Just four months after Tony Greig passed away, it is doubly sad that cricket has today lost his immediate predecessor as England captain, Mike Denness. While the obituaries all remark upon his gentlemanly demeanour and classy batsmanship, I never actually met him and so cannot comment. The closest I got was taking a photo of a smiling Denness on the boundary at Chelmsford in a Sunday League match, and he certainly seemed a very affable character.
His tenure as England skipper was marked by a clash with Geoff Boycott in 1974. Of course, the Yorkshire opener could start an argument with his own shadow but in this case it was basically because Denness was Scottish, or that he wasn't good enough as a batsman or, especially, because Boycott wanted the job himself. Either way, England were roasted by Lillee, Thomson et al in 1974-75 and an innings defeat to the Aussies at Edgbaston the following summer ended both his captaincy and international career. Denness could hardly be blamed for that loss, nor the absent Boycott. Another batsman bagged a pair on his debut in that match, and went on to be one of England's most enduring opening batsmen of recent times: Graham Gooch!
Like a later captain, Mike Brearley, Denness wasn't a world-class batsman but his England statistics were not to be scoffed at. In his 28 Tests, 19 as skipper, he averaged almost 40, pretty good in those days, including four centuries. Curiously, they came in pairs, two against India in 1974 and then against the Aussies and New Zealand the following winter. His 188 at Melbourne contributed to a rare Ashes innings victory and was small compensation for the four previous defeats on that tour.
In a twenty-one year career, Mike played more than 500 first-class matches and 232 one-dayers, compiling more than 30,000 runs in total. For most of that time, his name was synonymous with Kent, and he led them with distinction in the early 1970s, his record clearly winning approval from the England selectors looking for a successor to Illingworth, Fletcher and Lewis. Along with the likes of Luckhurst, Knott and Underwood, he was a stalwart at Canterbury and was president of Kent CCC when he died. I'm not sure what prompted his move to Essex in the Seventies, when I saw him play, but his first county were to welcome him back later on after his controversial stint as an ICC referee earned him notoriety and vilification from Indians. He even had his effigy burned by fans after sanctioning six players, including Saint Sachin, in South Africa eleven years ago. Maybe Sir Geoffrey was sticking pins in a Denness doll at the same time.
Better to remember Mike Denness as an attractive cricketer, decent bloke and a man who served Kent, Essex, England - and Scotland - so admirably for so long.
