Christopher Stuart Cowdrey (born 20 October 1957) is a former English cricketer. Cowdrey played for

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

. He is the eldest son of the cricketer and

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

, Colin Cowdrey, Baron Cowdrey of Tonbridge. He was educated at

Tonbridge School Tonbridge School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for boys aged 13–18) in Tonbridge, Kent, England, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde (sometimes spelt Judd). It is a member of the Eton Group and has clo ...

Life and career

After a good season for Kent in

County cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

in 1984, Cowdrey was selected for England's 1984–85 tour of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, led by his friend

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 T ...

, ostensibly taking

Ian Botham Ian Terence Botham, Baron Botham (born 24 November 1955) is an English cricket commentator, member of the House of Lords, a former cricketer who has been chairman of Durham County Cricket Club since 2017 and charity fundraiser. Hailed as one of ...

's place after Botham had opted out of the tour. In the First Test in Bombay he was fielding at short leg when Gower asked him to bowl. Although he forgot to take off his shin pads he bowled

Kapil Dev Kapildev Ramlal Nikhanj (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Hindi and Urdu, əpil deːʋborn 6 January 1959) is an Indian former cricket team captain. He is regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders in the history of cricket, he was a Fast bowling, ...

with his fourth ball, the 19th England bowler to take a wicket in his first over. His father was listening to

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BB ...

in his car and was so surprised that he drove the wrong way down a one-way street. Following the tour, where he had scored 96 runs and taken four wickets Cowdrey was not selected by England until 1988, and the infamous " summer of four captains". In that year Cowdrey, who had taken Kent to the top of the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

table, was given the job to lead the Test side in the fourth Test of a five match series against the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. The West Indies by that point were 2–0 up, claiming a convincing innings and 156 run victory in the previous test. "We believe Cowdrey's style of leadership is what is now required", said England's chairman of selectors Peter May, who was also Cowdrey's godfather, amid charges of favouritism. England lost heavily by ten wickets, and his chance to prove his detractors wrong in the final Test never came, as he was injured after the one appearance. Kent would also be pipped to the 1988 County Championship by

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

by one point. He was never chosen to captain or play for England again. A newspaper article penned by Cowdrey landed him in trouble in the corridors at

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket List of Test cricket grounds, venue in St John's Wood, Westminster. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex C ...

and, in 1990, he joined a rebel tour to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Colin and Chris Cowdrey were only the second father and son combination to have both captained England, emulating Frank and George Mann. He was captain of Kent from 1986 until 1990. He retired in 1992 after a single season at Glamorgan, and has since been a broadcaster for

TalkSport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

, as well as the occasional project with

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. In 1986, Cowdrey produced a volume of autobiography, appropriately titled ''Good Enough'', taken from his usual response to comments that he was not as good as his father. Cricket writer Colin Bateman stated, "Cowdrey was fortunate to play Test cricket at all, but he did not deserve the shabby treatment which ended his brief England career". Cowdrey's son Fabian Cowdrey was awarded a first-team contract at Kent in October 2011, before his May 2012 debut, becoming the fourth Cowdrey to play for the county side and the third generation of the same family to feature on a Kent team sheet.

Honours

* He was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

in 2011.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cowdrey, Chris England One Day International cricketers England Test cricket captains Glamorgan cricketers Kent cricket captains People from Farnborough, London Cricketers from the London Borough of Bromley 1957 births Living people People educated at Tonbridge School Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers English cricketers D. H. Robins' XI cricketers Sons of life peers England Test cricketers 20th-century English sportsmen