DENNIS LESLIE AMISS, MBE, was born on April 7, 1943 in Harborne, Birmingham. After playing at Edgbaston at the age of 14 in a schools final, he joined the Warwickshire playing staff in 1960 to begin a career in which he played 658 first-class matches. He made slow progress in county cricket, and did not score a Championship hundred until his eighth season, by which time he had already played for England at The Oval in 1966 against West Indies.

For the next 21 years, he was one of the most prolific of post-war batsmen, with only Boycott and Graveney exceeding his aggregate of 43,423 runs, which makes him the 11th-heaviest runscorer in history. His final figures are remarkably similar to those of Colin Cowdrey, although the two men had completely contrasting styles. Cowdrey was the archetypal touch player, who almost caressed the ball to the boundary, while Amiss developed a powerful front-foot technique based on strong forearms, together with unrelenting concentration. Both men were great theorists, forever seeking improvements in grip and stance. Their respective records are:

	M	I	NO	Runs	Av	100
Amiss	658	1139	126	43,423	42.86	102
Cowdrey	692	1130	134	42,719	42.89	107

The consistency of Amiss brought him 1000 runs in a season 24 times – only Grace, Woolley, Cowdrey, Mead, Boycott, Hobbs and Hendren bettered this achievement – and he topped 2000 in 1976, 1978 and 1984. In 1978, he was under threat of the sack from Warwickshire when most of his county colleagues forcibly expressed their criticisms of his association with Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket circus. The Warwickshire committee told him that he would not be offered a new contract until he could guarantee his availability for England. It says much for his strength of mind that he was able to concentrate on his batting so successfully.

The most disappointing feature of the events which followed the rapprochement between the world's authorities and Packer was that Amiss never played for England again, even though many inferior players were selected, and other `rebels', such as the Kent trio, Knott, Underwood and Woolmer, were welcomed back. What is not common knowledge is that Amiss was the catalyst in the final settlement that returned the `rebel' cricketers to Test cricket. Only when Warwickshire reluctantly agreed to offer him another contract did the World Series authorities consent to negotiate a peace treaty, which made it ironic that he was never to play Test cricket again.

More runs for Amiss during his Sabina Park marathon in February 1974

He played for Warwickshire until 1987 and, as recorded in Wisden, `he broke every Warwickshire batting record, and more than an era ended with his retirement.'

 Amiss was the 21st batsman to score 100 centuries, which he did in July 1986 after a sequence of 15 innings in a seemingly endless period of six weeks following his 99th against Glamorgan.

Batting never came easily to him, because of his unease against fast bowling, particularly in the 1960s. True bravery is the ability to conquer fear, and while it would be unkind to say that Amiss was afraid of pace, he nevertheless had to learn, like Barrington before him, how to cope without having the ability, or the inclination, to hook.

His career is studded with dozens of innings played `against the collar', especially after he moved up the order to open the innings for his county in 1967. He opened for England for the first time at Delhi in his 10th Test in 1972–73 at the age of 29 – six years after his debut. He may have been a slow developer – he scored only one fifty in his first 21 innings – but what a strong finisher!

Which performance does he rate as `the innings of my life'? His list of Test hundreds is more impressive than most, because in only two of his 11 centuries was he dismissed before he reached 150 – a sure indication of a steely quality, combined with natural talent, that enabled him to score heavily once he was in. `It must be my double-hundred at Kingston, for two reasons. It saved the Test and, as things turned out, the series, and by batting for over nine hours, it proved that I could sustain an innings physically and mentally, despite the growing pressure of the situation.'

 Amiss had played a full part in England's bid to draw the first Test in Trinidad, after they trailed on first innings by 261. This was the game in which his Warwickshire colleague Alvin Kallicharran scored 158 and was at the centre of one of the most controversial incidents the game has known. The little left-hander was 142 when the last ball of the second day was bowled to Julien, who played it safely. Kallicharran moved out of his crease to leave the field, and Tony Greig promptly threw down the bowler's stumps to gain a run-out decision. The appeal was subsequently withdrawn off the field, and West Indies went on to win their first Test at home in 22 attempts, despite Amiss's 174 putting England into a good position before another Warwickshire colleague, Lance Gibbs, took 6 for 108 and started a collapse which saw the last nine wickets fall for 64.

It was against this antagonised background that the Kingston Test started two weeks later, and again England were in deep trouble after each side's first innings. England brought in Jameson for Fletcher, and West Indies replaced one spinner with another, Barrett for Inshan Ali. Skipper Mike Denness must have hoped for better things when he won the toss on a good pitch than a total of 353, particularly as eight England batsmen passed 20.

 West Indies replied with 583 but, other than an explosive 66 from 58 balls by Julien in a partnership for the sixth wicket with Sobers of 112 in 75 minutes, the main England bowlers – Pocock, Underwood and Greig– contained the powerful home batsmen well enough to raise hopes of a draw when the England second innings began after lunch on the fourth day.

 Amiss remembers the start of that second innings: `We had two sessions and most of the last day to get through, so it was important for Geoff Boycott and me to get off to a good start. It could hardly have been worse – Geoff, who had top-scored for us in the first innings, was caught by Deryck Murray off a Keith Boyce bouncer, and we were in real trouble.'

 Amiss was then joined by Jameson, one of seven cricketers in the match who had played for Warwickshire– the other five were Willis, Kanhai, Kallicharran, Gibbs and Murray. Chris Old would make an eighth in 1983. Jameson was caught off legspinner Barrett for 38, and then came the sort of dismissal that seems to happen to a side in trouble. Amiss again: ` Frank Hayes came in before tea, and it was vital we didn't lost another wicket before the break. So what did I do? I ran him out for a duck (a direct hit by Lloyd), so now I had got even more responsibility to bear. It was my fault, but I made a huge effort to put it out of my

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