The chef retires

I'd go for great, to average 45 whilst opening the batting in England for half his career is some effort, if you look at the others above him in the stats none of them were openers and all played in countries where it tends to be easier to bat.

 

I'd consider him great too.

Such longevity is very very rare. When you consider his calm captaincy, the amount of catches he took, the straightforwardness to his interviews and media commitments, and I think we're much poorer without him. That's before you consider just how many runs he scored with frankly a pretty limited game. We have many players who can play more shots than he can. Yet he's got some huge scores, and as an opener too, so he's often had the most difficult conditions to face and the freshest bowlers.

To have played so many games consecutively, to be our top 100 getter, our top scorer by a country mile and so many catches. Great.

 

His Birthday is Christmas Day, never knew that.

But definitely a great, will be sorely missed

 

Definitely a great for me, 6th on the all time run scorers list and man of the series for our only win in Oz in my lifetime.

I was thinking recently with Jimmy closing in on Mcgrath's wicket record what an unbelievable achievement that is. For me Jimmy is England's greatest ever cricketer, would people agree with that or go Botham, Cook or somebody else?

 

Has to be Botham for me, more entertainment and could bat and bowl. THE ultimate all rounder

 

And that's exactly it Pompey, as an opener where so much pressure is brought to bear and for the most part he's handled it brilliantly.