Cowdrey inducted in ICC's Hall of Fame

Bangalore: Colin Cowdrey was formally inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame before the lecture that bears his name at Lord’s, London on Wednesday evening.

The Hall of Fame, run in association with the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), recognises some of the truly great players from cricket’s long and illustrious history.

Cowdrey’s 21-year Test career for England spanned from 1954 to 1975 and in that time he scored 7,624 runs in 114 Tests averaging 44.06. He scored 22 centuries and 38 fifties and was the first player to appear in 100 Tests and passed fellow Hall of Famer Wally Hammond to become Test cricket’s leading run-scorer, a release said on Thursday.

The right-hand batsman captained England in 27 Tests, played 692 first-class matches scoring 42,719 runs at an average of 44.06 and remained heavily involved with the game after his playing career concluded at the age of 42.

Cowdrey was president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1986 and later became the first chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC), playing an integral part in the ICC’s history of separating the world’s governing body from the MCC.

His efforts in cricket were recognised in 1992 when he received a knighthood and later in 1997 he became the first English cricketer to be made a life peer, the release adds.

He was a passionate advocate of the concept of the spirit of cricket and was instrumental in embedding it into the laws of the game.

Cowdrey was born in Bangalore in India in 1932 and played cricket for Kent, the MCC and University of Oxford as well as representing his country. He was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1956. He died on December four, 2000.

Cowdrey’s son, Chris, the former England, Glamorgan and Kent player, received the cap on behalf of his father at the 2009 Cowdrey Lecture at Lord’s on Wednesday night. He said: “It is a proud moment for me to be here to accept this cap on behalf of my father.

"And how proud he would have been to be included in the ICC’s Cricket Hall of Fame, if only so he could challenge for a place in England’s top seven of all time.

"I think he’d be delighted by how the spirit of cricket has been embraced and how increasingly it is becoming more recognised as a means towards protecting everything that is good about our great game.

"I’d like to thank the ICC very much on behalf of my father and may the spirit of cricket live on," he said.

ICC President David Morgan, who presented the cap, said, “It is great honour to have presented Chris with his father’s cap and I cannot think of a more fitting occasion to have done so than at the Cowdrey Lecture last night.

"Lord Cowdrey was part of the foundation of the ICC in its current form and to him we are truly grateful for the hard work and efforts he put toward to the great game of cricket.

"While he was a fine batsman, as is clear from his impressive record in Test and other first-class cricket, he was a top-class administrator and one who was particularly helpful to me during the period when the England and Wales Cricket Board was being formed."