Joe Root recalls email exchange in paying tribute to Ted Dexter

Dexter, who played 62 Tests and became chairman of selectors after his retirement, was a hugely popular figure in the English game

Joe Root reflected on a series of emails sent to him by Ted Dexter during a run of poor form as he paid tribute to the former England captain, who died on Thursday.

Dexter, who played 62 Tests and became chairman of selectors after his retirement, was a hugely popular figure in the English game.

England’s cricketers wore black armbands in his memory on the second day of the third Test of the series against India at Headingley.

“It’s a really sad day,” Root told Sky Sports. “It’s sad news: ex-England captain, ex-selector. He played a huge amount of cricket for England and he was a brilliant servant for the game. It’s terribly sad to hear that – hopefully we can put on a performance in his memory.

“I never really had the pleasure of spending much time with him, but he did send me a couple of emails out of the blue when I wasn’t playing so well, telling me how to get back to where I wanted to be, so I really appreciated that. He didn’t have to do that, so it was nice of him to do that.”

Mark Nicholas tweeted: “Ted Dexter has gone – boyhood hero, teacher and dear friend. He was one of the great players and did as much or more than anyone to drag cricket into the modern age.”

^{England's players wore black armbands at Headingley as a tribute to Dexter}

Simon Hughes, editor of The Cricketer and a family friend of Dexter, added that “effectively he had invented short-form cricket”.

He wrote: “As England captain in the early Sixties, he became friendly with Bagnall Harvey, an impresario and players’ agent who looked after Denis Compton's affairs. The county game had turned professional but crowds were dwindling rapidly and all the counties were in debt. The Gillette Cup knockout trophy – which Sussex, under Dexter's perspicacious captaincy (he pioneered the idea of bowling full with the field deep and straight) won in its first two years – was in its infancy. Nobody played on Sundays.

“Harvey had a sponsor, Rothman’s, interested in the idea of promoting regular Sunday afternoon matches, and the BBC interested in showing them, as long as play finished by 6pm. He couldn’t guarantee this. You can,’ Dexter said. ‘You limit the overs and restrict the run-ups.’

“So, he went away and wrote the rules. Out of that, the Rothman’s International Cavaliers were born. They were like cricket’s Harlem Globetrotters, almost a World XI touring the country entertaining full houses on a Sunday afternoon. The Cavaliers evolved into the 40-over Sunday League, then sponsored by John Player, which, for 20 years, effectively bankrolled the English game. It was the grandfather of Twenty20 cricket.”

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