GOWER: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY By David Gower With Martin Johnson (Fontana, $72) IT is disappointing that an athlete of the immense talent of Englishman David Gower, who has delighted cricket fans over three decades with his distinctive style, should spend so much time in an autobiography justifying his shortcomings.
Great sportsmen and women come and go and sadly most fade into obscurity as nothing more than an enviable statistic. But David Gower, like his compatriot and cricket contemporary, Ian Botham, will stand the test of time not simply because of his rare talent but because of his personality.
Gower is England's greatest run-getter in Test cricket, a mantle he wrested from that famous Yorkshire great, opening batsman, Geoffrey Boycott.
It is an enviable record, 15 years in the making. But throughout his stellar career Gower has been badgered by a public and press who have accused him of being an under-achiever. Sadly, the constant attacks have had a profound effect on the man, now in the twilight of a great career.
Throughout the 245 pages of recollections and reminiscences, Gower constantly defends himself against the tag that he was ''laid back''.
He was twice made England captain and twice stripped of it under far-from-sporting circumstances.
While he takes a philosophical approach to those low points of his career it is clear they cut him to the bone. And contrary to the widely-held feeling that Gower was an under-achiever, he stoically set out to win his place back in the side.