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| Full name | Peter Barker Howard May | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1929-12-31)31 December 1929 Reading, Berkshire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 27 December 1994(1994-12-27) (aged 64) Liphook,Hampshire, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Batsman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National side | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Test debut (cap 361) | 26 July 1951 v South Africa | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Last Test | 17 August 1961 v Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Domestic team information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1950–1963 | Surrey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1950–1952 | Cambridge University | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:Cricinfo,19 May 2019 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Peter Barker Howard MayCBE (31 December 1929 – 27 December 1994) was an Englishcricketer who played forSurrey County Cricket Club,Cambridge University andEngland as anamateur. He was described as a "tall and handsome with a batting style that was close to classical, and... the hero of a generation of school boys"[1][2] and byWisden as a "schoolboy prodigy" who went on to become "one of England’s finest batsmen".[3][4] He was made a CBE in 1981 and posthumously inducted into theICC Cricket Hall of Fame in 2009
Born inReading,Berkshire, he was educated atLeighton Park School,Charterhouse andPembroke College, Cambridge, and at both he was regarded as a batting prodigy as well as playingEton Fives, winning the Kinnaird Cup in all three years between 1951 and 1953, partnered by his brother, J.W.H. May. Across the 1950s, he was the most consistent and prolific English batsman in both county (representingSurrey) andTest cricket. He made hisTest match debut againstSouth Africa atHeadingley in 1951, scoring 138, and was then a regular England player until forced out by illness in the early 1960s.[5] May was one of theWisden Cricketers of the Year in 1952. May was the natural successor toLeonard Hutton as England captain after the successful defence ofthe Ashes on the1954–55 tour of Australia.
May enjoyed a largely successful captaincy of both his county and country. Surrey had beenCounty Champions for seven years running, with May the captain for the last two seasons, and until 1958 England were never defeated under his leadership. He had beatenSouth Africa 3–2 in 1955, considered by many to have been the most exciting Test series since the war,Australia 2–1 in 1956,the West Indies 3–0 in 1957 andNew Zealand 4–0 in 1958. He was widely regarded as the best post-war batsman England produced, tall, strong and disciplined with a near-perfect technique, a straight bat and a complete range of strokes.[6][7][8] His standards improved with the responsibilities of captaincy and his Test average as captain was 54.03.[9] His highest score was atEdgbaston in 1957, when England trailed West Indies by 288 runs in the first innings; he made 285 not out,[10] the highest score by an England captain untilGraham Gooch's 333 in 1990,[11] adding 411 withColin Cowdrey (154) – which remained an England record for any wicket until 2024 – and destroyed the mesmerising hold the spinnerSonny Ramadhin had over English batsmen. In the low scoring Ashes series of 1956 he had made 453 runs (90.60) and was out only once for less than 50, when he made 43. Although himself a highly educated amateur and a gentleman he realised that the old class divisions in English cricket were breaking down and underLen Hutton's leadership the amateur and professional had merged. He enjoyed the complete loyalty of the team and the selectors and was ready to help his players and smooth down feathers.[12] As a captain he was a strict team disciplinarian who expected high standards, he was ruthless when the occasion demanded, but could be inflexible and unimaginative and lacked the charisma of a natural leader.[7][8][13] In1958–59 he played too defensively and surrendered the initiative too readily toRichie Benaud and he concentrated on saving runs instead of trying to get batsmen out. Faced withIan Meckiff's questionable bowling, in the disastrous First Test, he declined to make an official complaint as he believed it would appear unsporting. Meckiff was, in fact, several years later, called for an illegal bowling action, ending his career. After the Australian tour May beatNew Zealand 1–0,India 5–0 and led England to its first series victory inthe West Indies 1–0. He lost 2–1 to the1961 Australians and retired due to ill-health having been captain in a then record 41 Tests (20 wins, 10 defeats and 11 draws), Benaud being the only man to defeat him in a Test series. He retired entirely fromfirst-class cricket in 1963, taking up a post inthe City[5] with the insurance brokerage Willis Faber Dumas; nowWillis Group.
May succeededAlec Bedser as Chairman of the England cricket selectors in 1982 and held the post for seven years, including presiding over the notorious 1988Summer of four captains.[5] He served as President of theMarylebone Cricket Club and posthumously as President of Surrey County Cricket Club from 1995 to 1996.
May served hisNational Service in the Writer branch of theRoyal Navy.[14] He married Virginia Gilligan, a daughter of the former England captainHarold Gilligan, in 1959; they had four daughters.
May died atLiphook, Hampshire, from a brain tumour on 27 December 1994, four days before what would have been his 65th birthday. A stand atThe Oval is named in his honour.
| Sporting positions | ||
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| Preceded by | English national cricket captain 1955–1960 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | English national cricket captain 1961 | Succeeded by |
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| People | |
