Monty Bowden

Monty Bowden Biography

A competent wicketkeeper and a hard-hitting batsman, Monty Bowden of Surrey remains England’s youngest Test captain, in the last Test of his two-match career. He played both his Tests on the 1888-89 tour of South Africa, England’s first to the country.

Bowden played for Surrey, and scored 2,316 runs at 20 and had 87 dismissals from 86 First-Class matches. He peaked in 1888, scoring 514 runs at 23, the highest point being his unbeaten 189 against Sussex. He also smashed a 240-minute 284 in a Second-Class match against Northamptonshire that season.

The tour was dominated by Johnny Briggs, mostly in odds-matches; he took 294 wickets at 5.16 (average, not economy rate). Two of these matches — the only XI-vs-XI encounters — were given retrospective Tests.

Bowden scored a duck the only time he batted in the first Test. When captain C Aubrey Smith missed the second Test with enteric fever, Bowden became captain at 23 years 144 days — though he would have no clue till his death that he had set a world record. He smashed a 16-ball 25 in the second Test. South Africa lost the one-sided series miserably, scoring 303 runs from four innings.

The SS Garth Castle carried their teammates home, but Smith and Bowden stayed back to set up a stockbroker’s firm in Johannesburg. In the one-off match that decided the inaugural Currie Cup, Bowden kept wickets, opened batting, scored 63 and 126*, and took his gloves off to take 2 wickets.

However, Smith found Bowden ‘untrustworthy’ and left for America to become a major Hollywood star. Bowden went bankrupt soon, and travelled north with Cecil Rhodes’ army in the quest for gold. When the hotel management wanted payment in return of the lavish lifestyle of the soldiers, Bowden handed over the Currie Cup.

Bowden suffered from a bout of fever. Military life pushed him into depression. He was reported to have “died a lingering death” on October 24, 1890.

The news was not true, but Bowden never regained fortune. He settled down in Manicaland, earning a living by transporting goods from M’pandas to Umtali (now Mutare). He had to encounter extreme heat, dangerous swamps, lions, and crocodiles during the 300-km land route.

Bowden went down with fever again, this time near Mozambique. He recovered to play the first cricket match in Manicaland, on an earthen road at Umtali without a mat. Bowden bowled four batsmen.

He went down with fever the next day, accompanied by an epileptic seizure. His body temperature soared to 107°F, and he passed away four days later at Umtali Hospital — “a glorious mud hut”. Till his burial his body had to be kept in a coffin made from whisky cases — to keep lions away.

He was only 26.

Abhishek Mukherjee

Monty Bowden Batting & Fielding Averages

Career

Avg

100s

50s

Test

ODIs

T20s

World Cup

Monty Bowden Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
ODIs	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
T20s	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--		--