Ted Dexter: 1935 - 2021

Sussex Cricket is deeply saddened to learn of the death of Ted Dexter, in Wolverhampton, on Wednesday 25 August.

Edward Ralph Dexter was a truly great man of Sussex, England and indeed world cricket and his passing will be mourned around the cricketing globe.

Born in Milan on 15 May 1935, Ted’s cricketing brilliance soon emerged at Radley College, where he made the 1st XI at 15 and in the seasons 1950-1953 scored 2072 runs at an average of 54.52. He won three cricket blues at Cambridge University and during his time at Cambridge made two centuries against Sussex, leaving a lasting impression on Robin Marlar, who then sought to get his signature on a recruitment form for the beloved county. Thankfully Marlar was successful in persuading Dexter to join Sussex and he made his debut in 1957. The inevitable Test debut followed against New Zealand in 1958 where he made 58 in an “excellent display” and later that year he joined the 1958-59 MCC Tour to Australia as a replacement, the original tour party having been announced before Ted’s Test debut.

In 1959, Dexter joined Sussex on a full-time basis and in the seasons 1959 and 1960 scored 3,430 runs at an incredible average of 50.44, having also taken on the Sussex captaincy in 1960. His Test match career blossomed as he led the England batting in the West Indies, scoring 526 runs at an average of 65.75. Despite, or perhaps because of, his growing status in world cricket he paid meticulous attention to detail as a captain, introducing slip catching practice for Alan Oakman to significantly develop his skills and early morning net-bowling for Don Bates which enabled him to be ready to go from the off and to take a wicket with the first ball of the innings on several occasions.

There can be no doubt that Dexter was a brilliant and innovative cricket thinker. One of the greatest ever and this was not shown more clearly than by his leadership of the Sussex team that won the first two Gillette Cups in 1963 and 1964. He showed the world how to play one-day cricket. Whilst other captains and counties stuck to traditional fields and batting methods, Dexter quickly moved slip fielders to run saving positions and employed what are now known as “sweepers” to prevent boundaries. So marked was this that after the first Gillette Cup match in 1963, the Kent Chairman was moved to write to his Sussex counterpart complaining about Dexter’s gamesmanship!

In 1965 Dexter suffered a broken leg in a motorbike accident which meant that he was to play only a further 13 first class matches for the county. At the end of the 1968 season, when still only 33, the England selectors requested that he played for Sussex in a County Championship match against Kent. Coming in at 23-4, Dexter scored a brilliant 203 and a few days later was back in the England side against Australia at Headingley. Later that season he was to play his last first class game for Sussex and although he returned to play for the club in the early years of the John Player League, his attention really switched to golf - he was a scratch golfer and the biggest star in the firmament at his golf club, Sunningdale -  and to a series of important roles in the administration and management of cricket.

He was appointed to the most senior role in English cricket looking after the England Test team and instigated a number of essential changes including the introduction of centralised support for the players at Loughborough and significantly enhanced liaison with the counties. He was later to switch his attention from the high pressure end of English cricket to the more contemplative surroundings of the MCC Committee room at Lord’s where he made a huge impact as Chairman of the Cricket Committee and President, leading the thinking on projects such as the relationships with the MCC Universities, the creation of the MCC World Cricket Committee and the “Spirit of Cricket”, where he showed the opportunity to meld the discipline and integrity of golf with the universality of the team environment of cricket, to the benefit of both.

Ted Dexter was the greatest of cricketers, a brilliant, innovative thinker and a genuinely great batsman who in the words of Jim Parks. “hit the ball harder than anybody I have played with or have seen since, even with his two pound five ounce bat”.  

The thoughts of all of us at Sussex Cricket are with Ted’s wife Sue, to whom he was married for over 60 years. Robin Marlar once suggested that Susan and Ted were the “Beckhams of their age without the tinsel and the extravagance” and there is no hint of exaggeration in this. Dexter stood for Parliament against Jim Callaghan in Cardiff, scored runs against the might of Hall and Griffiths, used a motorbike as his main form of transport and together with Sue could have modelled for any product in the world, but in Sussex he will always be remembered as the man who led us to our first ever trophies at Lord’s in 1963 and 1964 and in so doing enabled Sussex to show the world how to play one-day cricket. He will be sadly missed.

With thanks to Jon Filby for this marvellous tribute.