David Steele (cricketer)

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David Steele

Personal information

Full name

David Stanley Steele

Born

29 September 1941
Bradeley, Staffordshire, England

Nickname

Crime

Batting style

Right-handed

Bowling style

Slow left-arm orthodox

International information

National side

England

Test debut (cap 462)

31 July 1975 v Australia

Last Test

17 August 1976 v West Indies

Only ODI (cap 36)

26 August 1976 v West Indies

Domestic team information

Years

Team

1963–78

Northamptonshire

1979–81

Derbyshire

1982–84

Northamptonshire

Career statistics

Competition	Test	ODI	FC	LA
Matches	8	1	500	260
Runs scored	673	8	22,346	4,381
Batting average	42.06	8.00	32.47	23.05
100s/50s	1/5	0/0	30/117	1/20
Top score	106	8	140*	109
Balls bowled	88	6	36,693	3,323
Wickets	2	0	623	81
Bowling average	19.50	–	24.89	28.27
5 wickets in innings	0	0	26	0
10 wickets in match	0	n/a	3	n/a
Best bowling	1/1	0/9	8/29	4/21
Catches/stumpings	7/–	0/–	546/–	91/–

Source: ESPNcricinfo, 19 July 2013

David Stanley Steele (born 29 September 1941)^[1] is a former English international cricketer. Tony Greig picked him for England in 1975, when he was close to retirement from county cricket for Northamptonshire.

Steele, who was born in Bradeley, Staffordshire, England, was a middle-order batsman. In his eight Test matches, he played against fast bowlers including Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson for Australia; and Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel, and Vanburn Holder for the West Indies. His arrival followed a period of great difficulty for the national team, mired in a difficult 1975 Ashes series. It led to the infamous phrase that he was like a "bank clerk that went to war".^[2]

He was appointed as County Captain of Derbyshire in 1979 but resigned after six weeks. He played for the club from 1979 to 1981.

Life and career

Making his debut against Australia at Lord's in 1975, he got lost in the pavilion as he went out to bat. Steele went down one too many flights of stairs and found himself in the basement toilets.^[1] He managed to make the field of play without becoming the first Test batsman to be timed out.^[2] Once he did arrive at the crease, fast bowler Jeff Thomson gave him a typically Australian welcome. Eyeing Steele's prematurely greying hair at 33, Thomson asked: "Bloody hell, who've we got here, Groucho Marx?".^[3]

That summer however, Steele scored 50, 45, 73, 92, 39 and 66 against the Australians in his trademark staunch, courageous and steady manner.

The following year, he commenced against the even more fearsome fast bowling attack of the West Indies, by scoring a century at Trent Bridge. Oddly he was overlooked for that winter's tour to India, on the theory that he could not play spin bowlers. He duly returned to county cricket, and finished his career back at Northampton in 1984, having scored over 22,000 runs, of which 673 came at the top level of the sport.^[1]

Steele was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1975, and was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1976.

References

↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bateman, Colin (1993). If The Cap Fits. Tony Williams Publications. p. 155. ISBN 1-869833-21-X. |accessdate= requires |url= (help)
↑ 2.0 2.1 "Player Profile: David Steele". CricInfo. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
↑ The Independent news item Retrieved 28 April 2012

External links

Player profile: David Steele from ESPNcricinfo

Sporting positions
Preceded by Eddie Barlow	Derbyshire cricket captain 1979	Succeeded by Geoff Miller

Preceded by Brendan Foster	BBC Sports Personality of the Year 1975	Succeeded by John Curry

v t e BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award

1954–1959	1954 Christopher Chataway 1955 Gordon Pirie 1956 Jim Laker 1957 Dai Rees 1958 Ian Black 1959 John Surtees

1960–1969	1960 David Broome 1961 Stirling Moss 1962 Anita Lonsbrough 1963 Dorothy Hyman 1964 Mary Rand 1965 Tom Simpson 1966 Bobby Moore 1967 Henry Cooper 1968 David Hemery 1969 Ann Jones

1970–1979	1970 Henry Cooper 1971 HRH The Princess Anne 1972 Mary Peters 1973 Jackie Stewart 1974 Brendan Foster 1975 David Steele 1976 John Curry 1977 Virginia Wade 1978 Steve Ovett 1979 Sebastian Coe

1980–1989	1980 Robin Cousins 1981 Ian Botham 1982 Daley Thompson 1983 Steve Cram 1984 Torvill and Dean (Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean) 1985 Barry McGuigan 1986 Nigel Mansell 1987 Fatima Whitbread 1988 Steve Davis 1989 Nick Faldo

1990–1999	1990 Paul Gascoigne 1991 Liz McColgan 1992 Nigel Mansell 1993 Linford Christie 1994 Damon Hill 1995 Jonathan Edwards 1996 Damon Hill 1997 Greg Rusedski 1998 Michael Owen 1999 Lennox Lewis

2000–2009	2000 Steve Redgrave 2001 David Beckham 2002 Paula Radcliffe 2003 Jonny Wilkinson 2004 Kelly Holmes 2005 Andrew Flintoff 2006 Zara Phillips 2007 Joe Calzaghe 2008 Chris Hoy 2009 Ryan Giggs

2010–present	2010 Tony McCoy 2011 Mark Cavendish 2012 Bradley Wiggins 2013 Andy Murray

Persondata
Name	Steele, David
Alternative names
Short description	English Test and County cricketer
Date of birth	29 September 1941
Place of birth	Bradeley, Staffordshire, England
Date of death
Place of death

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