Cricket: Pringle retires to the press box

DEREK PRINGLE, the Essex and England all-rounder, has decided to retire from the first class game to pursue a career in journalism. He takes over as the Cricket Correspondent of the Independent on Sunday this weekend.

At 35 Pringle said the decision was prompted in part by the 'aches and pains' the game now inflicts upon him.

A gentle iconoclast, only Pringle could cram The Smiths, Adnams bitter, conchology and Gabriel Garcia Marquez into his 'Relaxations' entry for The Cricketers' Who's Who. Only Pringle would have dared wear an earring in his maiden Test.

In all, Pringle won 30 Test caps spread fitfully over a 10-year span, his final appearance coming against Pakistan at The Oval last year. Despite his loping gait, he was an awkward proposition with the ball: swing, seam and shrewd variations in pace rendering him especially effective on home territory.

In fact, among current English seamers with 50 Test victims or more, only Angus Fraser and Phil DeFreitas can boast more economic figures than his 70 at 35.97 apiece. In one-day internationals, rigorous control restricted opponents to barely four runs an over in 42 outings.

However, his Test return of 695 runs at an average of 15.10 - with just one fifty - was that of an underachiever, enabling him to shed the premature 'New Botham' tag that greeted his debut against India in 1982. Indeed, half his 10 first-class centuries were made as a Cambridge undergraduate.

All the same, he could be decidedly obdurate, most notably when helping Gooch add 98 for the seventh wicket to engineer England's historic Headingley triumph over the West Indies in 1991. Revealingly, he averaged over 50 for much of last season, the exuberance of the strokeplay hinting at a spirit freed by the prospect of a fresh challenge.

Slater canes Kiwis, page 27

Guide to 1994 fixtures, page 22