David Steele ex England cricketer (don't worry this is not a RIP )

Richard J

After the Bob Taylor thread I saw this on the BBC website about David Steele the 33 year old journeyman Northants batsman who unexpectedly got called up to the England test side in the 1975 Ashes series and exceeded expectations.I remember him being described as the bank clerk that went to war.

I hadn't realised he only played in 8 test matches .His average of 42 is pretty good when you consider that all of his tests were against against either Lillee and Thompson's Aussies and the legendary West Indies team with Holding ,Roberts ,Daniel, Holder and Julien.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/33343793

cfgs

He did ok out of that series for meat.

Algarveaddick

Sports personality of the year in '75 too...

Always a good one for Pointless.

Lincsaddick

He came in at Lords after Denness was sacked as captain, Fletcher was dropped (I think) and Gooch, batting in the middle order, had made a pair on his debut. Boycott was not playing as Lillee and Thomson had threatened to knock his block off and he was 'unavailable'.
Why did Steele not play more tests ? .. who knows .. the selection of teams during that era was mainly based on who you were .. Steele was perhaps 'the wrong sort' for continued selection after having saved the faces of a few by 'blunting' the fast bowlers of the Windies and Australia in a helmetless era. He was a fine, unfashionable player from an unfashionable county, pity that Tony Greig, the successor to Denness as captain, didn't have the balls nor the courtesy to insist on Steele's continued selection.

Pedro45

His main claim to fame was that on his Test debut, at Lords, he got "lost" on the way down from the home dressing room (he had only ever been in the away one previously) and took ages to appear on the pitch. He actually went down three flights of stairs rather than just the two he should have...he could have been timed out but wasn't. People interpreted this as him being scared, but he just dug in. He was nimble on his feet and didn't pull or hook very often, so used to just watch the bouncers whistle past without trouble. He was left out, I recall, for the Indian away series, as Fletcher (recalled as captain) reckoned he wasn't that good against spin, and never made it back into the team.

LenGlover

A young Steele would be ideal for the Ali role.

He was a good enough slow left arm bowler to get 50 wickets in a season a few times along with his customary 1,000 runs.

He was the epitome of the 'good' county player who, if only given a chance above the favoured few, could do it at a higher level. In those days a fair few players fell into that category.

Riviera

Steele still claims to this day that Grieg assured him he'd be on the tour to India in 76/77 to be followed by the prestigious Centenary Test in Melbourne. He says Grieg let him down and took Fletcher instead.