John Hampshire 1941-2017 © Getty Images
John Hampshire, the former Yorkshire captain and England batsman who went on to become an international umpire, has died at the age of 76 after a long illness.
Hampshire, who scored a century on his Test debut, against West Indies at Lord’s in 1969, played eight Tests and three ODIs for England, but will be best remembered as an integral member of the great Yorkshire side that dominated the County Championship in the 1960s.
In a 23-year career that included spells with Derbyshire, Tasmania and, briefly, Leicestershire, Hampshire scored a total of 28,059 first-class runs at 34.55, including 45 hundreds – the vast majority of those coming during his 456 appearances for Yorkshire.
He debuted for the club as a 20-year-old in 1961 and won the County Championship on five separate occasions, holding his own in a team packed with club legends including Geoff Boycott, Ray Illingworth, Fred Trueman and his first captain, Brian Close.
“Initially Yorkshire might have been a difficult dressing room to feel at home in, but Brian Close was a tremendous captain,” Hampshire told ESPNcricinfo in one of his final interviews earlier this year.
“He integrated everyone. Most of the guys, they wanted to do well because they wanted the side to do well. And they wanted other players to do well. There were some terrific rows, but they were cricket rows. They weren’t personal vendettas or anything like that. Closey was the ringleader a lot of the time, but as soon as they were finished it was, “Right, come on, we’ll have a drink.”
Just a year after the end of his playing career in 1984, Hampshire became a first-class umpire, and stood for the first time in a Test match at Old Trafford during the 1989 Ashes.
Later that year, he and John Holder were invited by Pakistan’s captain, Imran Khan, to stand as neutral umpires during Pakistan’s home series against India, a move that helped pave the way for that to become the standard across all international matches. In total, Hampshire stood in 21 matches up until 2002, and finally retired from the county circuit in 2005.
In March 2016, Hampshire stepped up to the role of Yorkshire president, an appointment he described as being “the icing on the cake” of his career.
“From a very humble beginning, getting trains, trams and busses to Headingley to practice in the winter in hope of getting a game for Yorkshire Seconds, to being president. I think it’s quite an achievement,” he said.
“I’ve found it very heart-warming, and we’ve had a tremendous reception from [chief executive] Mark Arthur and the [Yorkshire] board. I was quite surprised when (former chairman) Colin Graves telephoned me a couple of years ago to tell me I was the prospective president.”
“John epitomised everything that’s good about Yorkshire County Cricket Club,” said Steve Denison, Yorkshire’s chairman. “Brave, talented and with a heart of gold, he captained Yorkshire, scored a century at Lord’s on his Test debut and became a highly respected umpire after hanging up his playing whites.
“Loved by players and Members alike, John capped his wonderful life in Yorkshire cricket as our club President last year. On behalf of everyone involved with and connected to the Club, I would like to extend our most sincere condolences to John’s wife Alison and two sons Ian and Paul. He will be sorely missed by all at Headingley.”
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo