John Murray obituary

England cricketer who held the world record for the number of wicketkeeping dismissals in a career

The England and Middlesex cricketer John Murray, who has died aged 83, once held the world record for the most wicketkeeping dismissals in a career, and still stands second on the all-time list. In total he took 1,268 catches and carried out 259 stumpings across 635 matches in a first-class career that spanned the years 1952 to 1975.

Like his fellow wicketkeeping artist Bob Taylor, who prised the record away from him in the early 1980s, Murray might have earned more England caps if his batting had been slightly more effective. He played 21 times for his country but suffered in the mid-1960s from the emergence first of Jim Parks of Sussex and then of Alan Knott of Kent, both of whom were deemed more valuable to the side because they could boost the middle order with runs. The selection of Parks effectively began the modern love affair with wicketkeeper-batsmen, and so specialists such as Murray – wonderful technicians who were accustomed to batting lower down the order – found themselves under increasing pressure for their places.

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