Test against India at Lord’s. Gooch made his highest score — a mammoth 333 in the first innings — then scored 123 in the second innings, for a record 456 runs in a single Test. His 752 runs in that series also ranks 2nd all-time for a captain. Now we’re getting somewhere.

For me, opening the batting is the toughest assignment in the batting order. You’re usually facing the opposition’s best bowlers when the conditions are most suited to swing and seam bowling, particularly on the first morning of a Test. Arguably, openers in England have a tougher assignment than most, because English conditions almost certainly offer more assistance to swing and seam bowling than just about anywhere in the world. That is why Gooch’s 5,917 runs in England, the 9th most runs for a player in their home conditions, are a significant tick in the positive column when I weigh up whether Gooch was a deserving member of the Hall of Fame. Further, the succession of English openers from 1975 to 1995 is another key indicator that Gooch’s 118 Tests and 8,900 runs are notable in his case for the Hall of Fame. In that period, no less than 40 players opened the batting for England. Gooch has almost double the runs (7811) in his 100 Tests opening the innings as his nearest competitor (Atherton, 3974 runs in 48 Tests). Across the span of those years, only Sunil Gavaskar has more runs opening the batting. I appreciate those whose craft is considered a challenge, and so I have tremendous respect for openers who exhibit longevity in their careers — particularly as it is their technique that is most often under the closest scrutiny in trying conditions.

As an aside, and unfortunately something that cannot speak to his greatness as a Test cricketer, Graham Gooch finished with almost 44,846 first-class runs at an average of 49, with 128 first-class centuries. According to CricInfo, when you add his 22,221 List A runs, Gooch is ranked first all-time across all formats. No one has scored more first-class runs than Graham Gooch in the history of cricket. I just couldn’t resist sharing this snippet of cricketing folklore.

The verdict

The longevity of Gooch’s career is unlikely to be replicated at first-class level, but it is the 8,900 runs over a 20-year career in the toughest of batting conditions that keeps me coming back to Graham Gooch. How can I leave almost 9,000 runs off the list? If I left him out of the Hall of Fame, he would be alongside Mark Waugh as the only batters to score 8,000 or more runs at Test level and miss out.  Critics will point to his average, or rate of hundreds, as reasons for his exclusion, and if Gooch didn’t have 8,900 runs to his name, they might just be right. But for now — he’s in.

In one word

Longevity

Additional notes

1.          ESPN CricInfo. Combined First-Class, List A, and Twenty 20. Most runs in career.
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/284266.html

2.          Wikipedia. List of first-class cricket records.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_first-class_cricket_records#Highest_career_average

3.          ESPNCricinfo. Most runs at home venues.
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;home_or_away=1;orderby=runs;template=results;type=batting

4.          ESPNCricInfo. Most runs opening the batting for England between 1975 and 1995
https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?batting_positionmax1=2;batting_positionmin1=1;batting_positionval1=batting_position;class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=runs;size=200;spanmax1=1+Jan+1996;spanmin1=1+Jan+1975;spanval1=span;team=1;template=results;type=batting

Bio

Record

Source: ESPN CricInfo

career peak

Source: ESPN CricInfo