Chris Tavaré

Tavaré was born at Orpington in Kent and educated at Sevenoaks School and St John's College, Oxford, where he graduated with a degree in zoology. He played cricket for Oxford University, Kent County Cricket Club and Somerset County Cricket Club as an attacking right-handed batsman.

He adapted his natural game to meet the requirements of the Test side, becoming a notorious blocker.[2] In 1981 against Australia at Old Trafford he scored 69 and 78, but was at the crease for twelve hours. His 50 in five hours and fifty minutes, against Pakistan in 1982, was the second-slowest in the history of the English game.[1] Among his slowest innings was a score of 35 runs in six-and-a-half hours at Madras in the 1981/82 season. In 2012, Alex Massie wrote that, for Tavaré, scoring runs seemed "a disagreeable, even vulgar, distraction from the pure task of surviving".[3] The Test selectors dropped Tavaré in 1984, after he had made 25 Test appearances, following another time-consuming score of 14 against the Sri Lankans.[1]

Tavaré captained Kent for three years, before he was replaced by Chris Cowdrey in 1986.[1] He moved to Somerset as captain in 1989,[1] following a successful benefit in 1988. He was recalled for one Test Match against Australia in 1989.

Tavaré was a biology teacher at his alma mater, Sevenoaks School until his retirement in 2018.[4][5] He is first cousin of comedian Jim Tavaré.

• Chris Tavaré at ESPNcricinfo