Colin Cowdrey fact file

1946: Youngest player to represent his school at Lord's when he appeared for Tonbridge at the age of 13.

1950: Made first appearance for Kent, the start of a 26-year association with the club.

1951: Accepted by Oxford University, where he is awarded his Blue.

1954: Appointed captain of Kent County Cricket Club. Chosen for the Australian tour and selected for his England debut in the opening Test. Scored maiden Test century in the third Test.

1957: Partnership of 411 with Peter May to save Test against the West Indies. 1959: Captained England for the first time.

1962: Highest first-class score, 307 for MCC against South Australia.

1963: Went out to bat with a broken wrist to help England avoid Test defeat by the West Indies at Lord's.

1965: His best season for Kent with 2039 runs at 63.42. 1967: Won Gillette Cup with Kent.

1968: Captained England for what remains their last series victory in the West Indies.

1970: Led Kent to their first County Championship since 1913.

1971: Played last home match against Pakistan, and retired from Kent captaincy.

1972: Awarded the CBE.

1975: Final Test, his 114th, at the age of 42 after being called as an emergency replacement for a tour of Australia. Finishes with what was then a record 7,624 Test runs at an average of 44.06, with 22 hundreds.

1976: Retired from first-class cricket with 42,719 runs, including 107 centuries. 1986: President of the MCC in its bicentennial year, later chairman of ICC.

1992: Awarded knighthood for services to cricket.

1996: Appointed Chairman of a Sports Ambassadors Committee.

1997: Appointed to the House of Lords as Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge, becoming the second former England captain to achieve the feat behind the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev David Sheppard.

2000: Suffered a stroke in July and died in his sleep just over four months later, aged 67.