(Part 1) 1967 - 1975.
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It was on June 27 1964 at Folkestone that Alan Knott made his Kent
debut against Cambridge University. Only nine runs had been scored when
his gloves swallowed their first catch. P.A. Munden of Leicestershire
soon became the first batsman to be dismissed 'c Knott b Underwood', a
form of dismissal that became commonplace in Test cricket. Within four
years Knott was a fixture in the England team. In early 1968 he played
the crucial innings in the last two Tests against the West Indies. He
was within four runs of his first century in Karachi in 1968-69 when a
riot ended the match. In a 1970-71 Ashes series he was regularly used as
night-watchman and made a top score of 73. He reached his first hundred
against New Zealand in Auckland at the end of that tour, scoring 101
and 96 at Auckland. He made 116 against Pakistan at Edgbaston in 1971
and 92 and 63 against Australia at the Oval in 1972. All the time those
bright red gloves made catch after catch. He made 87 and 67 in the
Barbados Test of 1973-74. He took on Lillee and Thomson in 1974-75,
scoring 82 in Sydney and 106 at Adelaide, often deliberately cutting the
fast bowlers over the slips. He missed only one Test in the first part
of the 1970s, when Bob Taylor was given a game in New Zealand. Knott
kept wicket for England in the first ever ODI and in the 1975 World Cup. (Bob Harragan).
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(Part 2) 1976 - 1981.
| Alan Knott was at his peak in the late 1970s. He scored 116 against West
Indies at Headingley in 1976 and was given the captaincy in the ODI
series. In India he scored 81 not out in Karnataka and led England's
vain final run charge in the Centenary Test when he scored 42. He made
135 against Australia at Trent Bridge in 1977 (the pictures above show Alan in full flow during his fine innings. Photo George Herringshaw. ©),
adding 215 with Boycott, but by then he had decided to join World
Series cricket and was lost to Test cricket until 1980. He was first
choice wicket-keeper for the World Series World XI and stood behind the
stumps in Supertests to Roberts, Garner, Procter, Imran, Wayne Daniel
and, of course, Derek Underwood. With his strange batting stance Knotty
looked like a new form of alien invented for a Spielberg film. He stood
on one side of the wicket with his bat on the other, then Knott reached
over and grasped it. You or I would have needed an extra leg or arm to
get into this position. As he was facing in the opposite direction to
ordinary batsmen, captains found their field in the wrong place. His
straight drive went through mid-wicket, his pull to long leg, his cut to
long off. He returned to the England side for four Tests against West
Indies in 1980 and two against Australia in 1981, when he scored 59 at
Old Trafford and 70 not out at the Oval. He ended his career on the
rebel England tour of South Africa in 1981-82, taking 17 catches in the
four unofficial Tests. (Bob Harragan) |