Former England and Surrey seamer Robin Jackman dies aged 75, leaving cricket in mourning again

Cricket was in mourning again on Friday night after Test seamer Robin Jackman died aged 75, not long after news broke that his former Surrey team-mate John Edrich had passed away.

A popular figure, Jackman took 1,402 first-class wickets in a 17-year career at an average of just 22. He played only four Tests for England, all at the age of 35 and 36, but was most famous for causing the cancellation of the second Test against West Indies in Guyana in 1980-81.

Jackman’s links with apartheid South Africa, where he coached and played for 11 winters, persuaded the Guyanese government to withhold his visa. 

Former Test seamer Robin Jackman has died at the age of 75, leaving cricket in mourning

Jackman was most famous for his career with Surrey, and he took 1,402 first-class wickets

The tour was nearly called off, though Jackman was later allowed into Barbados, where an injury to Bob Willis meant he made his debut in the next game, and claimed the scalps of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes and Clive Lloyd.

Many thought he should have been picked by England the previous summer, when his 121 first-class wickets at 15 made him the country’s leading wicket-taker.

He retired after the last of his 15 ODI appearances, in New Zealand in February 1983, and went on to forge a successful commentary career in South Africa, the home of his wife, Yvonne. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2012.

Jackman (right) went on to forge a successful career as a commentator and cricket pundit

Jackman smokes at the end of the fifth day of the fourth Test against the West Indies in 1981

Jackman’s death was announced just hours after the passing of his old team-mate John Edrich