Graham Gooch

Graham Alan Gooch is a former cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation. Gooch made his debut in Test cricket in 1975 at 21 against the touring Australia side captained by Ian Chappell. His career blossomed later after being appointed captain, a position he held twice: firstly, and briefly, at the end of the \"summer of four captains\" in 1988. Gower was thus returned as captain for the losing 1989 Ashes series - in which, for a second time, Gooch\'s loss of form with the bat resulted in his being dropped, by his own request. 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. As of 2011, this is the only instance in any first-class cricket of a batsman scoring 300 and 100 in two innings of the same match. In 1990 Gooch was awarded Professional Cricketers\' Association Player of the Year. Gooch made his debut for Essex in 1973 at the age of 19, and played for the county until his retirement as a player in 1997. For Essex, Gooch scored 120 in the 1979 Benson and Hedges Cup final against Surrey, a match which saw Essex win a major domestic trophy for the first time in their history. Gooch holds numerous Essex batting records: in particular he scored the most first-class runs in a season and made more first-class centuries (94) for the county than any other player. Through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, he became the most prolific run scorer of all time with 67,057 runs. He is the leading Test run scorer for England, and is one of only twenty-five players to have scored over 100 first-class centuries. He has the most runs in a career in List A cricket which totals 22211 runs. In 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. He is currently the batting coach for the England cricket team, a role he has performed since November 2009.