1. Chris Old was born on Christopher Middleton Old, 22 December 1948 and is a former English cricketer, who played 46 Tests and 32 ODIs from 1972 to 1981.
24 Facts About Chris Old
1. 2.
Chris Old was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1979 Cricket World Cup.
3.
The youngest of three brothers, Chris Old first made his mark in school cricket as a left-handed batsman playing for schools in Durham, Middlesbrough and other parts of England.
4.
Chris Old made his debut, aged 15, for Yorkshire 2nd XI against Lincolnshire at Grimsby in August 1964 as a batsman, scoring 26 in the first innings and 8 not out in the second, but he was encouraged by resident coach Arthur Mitchell to develop his bowling.
5.
Chris Old was still predominantly a batsman when he made his debut for the Yorkshire first team as a 17-year-old against Hampshire in 1966, scoring 3 runs and conceding 8 runs from 3 overs without taking a wicket.
6.
Chris Old was mentored by the resident Yorkshire opening bowlers, Fred Trueman and Tony Nicholson, who took over 2800 wickets between them for the county and following Fred Truemans retirement in 1968 he became Nicholsons opening new ball bowling partner.
7.
Chris Old won his Yorkshire cap in 1969, and was named as the Cricket Writer's Club Young Cricketer of the Year in 1970.
8.
Chris Old hit the 3rd fastest century of all time at Edgbaston in 1977, with 100 runs from 72 balls in 37 minutes, with the second 50 taking just 9 minutes.
9.
Chris Old was nominated as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of 1979.
10.
Chris Old then moved on to Warwickshire for three seasons and he appeared for Northern Transvaal in South Africa between 1981 and 1983.
11.
Chris Old finished off his domestic cricket career with a season of minor counties cricket, playing 8 matches for Northumberland in 1987, with the highlight being 6 - 98 against Durham at Chester-le-Street in July.
12.
Chris Old made his Test debut in the Second Test against India at Calcutta in December 1972.
13.
Chris Old produced a notable all-round performance scoring 33 and 17 not out and taking 2 for 72 and 4 for 43 but still finished on the losing side as India won by 28 runs.
14.
Chris Old followed this up by taking the key wicket of Allan Border who he clean bowled for a duck in the Australian second innings.
15.
Chris Old was the only England cricketer to play in both Centenary Test Matches against Australia in 1977 at Melbourne and 1980 at Lord's, alongside Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rodney Marsh for Australia.
16.
Chris Old turned down an invitation from Tony Greig to play in Kerry Packer's rebel World Series Cricket, fearing the withdrawal of the traditional benefit season offered by Yorkshire.
17.
Chris Old subsequently joined the rebel South African Breweries English touring side in South Africa during 1982 effectively ending his Test career with the resulting 3-year ban from international cricket.
18.
Chris Old subsequently went to Australia to play in a veterans three-match series, Old Australia XI v Old England XI in 1988, and five years later made a final appearance for an England XI v an Australian XI in a 36 over per side game for Derek Randall's Testimonial at Trent Bridge in June 1993.
19.
Chris Old was the most successful bowler in the early days of one-day international cricket, and by the end of the first decade of the format had taken more wickets than any other bowler in the world in the format.
20.
Chris Old played for England in two world cups, making his highest ODI score in the first tournament in 1975, and taking his best ODI bowling figures, 4 wickets for 8 runs, in the second tournament in 1979 in a match against Canada.
21.
Chris Old already had surgery on both of his knees during 1970 and 1971 before making his England debut in 1972.
22.
Chris Old became a regular member of the England squad for almost a decade.
23.
Chris Old never completed any of the ten series that he played abroad, and his only ever-present home series was against India and Pakistan in 1974, when in six Tests he took twenty-five wickets at twenty-two apiece, just emphasising what might have been under different circumstances.
24.
Chris Old's brother, Alan Old, is a former England rugby union international, who played one first-class match for Warwickshire against Cambridge University in 1969, and played Minor Counties cricket for Durham in the 1970s.