John David Bannister (23 August 1930 – 23 January 2016) was an English cricket commentator and former

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

er who played for

Warwickshire County Cricket Club Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Warwickshire. Its T20 team is called the Birmingham Bears. Founde ...

. He was, for many years, a BBC television cricket commentator and later the Talksport radio

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

correspondent.

Early life

Bannister was born in

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunians ...

, Staffordshire, England and went to

King Edward VI Five Ways school King Edward VI Five Ways (KEFW) is a highly selective co-educational state grammar school for ages 11–18 in Bartley Green, Birmingham, England. One of the seven establishments of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI, it is a volunt ...

in Birmingham.

Playing career

He played professionally on the

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

scene for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

as a fast-medium bowler, taking 1198 first-class

wickets In cricket, the term wicket has several meanings: * It is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch. The fielding team's players can hit the wicket with the ball in a number of ways to get a batsman out. * ...

in a career that lasted from 1950 to 1969. Against the

Combined Services cricket team The Combined Services cricket team represents the British Armed Forces. The team played at first-class level in England for more than forty years in the mid-twentieth century. Their first first-class match was against Gentlemen of England at ...

for Warwickshire at the

Mitchells and Butlers Mitchells & Butlers plc (also referred to as "M&B") runs circa 1,784 managed pubs, bars and restaurants throughout the United Kingdom. The company's headquarters are in Birmingham, England. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange an ...

ground in Birmingham in 1959, Bannister took all 10 Services wickets in an innings for 41 runs. These remain the best bowling figures in an innings for Warwickshire.

After cricket

Together with

Fred Rumsey Frederick Edward Rumsey (born 4 December 1935) is an English former cricketer who founded the Professional Cricketers Association (PCA) in 1967. He played five Test cricket, Test matches for England cricket team, England against Australia, Sout ...

he was instrumental in setting up the

Professional Cricketers' Association The Professional Cricketers' Association is the representative body of past and present first-class cricketers in England and Wales, founded in 1967 by former England fast bowler Fred Rumsey (when it was known as the Cricketers' Association). In t ...

in 1967 which he served in various capacities for 20 years, notably in helping setup up the Professional Cricketer's Pension Scheme. Bannister worked as a bookmaker in Wolverhampton, which was taken over by his daughter as his media career took off.

Media career

He was a familiar voice on BBC TV's cricket coverage from 1984 through to 1994 firstly as a summariser then moving on to commentating in 1988.

David Gower David Ivon Gower (born 1 April 1957) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who was captain of the England cricket team during the 1980s. Described as one of the most stylish left-handed batsmen of his era, Gower played 117 Te ...

joined the team in 1994 and eventually replaced Bannister the following summer, but Bannister continued to commentate on

Natwest Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. La ...

and Sunday League games until 1999, and had a full role at the BBC's coverage of the 1999 Cricket World Cup. In later life, he provided commentary on and summaries of England international cricket matches on talkSPORT. During the 1995 South Africa vs England test match series in South Africa, he promised he would eat a newspaper if South Africa won. He eventually did, when South Africa won. For many years he wrote the highly regarded cricket column in the '' Birmingham Post''.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bannister, Jack 1930 births 2016 deaths English cricket commentators English cricketers Cricketers from Wolverhampton Warwickshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Minor Counties cricketers North v South cricketers Cricketers who have taken ten wickets in an innings English male non-fiction writers BBC sports presenters and reporters People educated at King Edward VI Five Ways