Cricketer, born in Bromley, S Greater London, UK. An unorthodox slow left-arm bowler, very effective on wet pitches before the introduction of full covering, he took 297 wickets in 86 Tests for England, and this total would have been much larger had he not suffered two bans, first for defecting to World Series Cricket in 1977, and later for playing unauthorized matches in South Africa. Forty-seven times in his career he took 10 wickets in a match, and very late on he made his only first-class century, for Kent against Sussex at Hastings in 1984.
Underwood finished his career just 3 wickets short of 300 in Test cricket, at the excellent average of 25.83. He famously took the last 4 Australian wickets in 27 balls in the final half an hour at the end of the 5th Test in 1968, after a heavy thunderstorm on the fifth day had all but ended the match, to square an Ashes series that Australia were winning 1-0
He played county cricket for Kent. He made his debut for Kent aged 17 in 1963, and was the youngest player to take 100 first-class wickets in his first season of counnty cricket.
He was one of five England cricketers (the others being Alan Knott, Dennis Amiss, Bob Woolmer and Tony Greig), to feature in Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket in the late 1970s, and toured South Africa in 1981-82.
He was awarded the MBE in 1981.
In 1997, he became Patron of the Primary Club.
In a Wisden article in 2004 he was selected by a highly respected panel as a member of England's greatest post-war XI.
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