Alan Knott

Born in Belvedere, Kent, Knott was educated at Northumberland Heath Secondary Modern School. Inspired by his father, Knott made his Kent debut in 1964 at the age of 18. He joined a long list of Kent-created wicket-keeper-batsmen.

He gained his first Test cap at the age of 21, having been named Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year in 1965. He made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1967. Batting at number 8, he made a duck in his first Test, at Trent Bridge, but didn't concede a single bye in the match. He made 28 in the second match, but didn't make the starting eleven for the 1967–68 tour of the West Indies, as Jim Parks was initially preferred. However, for the fourth and fifth matches of the series, he was picked again. In the first of those, he made his first Test half-century, a score of 69 not out, and he once again excelled at wicket-keeping.

In 1970 Knott was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. County captain Colin Cowdrey said:

He has the distinction of once scoring 7 runs from a single delivery in Test cricket, off Vanburn Holder in the Fourth England v West Indies Test at Headingley in 1976. Knott took a quick single to extra-cover where Bernard Julien fielded and overthrew the wicket-keeper. Knott and Tony Greig ran two overthrows before Andy Roberts, fielding at square-leg, retrieved the ball and threw it past the stumps at the bowler's end and over the long-off boundary for four more runs.

Knott helped England win the Ashes in England in 1977 but had been persuaded by England colleague Tony Greig to join Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket. This effectively put his England career on hold as the 'Packer players' were banned from Test cricket. When he returned to Tests after the end of World Series Cricket in 1980, he had very little success against a mighty West Indian side, averaging 5.14 in the series. He did not play in the tour of the West Indies that immediately followed, but was picked for the final two Tests of the famous 1981 Ashes series. Fittingly for one of England's greatest players, he ended his last Test against Australia at The Oval, with a score of 70 not out and an England series win.

In an article written in 2008, The Daily Telegraph journalist Michael Henderson, comparing Knott with Adam Gilchrist, called Knott the greatest wicketkeeper-batsman, without argument, as opposed to Gilchrist, whom he called a batsman-wicketkeeper.

On 6 September 2009, Alan Knott was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame, and in 2013 he was named in Wisden's all-time Test World XI.

Knott was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to cricket.