Chris Cowdrey, the middle son of Colin Cowdrey, was dedicated to cricket at an early age just as his father had been with those evocative initials M.C.C. Chris was baptised by his father's one-time England opening partner, the Rev. David Sheppard, and his godfather was Peter May. If Chris had a silver spoon in his mouth he needed it, for he had little chance of matching the great deeds of his father. Fortunately he had a sardonic sense of humour and could always appreciate the funny side of his cricketing career. One of his favourite stories is to tell how, with England in Australia for the World Championship of Cricket to celebrate the opening of the Sydney floodlights he was dismissed for 0, humiliation enough for some, but then left to the accompaniment of a quacking duck on the electronic scoreboard, quickly followed by the legend: "C.Cowdrey - World Ranking - 118." From that series he went on with David Gower's team which won in India, batting usefully at number six and acting as a stock bowler with his medium-fast seamers. He scored 38 in the second Test in Delhi and 27 in the third at Calcutta, bowling 19 overs and taking 2-65 in Madras. In 1988, with English cricket in turmoil after the discarding of two captains and many players the selectors, with May as chairman, turned to Kent captain Cowdrey. In his first innings as captain he was lbw to Marshall for 0 and, when injury put him out of the next match, he was quickly discarded in favour of Graham Gooch. He captained Kent from 1985 to 1990. (Bob Harragan)