The Final Word with Dennis Amiss

Season 14, Episode 9: When it comes to the second half of the 20th century, few figures had a bigger influence on English cricket than Dennis Amiss. But those born in recent decades might not know much of him, as a player and a personality defined by understatement even with the height of his achievements. Aggressively opening the batting when possible, resolutely defending when necessary, and going large in a way that predated Graeme Gooch's theory of 'daddy hundreds', he took on the best fast bowlers of his era - Holding, Roberts, Lillee, Thomson - and found a way against the best spin - Bedi, Prasanna, Chandrasekhar. Later he ran Warwickshire cricket, signed Brian Lara, was a national selector and held senior positions at the English board. Quite the CV for a Birmingham lad who grew up working at the family tyre shop around the corner from Edgbaston. Just after his 80th birthday, in the Midlands sunshine, Dennis is as chipper as ever. Support the show with a Nerd Pledge at patreon.com/thefinalword Find previous episodes at finalwordcricket.com Help our Edinburgh Marathon runners raise funds for the Lord's Taverners at bit.ly/eddiemarathon, or learn about other Tavs projects with bit.ly/tavssignup. Title track by Urthboy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices