Dennis Amiss

Dennis Leslie Amiss MBE (born 7 April 1943)[1] is a former English cricketer and cricket administrator. He played for both Warwickshire and England. Amiss is known for scoring the first ever century in ODI history, which was also his debut match. A right-handed batsman, he was a stroke maker particularly through extra cover and midwicket – his two favourite areas to score runs. He was an accomplished batsman in all forms of the game. He averaged 42.86 in first-class, 35.06 in List-A, 46.30 in Tests and 47.72 in One Day Internationals. In first-class cricket he scored 102 centuries, and his England record amassed over 50 Tests ranks him with the best England has produced.[1]

Dennis Amiss
Personal information
Full name
Dennis Leslie Amiss
Born (1943-04-07) 7 April 1943
Harborne, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England
NicknameSacker
Height5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
BattingRight-handed
BowlingLeft arm medium
Slow left arm orthodox
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 434)18 August 1966 v West Indies
Last Test12 July 1977 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 12)24 August 1972 v Australia
Last ODI6 June 1977 v Australia
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1960–1987Warwickshire
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 50 18 658 404
Runs scored 3,612 859 43,423 12,519
Batting average 46.30 47.72 42.86 35.06
100s/50s 11/11 4/1 102/212 15/77
Top score 262* 137 262* 137
Balls bowled – – 1,153 129
Wickets – – 18 2
Bowling average – – 39.88 62.50
5 wickets in innings – – 0 0
10 wickets in match – – 0 0
Best bowling – – 3/21 1/15
Catches/stumpings 24/– 2/– 417/– 105/–
Source: Cricinfo, 28 October 2009

After retiring as a player in 1987, he served Warwickshire as Chairman of the Cricket Committee, and he followed David Heath as chief executive from 1994 until 2006.[2] In 1992 he was selected as an England selector.[1] In November 2007 he became the deputy chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board; in August 2011, The Daily Telegraph described his role on the board as providing "cricketing knowledge and expertise [that] complemented Clarke’s business skills."[3]

Early years

Amiss was born at Harborne in Birmingham. He suffered a serious back injury whilst playing football in his teenage years, which entailed him starting each day of his sporting life undergoing stretching routines to loosen up.[1]

England career

Amiss made his Test debut for England in the fifth Test of the 1966 series with West Indies, and he proved an accomplished Test match batsman. He was one of the first batsmen to use a protective helmet.[4][1] In scoring 3,612 Test runs, Amiss made eleven half-centuries and eleven centuries, including two double centuries against the West Indies. His highest Test match score, also his highest first-class score, was 262 not out against the West Indies in the 1973–74 Kingston Test, an innings that saved the Test match for England after they conceded a first innings lead of 230. The next highest score in England's innings was 38. After being dropped by England in 1975, he made a successful return against the West Indies at the Oval in the final Test of 1976, although his 203 in the first innings did not prevent England losing the match. Amiss's last Test came in 1977 when he was left out to make way for Geoff Boycott's return from self-imposed exile.

His former Warwickshire teammate, Jack Bannister, stated "Dennis was always tinkering with his game, he was a bigger perfectionist than Colin Cowdrey".[1]

Amiss was also a handy One Day International batsman scoring 859 runs, including four centuries and one half-century, with a top score of 137 against India which is still England's fourth highest individual score in the Cricket World Cup, behind the 158 scored by Andrew Strauss against India in 2011, Jason Roy's 153 against Bangladesh in 2019, and Eoin Morgan's 148 against Afghanistan at the same tournament.[5] He has the distinction of scoring the first ever One Day International century (103 in only the second One Day International on 24 August 1972) which is also the first instance of a debutant scoring a century in ODI. Amiss along with Keith Fletcher is also credited to have shared the first ever partnership of hundred runs in the same match.[6][7] He ended with an ODI batting average of 47.72, which excepting those players to have played fewer than five times, remains the highest of any England batsman who has completed his career. The still-active Kevin Pietersen averaged over 50 throughout the first 60 matches of his ODI career up until September 2007, but that figure had fallen to under 41 by June 2011.

Amiss played World Series Cricket in the late 1970s in Australia; during the 1978 World Series Cricket tournament, he became the first player to wear a batting helmet regularly.[4][8]

Amiss was banned from Test cricket for three years for taking part in the first 'rebel' tour of South Africa in 1982.

Honours

Amiss was selected as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1975.[9]

Amiss was awarded an MBE in 1988; in 2007 he received a Doctor of the University from the University of Birmingham.[2]

A graph of Dennis Amiss's Test performances.

Records

Dennis Amiss is the first player in ODI cricket to have scored a century on both his debut and in his last match, the only other being Desmond Haynes.[10] On 7 June 1975 at Lord's in the first match of the Prudential World Cup (which was also the very first Cricket World Cup to have been held) Amiss smashed 137 runs in just 147 balls against India powered by 18 boundaries. His innings provided enough leverage for England to post a very imposing and improbable target of 335 for India to be chased down within a span of 60 overs. It was also the first time that a team would score 300 or more runs in an ODI match. The match also featured the infamous and notorious ODI innings of Sunil Gavaskar who in reply to the nearly unreachable target set by England scored an unbeaten 36 in 174 balls with just one boundary to adorn his innings.[11]

Others:

Amiss has shown gratitude to the Indian trio of Bishen Bedi, Venkatraghavan and Abid Ali who had bowled to him in practice which enabled Amiss to get adjusted to Indian condition, especially spin bowling. (Reference: Chapter 3, 'My Debt to Indians' - "In Search of Runs")

Dennis Amiss has written an Autobiography *In Search of Runs" in association with Michael Carey.

References
  1. Bateman, Colin (1993). If The Cap Fits. Tony Williams Publications. pp. 12–13. ISBN 1-869833-21-X.
  2. "University of Birmingham Honorary Graduands for July 2007". 10 July 2007. Retrieved 26 November 2014. Dennis Amiss has had a career in professional cricket spanning more than 40 years at both domestic and international levels. He gained 51 England caps between 1966 and 1977, scoring a total of 3,612 runs. He was the Chief Executive of Warwickshire County Cricket Club between 1994 and 2006 and is now Director of the England and Wales Cricket Board. He was awarded an MBE in 1988.
  3. Bolton, Paul (11 August 2011). "Dennis Amiss set to stand down as ECB deputy chairman and retire from cricket administration". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 26 November 2014. Amiss narrowly beat former Lancashire chairman Jack Simmons in a ballot in November 2007 to become right-hand man to ECB chairman Giles Clarke but he was re-elected unopposed in January last year.
  4. "The bravery of the batsman". The Economist. 26 November 2014. Retrieved 26 November 2014. until the late 1970s helmets were unheard of; batsmen wore nothing to protect their noggins except a cloth cap. When they began to creep into the game—Dennis Amiss, an English batsman, is usually cited as the first to wear one regularly during the 1978 World Series Cricket tournament—they were essentially adapted motorcycle helmets. Batsmen who donned them were sometimes mocked as cowards.
  5. "Cricket Records – Records – World Cup – High scores – ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo. Archived from the original on 24 October 2012.
  6. "1st ODI: England v Australia at Manchester, Aug 24, 1972 – Cricket Scorecard – ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo.
  7. Frindall, Bill (2009). Ask Bearders. BBC Books. pp. 153–154. ISBN 978-1-84607-880-4.
  8. Briggs, Simon. "Amiss unearths helmet that changed the game". telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 15 January 2013.
  9. "Dennis Amiss". Cricket Archive. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  10. "Records – One-Day Internationals – Batting records – Hundred in last match – ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo.
  11. "1st Match: England v India at Lord's, 7 June 1975 – Cricket Scorecard – ESPN Cricinfo". Cricinfo.
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