06 August,2010 07:19 AM IST | | Bipin Dani
South Africa's Normon Gordon is the new oldest surviving Test cricketer after Kiwi's Eric Tindil who passed away who at the age of 99 years and 226 days on Sunday. Gordon will be 99 today.
"He (Gordon) does not look like 99 years of age," former South Africa captain and Board official, Dr Ali Bacher said from Johannesburg.
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"He looks as if he is in his late seventies. Till a few years ago, he used to play golf every week," Bacher added. "I don't know why, but he was known as 'Mobil', perhaps because he used to slick down his unruly hair with handfuls of vaseline, like England's Denis Compton," Bacher recalled.
"Gordon was a fast bowler and played all five Test matches against England. He was a member of the timeless Test in Durban in the 1938-39 series."
He is the only surviving cricketer to have played in the timeless Test and, the only living man to have played Test cricket before the second World War.
"He is fantastic and remarkable. He looks like a million dollars. I shall wish him on his birthday and pray for his century," Bacher concluded.
The writer is a freelancer
