Darren Gough

Darren Gough had a bulky frame unlike many other fast bowlers. This forced critics to link his physique to lack of fitness for a quickie early in his career, but he proved them wrong over the years by becoming one of the most successful bowlers England has ever seen.

The 5 foot 11 inch man made his first-class debut at the age of 19 for his home county Yorkshire. He was known to swing the ball both ways and was often termed as a skiddy customer with the ball. He stayed with Yorkshire for 15 years during which, in 1993, the club's foreign signing Richie Richardson, advised him to forget the critics on his broad frame and asked him to concentrate on raw pace. The West Indian legend's words boosted Gough's confidence and after a series of good performances, he broke into the national side in 1994 for the 50-over format. Soon after, he made his Test debut the same year as well. Eventually, despite an injury-marred career, he went on to become England's second highest wicket-taker in ODIs while he put his name in the ninth place in the chart for his country's top bowlers in Tests.

Gough's ability with the ball took him just 4 ODIs to get his maiden fifer. Throughout his 159-match ODI career, Gough assured his skipper at least close to one and a half wickets per match on average. He continued to take wickets at regular intervals and finished with 234 wickets which included ten 4-wicket hauls. In the process he became the first English bowler to go past 200 wickets in the ODI format. His best came against a visiting Australia at Lord's in 1997 where he picked up 5 wickets for 40 runs, thereby bagging his second and last fifer in his career. After injuring his shin in the home series against Pakistan, Gough announced his retirement from ODIs.

Gough was off to a brilliant start in Tests. He picked up four wickets in his debut game against New Zealand and backed it up with the bat scoring 65 runs. This made the English media term him as “the new Botham”. However, Gough did not sustain the pressure of becoming a fine all-rounder and lost his batting form after which he was considered as a bowler who can bat a bit. In his Test match career, he is best known for taking the 23rd hat-trick in Test history against Australia at Sydney in 1999. With 229 wickets in his career, including 9 fifers, Gough was forced to hang up his boots from the longest format due to a troublesome knee in 2003.

Gough could not play much of international T20 cricket as the shortest format was picking up its identity only by then and he played just 2 games - debuting against Australia and playing the last against Pakistan in 2006.

After a long stint at Yorkshire, Gough was forced to move to Essex due to family reasons, but he soon returned to his former club in 2007 stating,"They know I'll run through brick walls for Yorkshire. I've come home." He was named the skipper and his captaincy record was off to a sensational start with a number of wins. He registered the best bowling figures for Yorkshire in 11 years in June 2007 picking up 6/47 against Kent. A year later, Darren Gough decided to quit all forms of the game and ended his first-class career with 855 wickets in 248 games.