John Snow

For eight years from the mid-1960s, John Snow was, by some margin, England's best fast bowler. If he'd been Australian he would have been an automatic pick for every Test when fit. But he was strong-willed and difficult, and, being subject to the whims of English panels of selectors, he won only 49 Test caps. Even more absurdly, he went on only three tours.

He was dropped twice in unusual circumstances: by Sussex for "not trying", and by England for barging India's Sunil Gavaskar off his feet at Lord's in 1971 when Gavaskar was taking a run. Two years earlier, in Pakistan, Snow had cost himself another cap by bowling fast bouncers at Tom Graveney, the vice-captain, on a dangerous net pitch in Lahore the day before a Test.

The son of a Church of England clergyman, Snow was a strange mixture altogether. Away from cricket, until he mellowed, he could be unapproachable. But his artistic flair was manifest in two published books of poetry, and in retirement he unexpectedly set up a successful travel agency.

For England he reached his peak in the West Indies on the 1967-68 tour, when he took 27 wickets, seven of them in the first Test innings of the tour, in Kingston, and a few seasons later in Australia, where his 31 Test wickets, combined with 1305 runs from Geoff Boycott and John Edrich, were Ray Illingworth's main weapon in winning back the Ashes. In rhythm, accuracy, pace and possession of a vicious bouncer, Snow had much in common with Glenn McGrath of Australia as a spearhead, but Snow never needed to resort to sledging to make a batter feel uncomfortable. His air of menace said it all.