Tim Robinson

Tim Robinson trained as an accountant, often batted like one and eventually captained Nottinghamshire like one. But in his early days in Test cricket, he showed promise of being much more: he scored a match-winning 160 in his second Test, at Delhi in 1984-85, and looked an opening bat of true courage and class. He was immortalised in song at the tour Christmas party as "Old man Robbo, he just keeps batting along". After making two more big hundreds against Australia the next summer, anything looked possible. But he was blown away spectacularly in 1985-86 by Malcolm Marshall and Joel Garner; his reputation - and maybe his nerve - never recovered. He played on in county cricket till he really was old man Robbo and scored 63 first-class centuries.
Matthew Engel