Keith Medlycott

Keith Medlycott, a chirpy Cockney, was yet another of those left-arm spinners who promised much then succumbed to the dreaded bowling "yips", in which the bowler is almost unable to let go of the ball. It brought a premature end to a promising career, in which the jovial "Medders" took 357 first-class wickets, mainly for Surrey, and also scored 3684 runs at 25.94, including a debut century against Cambridge University at leafy Banstead in 1984. He toured the West Indies with England in 1989-90, without playing in a Test, and went with England A to Sri Lanka the following winter, where the yips struck. He was forced to retire from first-class cricket at the end of the following season, 1991 - he was only 26 - but returned to Surrey as coach in 1997, helping them to win three County Championship titles and four one-day trophies. He left The Oval at the end of 2003, saying that it was time for a change. And he did change: in October 2004 he started as the ICC's high-performance manager for umpires.
Steven Lynch (Sept 2004)