Obituary: David Green passes away
Lancashire County Cricket Club is saddened to hear the news about the passing of our former player David Green.
He had been in hospital for the past two weeks near his Devon home, and had been suffering from respiratory problems.
A fair-haired, right-handed batsman, often used as an opener and a medium-pace bowler, Daviid Green went to Oxford from Manchester Grammar School and was a regular and successful player for three years from 1959 to 1961, turning out for Lancashire in his holidays.
He scored 1,000 runs in his first season and in 135 matches scored over 6,000 runs at and average of 26.23. In 1965, he set a record by scoring more than 2,000 runs without a single century: his highest for the season was 85.
After a more moderate season in 1966, he was injured and drifted out of the side in 1967, and was allowed to leave Lancashire at the end of the season to join Gloucestershire.
His entertaining account of that 1965 campaign, for Lancashire and MCC, provided the subject of his second book, Summer of ’65, published last year.
His first book, A Handful of Confetti, published in 2013 and covering both his cricket and rugby lives, was part-autobiographical, part-anecdotal and always irreverent.
Green’s aggressive batting in 1968 for his new county had him belatedly touted as a possible England opener: he scored 2,137 runs at an average of more than 40 runs per innings.
In the event, the only honour he received was to be selected as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1969. He gave up first-class cricket for a career in business and journalism, writing on cricket and rugby for The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for 27 years until 2009.
A good Rugby Union player he represented Sale and Cheshire.
His press colleagues and teammates remember him as a natural and hilarious raconteur, the best of colleagues and a great man.