An outstanding allrounder, rated by his peers as second only to WG Grace, Allan Steel made the first Test hundred at Lord's, 148 to inspire England to victory over Australia in 1884. He played in eight Tests between 1880 and 1888, averaging 35 with the bat and 20 with the ball. Although primarily a bastman, he was highly rated in his early years as a slow-medium bowler, and in 1878 headed the All England averages with 164 wickets, although Wisden noted that he "owed his success to a certain trickiness, with the usual result that as batsmen found his tricks out, so did he become rather less effective". Though not a regular captain of county or country, he had an improbable run of success as skipper: Marlborough over Rugby, Cambridge over Oxford, Gentlemen over Players, Lancashire over Yorkshire and England over Australia. A fiendishly accurate right-arm slow bowler with the ability to spin the ball both ways, Steel became MCC President in 1902 but died in London in 1914 aged 56.
Cricinfo staff