With a reputation that bloated along the lines of him being able to dig a small hole in the pitch by consistently landing the ball in the same area, Derek Underwood was one of the most feared spinners of his time. He bowled with a run up of a medium pace bowler and was considered to be so by a lot of people. He preferred to keep things simple and accurate. He was the type of bowler who probed away until the batsman made a mistake. Nicknamed 'Deadly', he was truly so on the uncovered pitches of that era. A wet pitch would help him do wonders with the ball and was considered to be the best bowler in these conditions. He also developed a potent arm-ball that earned him, quite a few wickets and reputation too. His moment under the sun came at The Oval in 1968 when he picked up the last four wickets with time rapidly running out and helped England square the series against Australia.

He finished just 3 wickets short of the magical 300 mark and could have had them too had he not joined the controversial World Series of cricket. He gained more critics soon after in 1981 when he became a part of the rebel squad to play South Africa, which was under apartheid.

Underwood was inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2009 and he also served as the chairman of the MCC for a while.

By Ganesh Chandrasekaran