Irving Rosenwater 1932-2006

I was saddened to read the other day of the passing of Irving Rosenwater on January 30 at the age of 73.

Rosenwater was a noted statistician and historian on our game, and one of a handful to have become a recognisable name to the wider cricketing community. He was the scorer for BBC Television's cricket telecasts in the 1970s until he succumbed in 1977 to the twin temptations of Australian sunshine and the Packer dollar, becoming the official scorer for Channel 9's World Series Cricket coverage. He stayed with Nine into the 1980s as I recall.

His 1978 biography of Sir Donald Bradman was widely acclaimed, though I must confess that I have never read the book, which has long been out of print. Among other works, he was assistant editor to EW Swanton on the massive encyclopedia The World of Cricket (1966) and edited the crosswords in The Cricketer magazine at one time.

I've only seen the one obituary for Rosenwater published to date, in The Times on February 9 and republished in The Australian the following day.