Bob Willis RIP

[G B Young]

Iconic figure from my childhood:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/50655612

[HUTCHYHIBBY]

That's a great shame, spent many a rainy school summer holiday day in the 80s watching him, Beefy etc.

[Hiber-nation]

That's a great shame, spent many a rainy school summer holiday day in the 80s watching him, Beefy etc.

Aye me too, will never forget him charging in with that long hair all over the place in the 81 Test v the Aussies. Especially Headingly 1981.

Edit: Just noticed Hutchy's reference to school hols....I was obviously past that phase by 1981!

[JeMeSouviens]

Aye me too, will never forget him charging in with that long hair all over the place in the 81 Test v the Aussies. Especially Headingly 1981.

:agree:

What a head of steam he got up, What a head of hair! :not worth

70 is no age. :-(

[lord bunberry]

Really sad to hear this, he was a great bowler and a tremendous pundit. There can’t be many bowlers ever to be made captain of England.

[Mibbes Aye]

Really sad to hear this, he was a great bowler and a tremendous pundit. There can’t be many bowlers ever to be made captain of England.

Indeed not. I can think of Botham and Flintoff but they were all-rounders.

Ray Illingworth captained England for a spell back in his day, though he was a spinner.

I think there is definitely a pervading mindset in Test cricket that your skipper should be continuously in the slips or at worst relatively close in and square on the off side to get the best view of the action. It also helps when making decisions to review, if the skip is right there at the stumps.

That predicates it to being a batsman and also smooths over the potential issue of a captain over-bowling themselves as they feel responsible for their team’s plight.

Anyway, RIP Bob Willis. From the tributes I have heard today it sounds like he had a rich range of interests outwith cricket and as a commentator he wasn’t afraid to be trenchant.

[DaveF]

Real shame. He had that dry, grumpy persona on telly but was very happy to laugh at himself too.

Rip Bob.

[JimBHibees]

Really sad to hear this, he was a great bowler and a tremendous pundit. There can’t be many bowlers ever to be made captain of England.

Agree totally very sad to hear was only recently he was on tv talking about the ashes. His bowling was superb especially his spell in the Headinly test when England won when being 500 to 1. Can also remember him winding up Viv Richards who then smashed Bob round the park. Very sad news.

[heretoday]

Great to see him steaming in back in the days when cricketers were characters.