Ted Dexter: Former England and Sussex captain dies aged 86 – obituary

Dexter’s eclectic range of post-playing interests, both in business and journalism, included writing a crime novel, and launching a scheme to find new fast bowlers by leaving recruitment forms in pubs.

More successful was an attempt to devise a ranking system for Test players, launched in conjunction with accountancy firm Deloitte in 1987 – it was later adopted by the International Cricket Council and exists today as the official ICC rankings., external

Two years later, Dexter succeeded his old England team-mate Peter May as chairman of selectors, becoming the first man to be paid for the role, but he inherited a declining England side overpowered 4-0 by Australia, while a “rebel” tour to apartheid South Africa also depleted selection options.

Gimmicks included Dexter writing an uplifting song called “Onward Gower’s Cricketers” (to the tune of the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers”). But the omissions of David Gower and Jack Russell from the 1992-93 tour of India were hugely controversial selections.

By 1993, with another heavy Ashes defeat in prospect, Dexter commented after the Lord’s Test that “Venus may be in the wrong juxtaposition with somewhere else”, and the announcement of his resignation during the fifth Test at Edgbaston was greeted with a round of applause from the crowd.

He later served the MCC as president and cricket committee chairman, and became a CBE in 2001. After a spell living in France, he moved to Wolverhampton to be nearer his family – and continued to pursue new interests, joining a mentor scheme at the age of 83 to help local schoolchildren improve their reading., external