Life and Career
Making his debut against Australia at Lord's in 1975, he got lost in the pavilion as he went out to bat. Steele went down one too many flights of stairs and found himself in the basement toilets. He managed to make the field of play without becoming the first Test batsman to be timed out. Once he did arrive at the crease, fast bowler Dennis Lillee gave Steele a typically Australian welcome. Eyeing Steele's prematurely greying hair at 34, Thompson asked: "Bloody hell, who've we got here, Groucho Marx?".
That summer however, Steele scored 50, 45, 73, 92, 39 and 66 against the Australians in his trademark staunch, courageous and steady manner.
The following year, he commenced against the even more fearsome fast bowling attack of the West Indies, by scoring a century at Trent Bridge. Oddly he was overlooked for that winter's tour to India, on the theory that he could not play spin bowlers. He duly returned to county cricket, and finished his career back at Northampton in 1984, having scored over 22,000 runs, of which 673 came at the top level of the sport.
Steele was voted BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 1975, and was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1976.
Read more about this topic: David Steele (cricketer)
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