Long Shot Summer The Year of Four England Cricket Captains 1988

In the summer of 1988 England began its Test series against the mighty West Indies with a draw at Trent Bridge. Defeated 5-0 in each of its last two series against the world’s most fearsome cricket team, for England simply to avoid defeat and stand up to perhaps the greatest fast bowling attack in history seemed like a huge step in the right direction. But within days the team’s captain, Mike Gatting, had been sacked following a tabloid scandal. Over the remaining five Test matches that summer, England would select a further three captains and field a total of twenty-eight players as English cricket plunged into turmoil.

Using interviews with the main protagonists and contemporary reports, Neil Robinson reconstructs the events of an unparalleled summer for English cricket and asks: what was the truth behind the circumstances of Gatting’s dismissal? Why did a season of such promise descend into chaos? And what was the legacy of 1988 for the next generation of English cricketers?