2024 was another memorable year in the world of cricket, but sadly it also marked the final innings for some of our greatest cricketers. Let’s take a little time to remember four greats of the game who left us for good in 2024.
Ian Redpath MBE
If you were compiling a list of players that you’d want to have batting to save your life, then Ian Redpath’s name would surely be on it. He was a fierce competitor, tenacious, blessed with a sound technique, and had great powers of concentration and an even better temperament.
Redpath never gave his wicket away without a fight and was always a prized scalp for the opposition.
After several productive seasons for Victoria in the Sheffield Shield, Redpath was called into the Australian team for the second Test of the South African tour of Australia at the MCG on New Year’s Day in 1964, scored 97 runs in the first innings against the likes of Peter Pollock and Joe Partridge, and put on a match-winning opening stand of 219 runs with fellow Victorian Bill Lawry.
Redpath went on to play a total of 66 Tests for Australia over the next 12 years, primarily as an opener, and scored over 4700 Test runs at the very healthy average of 43.45, notching eight Test centuries and 31 half centuries along the way. He was also a very good slip fielder and served as vice-captain to both Ian and Greg Chappell during his career.
He made a characteristically stubborn exit from the Test arena against the West Indies in his final appearance for Australia in 1976, batting most of the day in stifling conditions at the MCG to score his third century of the series, and then backed that up with 70 runs in the second innings to secure victory for his team.
Ian Redpath. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
As impressive as his last Test was, for me, the innings that best typified Redpath’s dogged determination and “team first” attitude was the day he carried his bat in the second innings of the second Test of Australia’s tour of NZ in 1974, scoring 159 not out in nearly six hours at the crease.
Ian Redpath passed away in December 2024 aged 83.
Graham Thorpe MBE
Somewhat surprisingly, Graham Thorpe had to wait patiently to be called into the English side after debuting for Surrey at the age of 18, but after four years in the England A squad he finally got his Test chance in 1993, and grabbed it with both hands, becoming the first English batsman to score a Test century on debut since Frank Hayes some 20 years earlier.
Unlike Hayes though, Thorpe’s debut effort against the likes of Merv Hughes and Shane Warne was no flash in the pan, and he went on to establish himself as one of England’s most reliable Test batsmen over the next decade, comfortable against either pace or spin, and always keen to take the attack to the opposition bowlers.
My favorite memory of Thorpe was his batting in the second innings of the second Test against NZ in Christchurch in 2002, where he scored 200 not out off just 231 balls, to give England a seemingly unassailable lead of 549 runs.
Incredibly, NZ all-rounder Nathan Astle then flailed the English attack to post the fastest double century ever, hammering 200 runs in just 153 balls before finally being dismissed for 222 to give England victory by 98 runs. An unbelievable game.
Thorpe played 100 Tests for England, scoring 6744 runs at an average of 44.66, including 16 centuries and 39 half centuries.
Great cricketer that he was, Thorpe’s shambolic private life was great fodder for the English press, and this ultimately affected both his performances on the field and, sadly, his mental health.
Graham Thorpe during the tour of Australia in 1998. (Photo: Getty Images)
Graeme Thorpe passed away in August 2024 aged 55. Gone way too soon.
Derek Underwood MBE
If you ever wondered what the term “sticky wicket” meant but were too afraid to ask, just find the footage of Derek Underwood bowling to the Australians in the second innings of the fifth Test at the Oval in 1968 on a rain affected wicket. It was a no-contest, and Underwood took 7/50 off 31 overs and nine wickets for the match as England won by 226 runs.
The Kent County legend didn’t necessarily need the favorable conditions he received in that match to dominate the opposition batting though, as both his accuracy and medium pace delivery speed made his left arm orthodox spinners very difficult to play on any surface, and his in-swinger to right hand batsmen was almost as effective as the ball that turned sharply away from their bats.
He debuted for Kent in 1963 at just 17 years of age, going on that season to become the youngest bowler ever to take 100 wickets in his debut season, and he took 100 wickets in a season another nine times during his 24 seasons with Kent.
Underwood made his Test debut for England just after his 21st birthday in 1966 and became their first-choice spinner soon after, finishing his career as England’s most successful spin bowler of all time, and sixth on the list of English Test wicket takers.
He took 297 Test wickets in his 86-Test career at an average of just 25.83, including taking five wickets in an innings on 17 occasions and 10 wickets in a match six times. His first-class bowling figures are nothing short of phenomenal taking 2465 wickets at the miserly average of 20.28, including five wickets in an innings 153 times and 10 wickets in a match on 47 occasions. Incredible!
While he wasn’t much of a batsman, he was a more than handy nightwatchman and scored his one and only century at the ripe old age of 39 when he went in as nightwatchman for Kent in 1984.
Derek Underwood passed away in April 2024 aged 78.
Mike Procter
One of my great regrets as a cricket lover is to have never seen Mike Procter play a Test match. In fact, despite a first-class career that extended for nearly 25 years, Procter played only seven Test matches, all of them against Australia between 1967 and 1970, as a result of the anti-apartheid sanctions imposed on South Africa from 1970 to 1990.
Roar editor Christy Doran made the trip to Seattle with VisitSeattle.org, diving into the city’s electric sports vibe, outdoor adventures, and renowned food scene. Click here for his latest adventure in the Emerald City.
In that brief Test career, which came to a halt when he was just 23 years of age, Procter gave the cricket world a glimpse of his all-round potential, taking 41 wickets at an average of 15.02 against an Australian batting line-up which included Bob Simpson, Bill Lawry, Bob Cowper, Ian Chappell and Doug Walters, and scored 226 runs at an average of 25.11, but he went on to stake a claim as one of the game’s great all-rounders in his first-class career.
His stats for his 401-game first-class career, primarily for English county Gloucestershire, are phenomenal. He took over 1400 wickets at an average of just 19.53, including taking five wickets in an innings on 70 occasions and 10 wickets in a match 15 times, and scored nearly 22,000 runs at an average of 36.01, including 48 centuries and 109 half-centuries.
He was a dominant force during the 16 years he spent with Gloucestershire and won many games for them single-handedly with his lethal fast bowling and aggressive batting. One wonders what he would have achieved on the world stage had his Test career not ended prematurely.
Mike Procter passed away in February 2024 aged 77.