Former England seamer Robin Jackman dies aged 75
Dec 26, 2020
London [England], December 26 : Former England pacer Robin Jackman, who born in India, has died at the age of 75.
Jackman made his Test debut in 1981 at the age of 35 and featured in four matches for England in the longest format of the game picking 14 wickets. He also played in 15 ODIs between 1974 and 1983.
"We are saddened to learn about the death of legendary commentator and former England bowler Robin Jackman, who has passed away aged 75," the International Cricket Council (ICC) said in a Tweet.
Jackman played for Surrey in the county cricket and picked 1,402 wickets in a first-class career which stretched from 1966 to 1982 - with a mixture of heart, persistence, nous, and sheer bloody-mindedness.
While some felt he would struggle to make it at the county level in his early days, Jackman fought ferociously to extract the absolute maximum from his talent, spending winters playing in South Africa.
Brought onto the staff in 1964, the first-class debut of Jackman came two years later and he became a regular fixture in the side two years later with a county cap coming in 1970.
According to a report in ESPNcricinfo, he was arguably most famous for the match that he did not play, at Guyana on England's tour of the West Indies in 1980-81, when his connections to Apartheid South Africa - through his wife Yvonne, and through his longstanding cricketing association with the country - led to the cancellation of the second Test of the series.
Eventually, the other Caribbean governments decided the cricket would continue and Jackman finally earned that cherished England cap in Barbados, removing Gordon Greenidge to a catch in the slips for his first wicket on the way to collecting 3-65.
Going forward, Jackman was to become familiar to a far wider audience when he moved into broadcasting. For many, he was the voice of cricket during the transformative years in which he moved back into the international arena after being in isolation during the apartheid period.
His death comes after England legend and his Surrey teammate John Edrich passed away at the age of 83 on Wednesday.
