Фредерик Браун: Англияның крикетшісі және әскери қайраткері

English cricketer

Frederick Richard Brown (16 December 1910 – 24 July 1991) was an English amateur cricketer who played Test cricket for England from 1931 to 1953, and first class cricket for Cambridge University (1930–31), Surrey (1931–48), and Northamptonshire (1949–53). He was a genuine all rounder, batting right handed and bowling either right arm medium pace or leg break and googly. Brown was named one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1933, but his career declined thereafter until he was made captain of Northamptonshire and England in 1949. Brown was an England selector from 1951 to 1953 and Chairman of Selectors in 1953 when England regained the Ashes. Subsequently, he was involved in cricket administration including tour management. He was elected President of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1971–72 and Chairman of the Cricket Council in 1977. He was awarded the MBE in 1942 for his gallantry in the evacuation of the British Army from Crete and the CBE in 1980 for services to cricket.

Brown was the son of Roger Grounds Brown, an English businessman in Peru who was a keen cricketer, opening the batting and taking 5/50 for Lima Cricket and Football Club against Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 1926–27. Brown's sister Aline was a left handed batter for the Women's Cricket Association from 1934 to 1948 and, later, his sons Richard Philip and Christopher Frederick played minor cricket. Brown was naturally left handed, but forced to use his "proper" right hand from an early age, fortunately without affecting his cricket. He was educated at the Saint Peter's School in Chile, where he played little cricket, and from 1921 at St Piran's school in Maidenhead, where he was taught googly bowling by South African all rounder Aubrey Faulkner. In 1925, Brown moved to The Leys School in Cambridge and topped the school batting and bowling averages. and took 5/9 against the Free Foresters in the following match, bowling leg spin. His first century was 150 against Surrey at The Oval, sharing a partnership of 257 for the seventh wicket. He scored his second century in his next innings, making 140 against H. D. G. Leveson Gower's XI at The Saffrons. At the end of the season, he was top of the Cambridge batting averages. He made his highest first class score of 212 against Middlesex at The Oval, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack commenting on "a glorious display of fearless hitting" with two sixes out of the ground, another five into the stands and fifteen fours. He played in the two Tests in New Zealand, scoring 74 in 83 minutes in the first Test at Lancaster Park, but was dropped from the England team for its 1933 matches. Brown was chosen as one of the 1933 Wisden Cricketers of the Year for his "double" of 100 wickets and 1,000 runs in 1932. Brown took a commission in the Royal Army Service Corps. He helped evacuate the British Army from Crete in 1941 for which he was awarded the MBE in the 1942 New Year Honours List. He played cricket with Lindsay Hassett in Cairo, but was captured with Bill Bowes at Tobruk in 1942 and spent the rest of the war in prisoner of war camps in Italy and Germany,

Brown became a medium paced seamer after the war and organised cricket while working as a welfare officer in a Doncaster colliery. When the coal mines were nationalised Brown lost his job and became the captain and assistant secretary of Northamptonshire County Cricket Club (Northants) in 1949. This revitalised his career as he scored 1,077 runs at 24.47 and took 111 wickets at 27.00 in 1949, Northants improving from seventeenth and last place in the 1948 County Championship to sixth in 1949. As a result, Brown was asked to captain England in the last two Tests against New Zealand, taking two wickets and four catches in a 0–0 series draw. In 1950, he scored 1,108 runs at 38.20 and took 77 wickets at 28.38. Brown had only a modest Test career up to that point, having made only 233 runs at 23.30 and taken 14 wickets at 40.79, but this was still a time when the England captain had to be an amateur even if he was a "passenger" in terms of ability. Brown was made captain for the last Test against the West Indies with England already 2–1 down in the series; they lost the final Test by an innings, which did not bode well for the team in Australia.

The 1950–51 England team under Brown's captaincy was regarded as one of the weakest sent to Australia and John Kay commented that without the key players Alec Bedser and Len Hutton, England's standard would have been little better than that of a club team. England lost the Test series 4–1, their only victory being a consolation win in the final Test. Despite his team's poor performance, the forty year old Brown enjoyed personal success and won considerable popularity among Australian supporters with his determination to fight on regardless of the odds. Unexpectedly, he scored 210 runs at 26.25 and took 18 wickets at 21.61 in the series, coming third in the England batting averages after Hutton and Reg Simpson and third in the bowling averages after Bedser and Trevor Bailey. Despite his determination, Brown was an unsuccessful captain and his greatest mistake was to move Hutton down the batting order from one to six in a bid to strengthen the lower order: the result was that Hutton ran out of partners three times in the first two Tests. The team's poor fielding came in for especial criticism and earned them the nickname of Brown's Cows. However, Bill O'Reilly wrote that Brown did a magnificent job as both player and captain through his unselfish devotion to the job, earning the admiration of the Australian supporters. The first Test at Woolloongabba was decided by a torrential rainstorm which flooded the ground after Australia had scored 228 and turned the wicket into a "sticky dog". Brown had bowled well, taking 2/63 in support of Bedser and Bailey. In the changed conditions, Brown gambled on a declaration at 68/7 so that the Australians would have to bat on the wet pitch before it dried out. Predictably, Australia's batting collapsed and their captain Lindsay Hassett declared at 32/7 to make England bat again. Brown missed an opportunity to save time when he misunderstood how long it took to roll the pitch, given that the ground still used a horse drawn heavy roller. Next morning, England were all out for 122 and lost by 70 runs. In the second Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia were dismissed for 194 and England were reduced to 54/5 before Brown came in to top score with 62 in England's 197. He won the crowd over with this innings, especially when he hit Ian Johnson straight down the ground for six and through the covers for four. He bowled well and took 4/26 as Australia were out for 181, but England could only score 150 as the hosts won by 28 runs to take a 2–0 lead in the series. In the third Test, Brown made his highest Test score of 79 with another defiant innings after England had been reduced to 137/4. Injuries to Bailey and Doug Wright seriously depleted England's bowling and Brown had to bowl 44 overs to support Bedser and debutant John Warr. He took a commendable 4/153 as Australia totalled 426 before bowling England out again to win the match by an innings and secure the series victory. The remainder of the series was an anti climax and Australia won the fourth Test by 274 runs before England restored some pride with a consolation win in the final Test. During the fourth Test, Brown was hospitalised after a motor accident and was unfit to continue playing. He relinquished the captaincy to vice captain Denis Compton who became the first professional England captain since Jack Hobbs in 1926, Brown was fit to play in the final Test at Melbourne and achieved his best Test bowling figures of 5/49, including a spell of 3/0. England won by 8 wickets, the first Test Australia had lost since 1938. Brown scored 62 against New Zealand in the drawn first Test at Christchurch. He scored 47 and 10 not out in the low scoring second Test at Basin Reserve, which England won by 6 wickets to give them a 1–0 series win.

Brown was retained as England captain against South Africa on his return and was made a Test selector. South Africa won the first Test and England the second by 10 wickets. Brown scored 42 out of 211 in the low scoring third Test, which England won by 9 wickets and took 3/107 in the drawn fourth Test. England sealed a 3–1 series victory with a four wicket win in the fifth Test, Brown scoring 40. He made 940 runs at 33.57 in 1951 and took 66 wickets at 23.37. Ray Lindwall recalled that most of the England players remembered Brown as captain and called him Skipper out of habit, even the new captain Hutton. Brown scored 22 runs off 14 balls in the first innings and Lindwall says he "pitched and turned his leg breaks on a good length equally well from either end" to take 4/82. When Hutton damaged a finger trying to take a catch, Brown took over in the field. The match ended in a draw and was his last Test and Brown effectively retired from cricket at the end of the 1953 season, though he made occasional reappearances until 1961. He was President of MCC in 1971–72. He was awarded the CBE for services to cricket in the 1980 Queen's Birthday Honours List.

Brown was a leg spinner in his youth, but turned to medium paced bowling after the war. He was also one of the selectors who took the radical step of making Hutton England captain, the first professional to be appointed to the position since 1877. Brown's combative captaincy is best remembered for leading poor teams regardless of the odds, Northants in 1949–53 and England in 1950–51, where he laid the foundations for future success. On the 1950–51 tour, Brown allowed the team to socialize more than previous captains had done and saw no reason why he should insist that amateur undergraduates should mix awkwardly with working class professionals, or that veterans should accompany their younger teammates. This led to the usual stories of dissension in the ranks when a team performs badly and Brown hotly denied this.

There are widely contrasting views about Brown's personality. He was well liked in Australia when he captained England there in 1950–51 as recorded by O'Reilly (see above). According to Kay, Brown had a hearty appetite for food and drink and was combative and forceful by nature, which endeared him to the Australian public. Jack Fingleton commented: "With his sun hat on, a 'kerchief tied round his neck, and ambling jovially in the field, Freddie Brown lacked only a wisp of straw in his mouth to make him look like the original Farmer Brown". Brown was considered "a bully who preyed on weakness or quirk of character". It was not just professionals as Brown quarreled with the amateur Trevor Bailey, which led to long standing mutual antipathy. In Trueman's autobiography, he refers to Brown as "a snob, bad mannered, ignorant and a bigot". Trueman made a formal complaint about Brown to the team captain, Peter May. Tom Graveney commented on the lack of team spirit on the tour, saying that "Freddie Brown, in particular, did a very bad job" and was rude to several team members. Graveney called Brown "a very stuck up individual – at least when he was sober".