David Graveney

David Graveney's ruddy face has been a familiar sight in English cricket since he first played for Gloucestershire in 1972. These days he combines his day job, as chief executive of the Professional Cricketers' Association - the players' union - with the almost fulltime role of chairman of the England selectors. After initial doubts that he could combine the two roles, he took over the selection job from Ray Illingworth in 1997. His time has been characterised by greater continuity of selection, and fewer of the Yorkshire-based hunches in which Illy specialised - but still the results have been indifferent, especially against Australia. Reports that the advent of the Hussain-Fletcher partnership in 1999 had marginalised Graveney were pooh-poohed by the ECB, but the suspicion lingers that he wields less power than formerly and the important selection decisions are now made by the coach and the captain. His position, boosted by the Ashes success in 2005, looked increasingly shaky after England's dire winter in 2006-07 and he was moved aside in 2008 to a new role as Performance Manager, ending his 11-year reign. Geoff Miller, a selector since 2000, was named his replacement.

As a player Graveney was a stiff-backed left-arm spinner in the Ashley Giles mould, just short of Test class. After 19 seasons at Bristol, where he followed his father Ken and legendary uncle Tom, he had a year at Somerset before becoming Durham's first captain when they attained first-class status. He managed the so-called rebel tour of South Africa in 1989-90, but has taken charge of one or two more official jaunts since then.
Andrew Miller January 2008