Farewell to one of the good guys
ALL-ROUNDER LOSES BATTLE WITH ILLNESS, 57
IN a wretched summer for English cricket, David Capel holding court in an Amsterdam bar and explaining how to bowl the outswinger was glorious light relief.
Already 4-0 down in the Ashes at home in 1989, and decimated by defections to a rebel tour of South Africa, it could hardly get any worse when Lord’s sent a strong team of fringe Test players to Holland for a couple of exploratory one-day games... or could it?
In dismal light, with no sightscreens against a backdrop of tree- shaped silhouettes, and on an unfamil i a r coconut matting wicket, England’s missionaries lost the first game by three runs in Amstelveen.
Even in alien conditions, it was a setback they had not dared to contemplate with a team including future Test captains Nasser
Hussain and Alec Stewart. Capel, a perfect sporting envoy, did not let ignominious defeat stop him spreading the gospel to his captive audience at the bar afterwards.
Never happier than when he was demonstrating the art of seam position or soft hands at the crease, 57-year-old Capel – one of cricket’s most popular foot soldiers – has died after a long illness.
An indefatigable enthusiast and loyal to the core, he gave 33 years’ unbroken service to Northamptonshire as an allrounder and coach in addition to winning 15 England Test caps and 23 one- day international appearances.
His finest individual contributions were a halfhalfcentury on debut against Pakistan while in punishing heat he fell agonisingly two runs short of a century in Karachi. But Capel is probably best remembered in the affections of a nation for helping to restore England’s pride in the Caribbean 30 years ago.
Branded no-hopers after the previous summer’s debacle, Graham Gooch’s side pulled off a stunning win in Jamaica and deserved to go 2-0 up in Trinidad before bad light and blatant time-wasting left them 31 runs short of the chequered flag. England narrowly lost 2-1, but Gooch enjoyed the rumflavoured nostalgia of that series in the West Indies during Sky Sports’ trawl of archive highlights during lockdown.
Gooch said: “David was a tremendous competitor, whole-hearted and always fully committed to the cause, and was an integral part of that side.
“He was a very, very good all-round cricketer.”