Hampshire grassroots cricketing legend Christopher Bazalgette – the man who taught Ali G to play the sport

He passed away, aged 84, after bravely battling a long illness, which left him bedridden for the closing year or so of his hugely active life.

He had been advertisement manager for The Cricketer, a founder of the European Cricketer Cup, a Life Member of Hambledon CC, and a life member of the Hogs CC.

In a long and distinguished amateur career, he took over 2,500 wickets including those of Mark Nicholas (three times), Ravi Shastri, Jeff Crowe and Doug Walters.

Of those wickets, 1,405 were taken for Hampshire Hogs, for whom he made over 800 appearances, the last in 2017. He took five or more wickets for the Hogs on 49 occasions.

Christopher, who lived near Fareham, joinedthe XL Club in 1977 and over the years was a match manager, chairman of the Cricket Committee, South District Chairman, and a member of the Executive Committee.

In some 138 matches for XL between 1978 and 2009 he took 205 wickets with best figures of 7-50. He achieved a five-wicket haul nine times.

In a throwback to cricketing yesteryear, he often played with a Hogs tie holding up his whites and, bowling to his infamous 7-2 field, was so meticulous with his gameplan that he would mark where his fielders should stand. Woe betide them if they strayed a foot or two ...

A larger than life character and hugely respected in club cricket circles, he appeared on tour for many amateur teams around the world. He even taught Channel 4 comedian Ali G to play the game.

As a writer he penned over 800,000 words, mainly for 'The Cricketer International'. He starred in a number of American, Australian and British television programmes on the game and wrote a book entitled Think Cricket.

His funeral is at 1pm on Friday, January 20, at St James Church, Southwick, Fareham PO17 6EA.