Thomas William Graveney OBE (16 June 1927 – 3 November 2015) was an English first-class cricketer, representing his country in 79 Test matches and scoring over 4,800 runs.

At school he had been primarily a bowler, but when playing cricket on concrete pitches in Egypt with the army, he specialised more in batting, using his height and technique.

[2][4][5] He played his first first-class match for Gloucestershire against Oxford University Cricket Club in April 1948 but failed to score, and did not become a regular member of the side until later in the season.

[2][4][5] By the end of the tour, he had established his place in the national team, and (in the words of The Times) was regarded as "England's outstanding young batsman", along with Peter May.

[2][3] Graveney's attacking style as a batsman did not find favour with Hutton, the captain, who (in the words of one commentator) "did not want flowery batsmen but fighters" in the attempt to regain the Ashes from Australia.

[2][5] Perhaps jokingly, he later put his failure to be selected for the South Africa tour to the fact that he had beaten the chairman of selectors, Gubby Allen, at a round of golf.

Discontent with his captaincy led the county to replace him after the end of the 1960 season with Tom Pugh, a less talented batsmen who (according to The Times) was "a young and inexperienced amateur who was barely worth his place in the side".

[2][3] His performances for Worcestershire in 1962 led to his recall to the England team, where he scored two centuries and averaged 100 in the series against Pakistan, but he failed again on the winter tour of Australia and was dropped.

[2] He helped Worcestershire win the county championship in 1964 and 1965, the first time that they had done so, and reached the landmark of one hundred first-class centuries in 1964 (the 15th person, and the first player starting his career after the Second World War, to do so).

[2][6] Recalled by England in 1966 against the West Indies, he scored heavily, including 165 at the Oval, aged 39, described as "arguably the best innings of his life" by one report.

[2] He later said that his England recall "came totally out of the blue" and that a West Indian supporter in the crowd shouted "Heh, Graveney, haven't they got a pension scheme in this country?

"[5] He remained in the team in the following seasons, performing well at home and on tour, and captaining England against Australia for one match in 1968 when Colin Cowdrey was unavailable.

Finding fielding increasingly tiring, although still enjoying batting, he left Worcestershire in 1970 and took up a position as player-coach for Queensland, returning after a generally unsuccessful period in Australia in 1972.

Against an attack that featured Freeman, Hammond, Greg Chappell, Mallet and Jenner, Graveney gave a superlative display of cover driving with exquisite timing that sent the crowd and local media into raptures.

[3] He was described by The Daily Telegraph as "the greatest, as well as the most elegant and graceful, professional batsman to emerge in Britain in the years after the Second World War", and as "a throwback to cricket's golden age" with his attacking power and technique.

"[3] After retiring from cricket, he worked in various roles, including a squash club manager in Essex and a pub landlord in Prestbury, Gloucestershire.

[8] His final cricket match was in 1995, when he played for the Lord's Taverners against the MCC President's XI: he scored 1 run before being caught by David Frost off the bowling of the actor Robert Powell.