Gower captained England to victory in the 1985 Ashes, but two 5–0 whitewashes against the West Indies (in 1984 and 1985–86) reflected poorly on his captaincy, and Gower was removed in 1986. For the 1989 Ashes series, he was briefly reinstated before being dismissed as captain by Graham Gooch. Gower retired from international cricket in 1993 as a result of their deteriorating relationship. Despite this, he finished his first-class cricket career with an excellent record of 26,339 runs at an average of 40.08 and 53 hundred. In Test cricket, he has a record of 119 straight innings without a duck as of February 2021. Gower became a renowned cricket pundit for Sky Sports after retiring, and he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame on July 16, 2009.

Early Life and Career

Gower was born in 1957 in Tunbridge, Wells, Kent. His father, Richard Gower OBE, worked for the Colonial Service in Dar es Salaam, the capital of the then-British-controlled Tanganyika Territory, where Gower spent his early life. After Tanganyika gained independence, the family returned to England when Gower was six years old, settling in Kent and eventually moving to Loughborough. [7] From eight to thirteen, Gower attended Marlborough House School in Hawkhurst, where his favorite sport was cricket.

He was given a boarder's scholarship to The King's School in Canterbury, where his father served as head boy. At 14, Gower was named to the school cricket First XI, and he eventually became captain.

He was also a member of the rugby First XV before being cut due to "lack of effort."

During his academic years, Gower represented Public Schools against English Schools at the under-16 level.

In history, Gower earned eight O levels, three A levels, and one S level. He took the Oxford University History exam and was offered an interview at St Edmund Hall, but he didn't get in. After turning down a spot at University College London, Gower returned to school to complete two more A levels but lost interest halfway through the year. Gower tried his luck as a professional at the club for the rest of the year, for £25 per week, after playing some matches for the Leicestershire Second XI the previous summer. In the summer, Gower returned to University College to study law, but he only stayed for six months before returning to professional cricket.

Gower's Sky Sports teammates call him "Lord Gower," referring to his aristocratic family and public school education. He is a distant relative of the Leveson-Gower line, Dukes of Sutherland, a member of the Gower family, originally of Glandovan. According to An Endangered Species, Gower's autobiography, "There was said to be land in the family in Pembrokeshire two or three generations ago, which an errant ancestor gambled away in a moment of boredom, and a connection with a site called Castell Malgwyn, now a country house hotel, in Cardigan," according to the story.

Gower had one of the most successful first-class cricket careers in both domestic and international contests in English history. Gower has the fourth-highest career test run a total of any English player, trailing only Alec Stewart (8,463), Graham Gooch (8,900), and Alastair Cook (12,472). From 1975 through 1993, he played domestic cricket, primarily for Leicestershire, until 1989, when he went to Hampshire. At both clubs, he was a reliable batsman.

Personal Life

During the 1980s, Gower was in a 10-year relationship with Vicki Stewart, but they broke up with a statement in The New York Times on New Year's Day 1990. In 1992, he married Thorunn Nash, his Anglo/Icelandic wife, at Winchester Cathedral, with Chris Cowdrey as his best man. They have two daughters, Alex and Sammi, who were born in 1994 and 1996, respectively.