Underwood, who claimed 297 wickets in 86 Checks between 1966 and 1982, performed his whole first-class profession at Kent, for whom he made his first-team debut on the age of 17, and went on to make over 900 appearances throughout three a long time, from 1963-1987, taking 2,523 wickets at a mean of simply 19.04.
Nicknamed “Lethal” by his team-mates, Underwood’s lithe whippy left-arm motion was famend for its accuracy and got here on the batter with the tempo and snap of a seam bowler.
He was at his most deadly on rain-affected wickets, most famously within the last Take a look at of the 1968 Ashes at The Oval, when – after a concerted effort by the group to make the outfield playable – Underwood claimed 4 wickets in 27 balls to defeat Australia and sq. the collection with six minutes of the match remaining.
Underwood stays the sixth-highest wicket-taker in England’s historical past, and the main spin bowler, forward of Graeme Swann (255). In ODI cricket, he made 26 appearances between 1973 and 1982, together with a pair of appearances within the inaugural 1975 World Cup, claiming taking 32 wickets at 22.93.
In response to the retrospective ICC Males’s Take a look at Bowler rankings, Underwood was ranked because the world’s No.1 bowler from September 1969 to August 1973. His most startling figures got here at Hastings in 1973, when he claimed 8 for 9 to rout Sussex on one other rain-affected pitch, with the group as soon as once more aiding the Fireplace Brigade in mopping up the bottom’s floodwater.
Underwood’s adaptability was mirrored in his file in each India and Australia, the place he was in a position to drop his tempo to intensify his affect. He would have overhauled Fred Trueman’s then-England file of 307 wickets had he not made two important profession decisions on the back-end of his profession – first he accepted Kerry Packer’s invitation to hitch World Sequence Cricket in 1977, and then in 1981-82, he joined the primary insurgent tour of South Africa, a call that led to a three-year ban from internationals and the efficient finish of his profession.
Underwood retired from the sport in 1987, having gained three County Championships, two One-Day Cups, three Nationwide Leagues and three Benson & Hedges Cups as a Kent cricketer, throughout which period he was awarded two profit seasons, in 1975 and 1986 respectively. He was awarded an MBE for providers to cricket within the New 12 months’s Honours listing of 1981.
In 2008, Underwood was named as President of Marylebone Cricket Membership, after serving as Kent Cricket’s Membership President in 2006, and was inducted into the ICC’s Cricket Corridor of Fame in 2009.
In 2011, the Annexe Stand at Kent’s dwelling floor in Canterbury was renamed the ‘Underwood & Knott Stand’ in recognition of the legendary partnership he shaped with one other of the greats of his period, the England and Kent wicketkeeper, Allan Knott.
Kent Cricket’s Chair, Simon Philip, mentioned: “The Kent Cricket household is in mourning following the passing of one in all its greatest-ever gamers. Watching Derek weave his distinctive magic on a moist wicket was a privilege for all who have been in a position to witness it. His induction into the ICC Corridor of Fame exhibits the esteem during which he was held in world cricket.
“An advocate for rising our recreation worldwide while defending our sport’s wealthy heritage, Derek additionally made substantial contributions off the sphere in addition to on it, and he might be sorely missed by everybody at Kent Cricket.”
