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Graham Alan Gooch, (born 23 July 1953) is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsman of his generation, and through a career spanning from 1973 until 1997, he became the most prolific run scorer of all time, with 67,057 runs across first-class and limited-overs games. His List A cricket tally of 22,211 runs is also a record. In 1992, he became the first cricketer to lose 3 finals of the Cricket World Cup and is currently the only such player. He is one of only twenty-five players to have scored over 100 first-class centuries. He was a part of the English squads which finished as runners-up at the 1979 Cricket World Cup, as runners-up at the 1987 Cricket World Cup and as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
Internationally, despite being banned for three years following a rebel tour to ostracized South Africa, Gooch is the third highest Test cricket run scorer for England. His playing years spanned much of the period of domination by the West Indies, against whom his mid-forties batting average is regarded as extremely creditable. His score of 154 against them at Headingley in 1991 is regarded as one of the greatest centuries of all time by many critics and former players. His career-best score of 333 came against India at Lord's. In that match, he also scored a century in the second innings, 123, for a match total of 456, which remains the highest aggregate in a test match. He was the first player to make 20 Test appearances at Lord's. As captain, Matthew Engel noted, "his fanatical fitness and work-ethic gave the team more purpose than it had shown in a decade."
After 118 Tests, aged 42, he retired into coaching and as team selector, before becoming a commentator. In 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He returned to coach Essex, before becoming England batting coach in 2012.
Gooch played first-class cricket regularly between 1973 and 1997. Famous for his upright stance, a high bat-lift and heavy bat he became one of the most prolific run scorers top-class cricket has ever seen. On 8 November 2011, he received an honorary award from the University of East London.
Gooch had a further hiatus in his career when he went on the controversial 1982 South African rebel tour, which resulted in all of the players concerned, including Geoff Boycott, Alan Knott and Bob Woolmer, being banned from Test cricket for three years. Geoffrey Boycott was generally perceived as the key player organising the tour party but it was Graham Gooch as captain of the team who gained the most media attention and in some cases vilification. Gooch was not handed the captaincy until the team arrived in South Africa at the beginning of March. It could be argued that more attention was on Gooch however as he was reaching his peak as a Test player, others were in the twilight years of their cricket careers and so the ban was arguably felt more acutely by the captain. Gooch claimed in the film "Out of the Wilderness" that 'others' decided he "had no place in England cricket", hence his decision to join the tour.
Returning for the summer of 1990, Gooch had a golden summer both as batsman and captain against India and New Zealand, scoring runs seemingly at will. Gooch scored a record 456 runs in the Lord's Test against India in 1990, 333 in the first innings and 123 in the second. Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka (in 2014) is the only other player to score a triple century in the first innings and a century in the second innings. His aggregate of 456 for the match remains a world record for a Test match, as does his aggregate of 752 for the 3-match series. Tests – Most Runs in Match from Cricinfo Both series were won, and in 1990 Gooch was awarded the Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year.
The winter tour of Australia did not, however, go according to plan, England losing 3–0 despite holding first-innings leads in the first two tests (both of which were lost), although Gooch scored a marvellous hundred chasing an improbable total in the drawn 4th test.
Gooch had a public falling-out with David Gower, the England batsman, particularly after Gower hired a vintage aircraft and 'buzzed' the ground where England was playing during the unsuccessful tour of Australia in 1990/91. Gooch contributed to the decision to omit Gower from England's tour of India in 1993, which proved so controversial that an extraordinary vote of no confidence in the selectors was passed at the MCC. Gower never played another Test, lending an ironic edge to Gooch's surpassing him as England's leading run scorer in the 1993 Ashes series. It is this relationship between the two men that perhaps highlights best the differences between their approaches to the game, as Gower himself identified in 1995 in an interview in The Independent "I was never destined to be on the ball 100 per cent of the time. I don't have the same ability that Graham Gooch has, to produce something very close to his best every time he plays.'
In 1991 at Headingley against the West Indies he scored a match-winning 154 not out, carrying his bat throughout England's second innings against a highly rated pace attack, in overcast conditions on an unpredictable pitch, while only two of his colleagues reached double figures in a total of 252. The veteran sportswriter Frank Keating rated this as the finest Test innings he had ever seen in England. This opinion was backed up by the ICC rankings, which listed it as the highest-ranking innings of all time at any venue. In the rest of the series (drawn 2–2), Gooch was one of England's most consistent run-scorers, although no further centuries followed.
Gooch made a habit of leading by example, his batting average as captain (58.6) being almost twice his average in the ranks (36). New Zealand were beaten in the winter tour of 1991–92, the decisive Second Test including another Gooch century (which he described as his worst ever, but his luckiest). He also led England to the World Cup final later that winter, and batted well during the 1992 series defeat by Pakistan – again, his runs contributing to England's series-levelling victory in the fourth Test.
After the fourth Test match of the 1993 Ashes series, and with England now 3–0 down in the series, he resigned as captain: the job being given to his fellow opening batsman, Mike Atherton. He continued playing for England for a couple of years, notably scoring another double century against New Zealand in 1994, and retired from test cricket as England's all-time highest run scorer. Over his 118 Test career, Gooch played with a record 113 different teammates.
Gooch also bowled occasional medium bowler, and took over 200 first-class wickets. He could be a prodigious swinger of the ball if conditions suited. In dead matches he could sometimes be seen doing impressions of fellow professionals' bowling styles.
Upon his retirement, Christopher Martin-Jenkins wrote an article in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack arguing that Gooch was the all-time highest run scorer in top level cricket. He scored 44,846 runs in all first-class cricket at an average of 49.01, including 128 centuries. (A number of players have scored more first-class runs.) Martin-Jenkins took into consideration Gooch's List A matches, in which he scored a further 22,211 runs, itself a world record. 10,000 or More Runs in ListA Matches , CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 September 2006
In November 2009 Gooch was selected as a "temporary" batting coach for the impending four test tour of South Africa and to support ex-Essex colleague, Head England Coach Andy Flower.
He has since remained as England's batting coach on a permanent basis, continuing this role for the 2010 series against Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the winter Ashes series against Australia in Australia. Double-centurion Alastair Cook (at the first test at the Gabba in Brisbane) hailed Gooch's influence on England's and his own batting prowess. Gooch subsequently has supervised England's batting (or 'run-scoring', as Ian Bell has noted Gooch refers to it) throughout their rise to number 1 in the Test cricket ICC Rankings. Prior to Gooch taking over, English batsmen had scored 6 test double-centuries in 15 years. 15 months after he became the batting coach, England had already beaten that total.
In March 2012 Gooch took the full-time role as England Batting coach which came in the wake of the disappointing three-match Test series against Pakistan, in which England were beaten 3–0, largely down to the failure of their batsmen. "I am delighted to be taking on the role of England batting coach on a full-time basis," said Gooch, "I will now have the opportunity to spend a lot more time with the players and other coaches both in the build-up to series and during the series themselves."
In the mid-1990s Gooch began promoting hairpieces for a London-based clinic, as well as the Australian-based Advanced Hair Studio. Two licensed computer games were made by Audiogenic, Graham Gooch's Test Cricket in 1985 and Graham Gooch World Class Cricket in 1993.
He made a one-off return to first-class cricket in July 2000, just a few days before his 47th birthday, when he captained Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) against New Zealand A at The Parks. It was not a successful comeback: Gooch made only 0 and 5 in the game.
In 2007 he announced his intention to compete in a beach cricket competition against Courtney Walsh's Team and Allan Border's team.
In 2011 Gooch received an Honorary Doctorate of Arts from the University of East London.
Graham Gooch is a West Ham United supporter. In 2014, he was appointed patron of The Rob George Foundation.
| Australia | 42 | 2632 | 33.31 | 196 | 4 / 16 |
| India | 19 | 1725 | 55.64 | 333 | 5 / 8 |
| New Zealand | 15 | 1148 | 52.18 | 210 | 4 / 3 |
| Pakistan | 10 | 683 | 42.68 | 135 | 1 / 5 |
| Sri Lanka | 3 | 376 | 62.66 | 174 | 1 / 1 |
| West Indies | 26 | 2197 | 44.83 | 154* | 5 / 13 |
| South Africa | 3 | 139 | 23.16 | 33 | 0 / 0 |
| Overall | 118 | 8900 | 42.58 | 333 | 20 / 46 |
| Australia | 32 | 1395 | 46.50 | 136 | 4 / 9 |
| India | 17 | 420 | 26.25 | 115 | 1 / 1 |
| New Zealand | 16 | 713 | 50.92 | 112* | 1 / 4 |
| Pakistan | 16 | 517 | 32.31 | 142 | 1 / 1 |
| Sri Lanka | 7 | 303 | 43.28 | 84 | 0 / 4 |
| West Indies | 32 | 881 | 30.37 | 129* | 1 / 4 |
| South Africa | 1 | 2 | 2.00 | 2 | 0 / 0 |
| Overall | 125 | 4290 | 36.98 | 142 | 8 / 23 |
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