Norman Gifford

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Norman Gifford

England
Personal information
Batting style Left-handed batsman (LHB)
Bowling style Slow left-arm orthodox (SLA)
Career statistics
Tests ODIs
Matches 15 2
Runs scored 179 0
Batting average 16.27 0.00
100s/50s 0/0 0/0
Top score 25* 0
Overs 514 20
Wickets 33 4
Bowling average 31.09 12.50
5 wickets in innings 1 0
10 wickets in match 0 n/a
Best bowling 5/55 4/23
Catches/stumpings 8/0 1/0

As of 1 June 2005
Source: [1]


Contents

[edit] Early Career

Norman Gifford was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He was born on 30 March 1940 in Ulverston, Lancashire (now Cumbria).

Gifford served his apprenticeship as a professional cricketer in the Worcestershire second team during 1959, and when in May 1960 he took 2-25 from 18 overs in a drawn Second XI match against Kent, he was called up to the first team for the game against the same opposition that began the very next day. Gifford took four wickets in Kent's first innings, but Worcestershire collapsed to their second-lowest ever score of 25 all out on their way to an innings defeat. In the next game against Cambridge University Gifford took ten wickets in the match, including second-innings analysis of 15.5-7-18-6.

[edit] Recognition

Gifford finished 1960 with 41 wickets at an average of 17.90, but this only hinted at the success he was to enjoy the following year. 1961 proved to be the most productive season of Gifford's career as he took 133 wickets. In July 1961, he was notified he was on the long list to tour India and Pakistan with the MCC side but was not selected for the final party. In compensation he toured Rhodesia and Pakistan with an International XI. He was again fairly successful in the 1962 and 1963 seasons, with 92 and 72 wickets respectively, and in 1962 was selected for the Players in their final match against the Gentlemen before the distinction between amateur and professional cricketers was abolished.

[edit] International Selection

1964 was to be the year when Gifford really broke through as he was selected for the Second Ashes Test at Lord's in June. Although the game was ruined by rain, with no play at all possible on the first two days, Gifford had time to impress, returning miserly analyses of 12-6-14-2 in the first innings and 17-9-17-1 in the second. He was retained for the Third Test at Headingley, but took only two wickets as Australia recorded a comfortable win. It was seven years before he was recalled.

[edit] County Cricketer

Worcestershire's won the County Championship that year, and retained their title in 1965. Gifford was instrumental in these successes, and although he reached 100 wickets only in 1964, between 1963 and 1968 he averaged under 20 with the ball every season. 1968 brought him his career-best bowling figures, when he took 8-28 (albeit in a losing cause) against Yorkshire in July.

[edit] International Recall

Gifford was recalled to the England team in 1971 in favour of Underwood for the Second Test against the Pakistanis. he was in and out of the team during the next two years. Derek Underwood in Beating the Bat, felt England captain Ray Illingworth preferred Gifford. he toured the Indian sub-continent in 1973-4.

He played two more Tests against New Zealand the following summer, but thereafter the selectors' minds turned decisively towards Underwood and Gifford never played Test cricket again. He contented himself with consistent displays in county cricket, leading Worcestershire to another County Championship triumph in 1974, for which he was named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. Latterly he played for Worcestershire's great rivals Warwickshire, whom he joined for the 1983 season. That year he took 104 first-class wickets, the final time he was to reach the 100 mark.

[edit] One Day Captain

Extraordinarily, however, Gifford's England career was not quite over, for he made his One Day International debut - as captain in the absence of David Gower, who was being rested - at the age of 44 in the 1984/85 Rothmans Four-Nations Cup contest in Sharjah. England lost both their matches, against Australia and Pakistan, but Gifford showed that he still had the ability in the second game when he took 4-23 including the prize wicket of Imran Khan for a first-ball duck. Despite this performance, however, these two games proved to be the extent of Gifford's brief ODI career.

[edit] Later Years

Gifford continued to play for Warwickshire into his late forties, and when he finally retired from playing at the age of 48 in 1988, he had taken 2,068 first-class wickets. The reduction in the amount of first-class cricket played in recent years means that he is almost certain to remain the last man to have broken the 2,000 mark. Never much of a batsman, he made only three half-centuries in more than 800 innings, his 7,000 runs coming at an average of just 13. After retirement, Gifford went into coaching and became coach of first Sussex and then Durham.

[edit] Teams

[edit] International

[edit] English county

[edit] Other first-class

  • DB Close's XI
  • England B
  • International Wanderers
  • International XI
  • MCC
  • Players
  • World XI

[edit] Career highlights

[edit] Tests

[edit] One Day International

  • ODI debut: vs Australia, Sharjah, 1984/85
  • Last ODI: vs Pakistan, Sharjah, 1984/85
    • Highest score: 0 vs Pakistan, Sharjah 1984/85
    • Best bowling: 4-23 vs Pakistan, Sharjah 1984/85
    • ODI captaincy record: 2 matches; 0 wins, 2 losses

[edit] First-class

[edit] List A Limited Overs

[edit] External links