The Tale of the Scottish Dexter: M.H. Denness biography

The 27th August 1973 witnessed the single largest defeat on home soil for the England Cricket team. The record still stands: an innings and 226 run flagellation at the hands of Rohan Kanhai’s more talented pool of West Indian cricketers. The national humiliation led to the swift sacking of the long-standing captain, 41-year-old Raymond Illingworth. With no heir apparent, many considered this a knee-jerk reaction. Geoffrey Boycott had fallen on his sword with a dressing-room tantrum; Tony Lewis had retired with a gammy knee; Colin Cowdrey and Brian Close were eliminated due to age and in the bangarang of the wreckage, no one single candidate stood out. Whoever filled the breach would have to piece together the remnants of Illingworth’s broken army and, without any new notable bowling weapons at his disposal, lead that beleaguered bunch into battle against the very same opponents, a few months later, in the cauldron of the Caribbean.Thrown in at the deep end, as a stop-gap, was an expendable 32-year-old county stalwart. No one gave him a prayer. This is the rollercoaster ride of a mighty underdog: Michael Henry Denness. His career had chugged a slow and steady ascent throughout the 1960s, upwards to the exhilarating view at the top, and then...