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Richard has cheated a bit here; I am not sure that his pick is really still eligible to play international cricket, but it made me chuckle, so here we go:

Choosing a favourite cricketer is hard when you regularly write about cricket. Your instinctive reaction is to criticise, not to praise. And when you follow a cricket team, you instinctively hate everyone who plays against you, no matter who they are. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that my favourite is a cricketer from my childhood. A man who hit his first ball in Test cricket to the boundary with a shot as sublime as any he played in his long career. A captain who won the Ashes. A feared cover fielder. A player who could inspire awe and utter frustration in the same innings. And a man famed for buzzing a tour match in a tiger moth. There only ever was, and only ever will be, one like him. David Ivon Gower.