Mike Gatting

Michael William Gatting was born on June 6, 1957. Prior to his distinguished cricket career, Gatting explored football, even playing for Watford reserves and undergoing trials with Queen’s Park Rangers and Arsenal F.C. He was reportedly told he was too short and overweight for football at 14, which led him to focus on cricket. Gatting’s youth career in cricket included becoming the first batsman to score a century on Youth ODI debut in 1976, where he scored 126 runs against the West Indies U19s.

Gatting played first-class cricket for Middlesex from 1975 to 1998, captaining the team from 1983 to 1997. He represented England from 1977 to 1995, notably captaining the national side in twenty-three Test matches between 1986 and 1988. He achieved significant milestones, including captaining England to an Ashes series victory in Australia in 1986/87. His highest Test score was 207 in Madras. He was part of the English squad that finished as runners-up in the 1979 Cricket World Cup and captained the squad that reached the finals of the 1987 Cricket World Cup.

After retiring from first-class cricket in 1998, Gatting continued his involvement in the sport as a coach and commentator. He served as the Middlesex coach during 1999 and 2000. Gatting took on roles as the ECB managing director of Cricket Partnerships and has been an elected member of the Middlesex C.C.C. Executive Board and the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) committee. He served as president of the MCC for 2013–14 and has been the chairman of MCC’s World Cricket committee since October 2017.