Lillian Thomson
Hall of Fame Member
In the 70's England hardly ever took a risk with a young batsman based on potential. The only real exception was Gooch who was 21, but he was discarded after only two Tests and disappeared for three years. People like Randall, Hayes and Barlow were all 25/26 before they were chosen, and even then Randall and Barlow were almost chosen by default as there was no real young talent around. I remember other county pro's like Richard Lumb and Graham Johnson being touted for England which was completely ridiculous. After David Steele's success in 1975 there was talk of plucking other batsman out of thin air like David Turner and John Whitehouse. I remember in the mid-70's Fred Trueman being asked during an interval at the Roses match to name any promising young players he'd come across and the only batsman he could come up with were Andrew Kennedy, Phil Slocombe and Chris Aworth - non of whom with hindsight could even be described as good county pros.
In fact such was the paucity of quality batsman at that time, if I was asked to name the best England batsman who actually made his debut between 1970 and 1977, if you disregard Gooch who's success came much later, I would probably say Tony Greig.
In fact such was the paucity of quality batsman at that time, if I was asked to name the best England batsman who actually made his debut between 1970 and 1977, if you disregard Gooch who's success came much later, I would probably say Tony Greig.