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In Praise of... Neil Fairbrother
One of many great lost talents of the English game was Neil Fairbrother. Over ten Tests, he averaged just 15, found out by his left-handed half-bat shots to an eager slip cordon. Whereas Mark Ramprakash's technique always looked good and you were surprised you when he got out, Fairbrother never looked in and surprised you when he didn't get out. But his vulnerability in Tests was a virtue in ODIs, as his average of nearly 40 shows. He could have been our Mike Hussey.
Why am I writing about him today? 17 years ago, in a pre-climate change hot start to May, he walked out to bat after Surrey had posted an absurd 707 on another Oval featherbed. He demonstrated all his skills in despatching the bad ball for four, nurdling the good ball for a single and never letting the bowlers settle. Uniquely, he made a hundred in all three sessions of the day and walked off 311 not out, which he extended to 366 as Lancashire replied with an even more absurd 863. How do I know this? Well, I was there.
[The Tooting Trumpet]
May 2, 2007 in English cricket, General musings | Permalink | 
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Comments
As a Lancashire lad, Neil Fairbrother was my hero.
It was a cause of great sadness for me as a teenager (genuinely!) that he could not do it at test level. One of the great memories I have was him walking out to bat for England in shining red Lancashire helmet, creaming a boundary and then of course promptly getting out in the mid-teens..
Posted by: lee | 3 May 2007 08:05:45
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