as a national team selector from 1962 to 1985, and was chairman of selectors from 1968 to 1981. He was on the board of selectors who controversially left Basil d'Oliveira out of the England team for 1968's tour of South Africa. England won ten of the 18 series while Bedser was chairman of selectors. Bedser also managed two England overseas tours. Bedser was made president of Surrey in 1987 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the county's cricketing fortunes over the previous five decades. He was knighted for his services to cricket in the 1997 New Year Honours. In October 2004 Bedser was selected in 'England's Greatest Post-War XI' by The Wisden Cricketer, an authoritative monthly cricket magazine. In May 2009, Christopher Martin-Jenkins ranked Bedser 29th in picking his 100 greatest cricketers of all time. Outside of cricket, Bedser was a founding member of the right-wing pressure group, the Freedom Association during the 1970s, which advocated the maintenance of sporting relations with South Africa during the apartheid era. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1964, advanced to Commander (CBE) in 1982, and in 1996 he became the first (and still only) England bowler to be knighted for services to cricket. Neither Alec nor his brother Eric ever married. They lived together in Woking until Eric's death in 2006. Sir Alec Bedser died in hospital in Woking on 4 April 2010 after a short illness. Among those to pay tribute to the more famous of the two brothers was former Prime Minister, well-known cricket lover and lifelong Surrey supporter John Major, who said: "Alec Bedser was one of the greatest medium-fast bowlers of all time. He was also one of the great thinkers about cricket and his wisdom was one of the great untapped resources of the modern game." For three months following the death of Arthur McIntyre on 26 December 2009, Bedser was the oldest surviving England Test cricketer. On Bedser's death, that distinction passed to Reg Simpson. Career highlights Tests Test debut: vs India, Lord's, Middlesex, 1946 Last Test: vs South Africa, Old Trafford, Manchester, 1955 Bedser's best Test batting score of 79 was made against Australia, Headingley, Leeds, 1948 His best Test bowling figures for an innings, 7 for 44, came against Australia, at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, 1953 He dismissed Don Bradman, widely regarded as the greatest batsman of