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Graham Gooch between July 1975 - December 1989?

archie mac

archie mac

International Coach
Was as intimidating as any batsman when in form.

As a youngster I practiced his bat in the air style as the bowler started his run up. The problem was I batted left handed and not very well, so the preseason I faced up in the nets right handed with Goochy's style saw bowlers lining up to bowl me yorkers, just to listen to the ping of the metal stumps as the ball crashed into them
 
Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
Gooch's record in the 80s seems fairly ordinary but opening in that period would be seriously harder than today. I can't think of any openers besides Greenidge and Haynes (who of course never had to face the Windies' pace battery) and Gavaskar with a better record over that period.

Given that Gooch raised his game to a whole other level in the 90s it's not hard to rank him among England's best ever openers.

(Incidentally, Gooch20 - did you search the forum and comment on every old thread about Gooch? 10 out of 10 for effort.)
 
robelinda

robelinda

International Vice-Captain
Tim Robinson had a bad last few tests, had a great start to his career but the WI in 86 and the Pak tour in 87 just sorted him out big time. Though he got a big ton early in the 87 Pak series but looked pretty bad for the rest. Will always remember watching that huge hundred vs Australia live on tv in 1985, gosh that was some woeful bowling.
 
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Howe_zat

Howe_zat

Audio File
Gooch20 said:
is it me or this seems a bit wrong? it said Gooch only played 55 tests in all of 1980's, is that right? then how many did he play between only 1990-1994?? he ended playing 118 in total
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He played 17 Tests from 1975-79 and 45 Tests from 1990-95. Remember, he generally played more as time went on and he spent 3 years in the 1980s banned.
 
G

Gooch20

Banned
Gooch was definatly better then Gavaskar, Gooch played for the team, Gavaskar for himself, he was so slow and boring
 
Spark

Spark

Global Moderator
"Gooch is better than Gavaskar because Gavaskar was boring" is not an argument that lends itself to a reasonable response though
 
vic_orthdox

vic_orthdox

Global Moderator
Spark said:
"Gooch is better than Gavaskar because Gavaskar was boring" is not an argument that lends itself to a reasonable response though
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It was to the first one, as mentioned by SJS, only in response to Gooch being rated higher than Sunny.

smalishah84's rolleyes was to the comment you refer to.
 
wpdavid

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
My view at the time was that he was obviously very good, but he was seriously frustrating. His performances against WI indicated that he was a class act, as did his performances for Essex - don't forget that in those days most of the best bowlers in the world were opening for various attacks in the county championship. However, he rarely did a thing against Australia until 1990/91. My theory was that before then he hadn't fully recovered mentally from his debut test pair against them in 1975, although that may be bollox of course.

I also held his self-imposed exile from 1982-1984 against him. And his refusal to tour Australia in 1985/86. I didn't view him as a world-beater prior to 1990, and I doubt whether many people saw things differently. Ironically, given the dent that the first 'rebel' tour to SA made in his test career, the second one in 1989 was probably the making of him as it left England with no serious alternatives at the top of the order, despite him being in his late 30s. Without it, his test career would probably have been over after the 1989 ashes, and that would have been that. Instead, we had his one truly glorious period from 1990 - 1993.
 
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zaremba

zaremba

Cricketer Of The Year
wpdavid said:
My view at the time was that he was obviously very good, but he was seriously frustrating. His performances against WI indicated that he was a class act, as did his performances for Essex - don't forget that in those days most of the best bowlers in the world were opening for various attacks in the county championship. However, he rarely did a thing against Australia until 1990/91. My theory was that before then he hadn't fully recovered mentally from his debut test pair against them in 1975, although that may be bollox of course.

I also held his self-imposed exile from 1982-1984 against him. And his refusal to tour Australia in 1985/86. I didn't view him as a world-beater prior to 1990, and I doubt whether many people saw things differently. Ironically, given the dent that the first 'rebel' tour to SA made in his test career, the second one in 1989 was probably the making of him as it left England with no serious alternatives at the top of the order, despite him being in his late 30s. Without it, his test career would probably have been over after the 1989 ashes, and that would have been that. Instead, we had his one truly glorious period from 1990 - 1993.
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A fine post.
 
I

Indusriver

Banned
except for the period between 1990-93, Gooch seems to be just an average batsmen. infact in the 1980's David Gower was much better.

Gooches over all average against Australia is 33, which is pretty average, nothing special and like mentioned earlier he was averaging 39 as of Dec 31 1989 overall
 
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