Mike Denness

Mike Denness passed away aged 72 after succumbing to cancer.

http://www.kentcricket.co.uk/news/kent-cricket-saddened-by-the-death-of-mike-denness

RIP

Shame man. RIP him. Best Scottish cricketer.

Sad to hear. A decent cricketer, and a more decent man.

RIP.

R.I.P.

Pity his career finished the way it did.

ah, not another one gone

I watched him make that 188 or whatever in Melbourne; it could best be described as a generally stodgy innings punctuated by the occasional (mostly back foot) beautiful cover drive.

RIP him.

re-united with Brian Luckhurst, his old Kent opening partner

RIP...a thoroughly decent and competitive cricketer

Like Brearley, Denness was thrown in at the deep end as England captain with very little Test experience, mainly acquired as Tony Lewis' v-c on the 1972-3 tour of India & Pakistan but with lots of county experience - he was 33 when finally handed the England captaincy although he only took over from Colin Cowdrey at Kent in 1972.

He was unlucky to come up against the Thommo-Lillee combination on the 1974-5 tour and is the only England captain to have dropped himself from a touring side for form reasons as he did before the 4th Test at the SCG, handing the captaincy to John Edrich - Jardine offered to do so on the Bodyline Tour but his offer was declined by the tour management and the team.

He also made the wrong choice in his final Test at Edgbaston in July 1975, choosing to insert Australia and then getting the worst of a rain-affected strip, England again falling victim to Thomson. Denness' last Test was also notable for witnessing the inauspicious debut of Graham Gooch who became the first England captain to defeat the West Indies at Sabina Park in March 1990 after Denness had done so at Port of Spain (largely thanks to Boycott & Greig) 16 years earlier.

Denness is one of 10 cricketers born in Scotland who have appeared in Tests, 8 of whom have done so for England, 1 for South Africa and 1 for Australia.