Brian Statham
Encyclopedia
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE (17 June 1930, Gorton
, Manchester
– 10 June 2000, Stockport
, Greater Manchester
) was one of the leading English fast bowlers
in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast. This, together with unflagging accuracy and the ability to make the ball new or old break back, made Statham a consistent force both for Lancashire
in the County Championship
and in Test cricket
, where his strikepower helped give England perhaps its strongest attack of the 20th century during the 1950s and early 1960s. He overtook Alec Bedser
's record of 236 Test wickets in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval
in 1962-63. This new record of 242 Test wickets (24.27) was rapidly overtaken by his famous new-ball partner Fred Trueman
two months later in New Zealand. Statham finsihed with 252 Test wickets (24.84).
Statham was remarkably gentlemanly for a fast bowler and would rarely bowl a bouncer (and would warn the batsmen beforehand if he did), but his straight, full-length bowling could easily hit a batsman on the foot. Statham was also a brilliantly athletic out-fielder who was well suited to the one-day game when it emerged in the latter part of his career.
On 30 August 2009, Brian Statham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
for his national service
. He was based at Stafford
and would return home at weekends to play cricket. He joined Stockport Cricket Club
and played for them in the Central Lancashire Cricket League
. Statham also played football for Denton West as left wing, and was offered trials with Liverpool
and Manchester City
. However, it went no further as his father did not want him to pursue football as a career. At the age of eighteen, he came to the notice of the Lancashire officials who needed considerable reinforcement for their bowling attack, and was offered an engagement a year later, which he accepted.
were so favourable to spinners Roy Tattersall
and Malcolm Hilton
. Nonetheless, two fine performances against Somerset
and Yorkshire
and several valuable early wickets in other innings gave him an excellent average even though he only took 36 wickets in the County Championship
. This placed him top of the average amongst bowlers of pace, but at the time he was seen as only a promising newcomer who might strengthen a department in which England had been deplorably weak ever since the resumption of first-class cricket after the Second World War. However, when England were depleted by injuries in Australia, Statham and off-spinner Tattersall were surprisingly called into the team despite no previous representative experience. Though Statham did not achieve anything of note in his initial Test, by the time the 1951 season began he had made a meteoric rise.
and the spinners doing most of the work against South Africa in 1951, Statham had to do very little in the Tests, but he only missed 100 first-class wickets due to injury and showed himself a formidable bowler on a pitch offering help. In India, his average was good, but the heat and humidity certainly seemed to take their toll upon his body and he did little in the Tests, with the result that he was not chosen for a Test match in 1952 even though he was gaining speed and straightness and was often extremely formidable despite conditions rarely favouring bowlers. In 1953, Statham was within a whisker of heading the first-class averages and bowled wonderfully on the most placid of pitches against Hampshire
, but Bedser ensured he was not needed in the Ashes Tests. Statham and fellow fast-bowler Fred Trueman
were on occasion, in 1953, called up to the Test squad, but with the England team maturing, the captain, Len Hutton
did not feel comfortable playing two fast-bowlers, often preferring the more economical, slower bowling of Alec Bedser
and Trevor Bailey
. This meant that Statham and Trueman rarely bowled in tandem in this period.
It was against the West Indies in 1953/1954 that Statham's determination saw him gain a regular Test spot. Excellent performances on placid pitches made him the leading bowler on either side with 16 wickets for 28.60 each, and in 1954 he was deadly when cricket was possible against Pakistan (injury kept him out of England's shock loss at the Oval
). Statham headed the first-class averages for the first of four occasions, though he only took 92 wickets due to appalling weather constantly interrupting cricket in Lancashire, and was made a Cricketer of the Year by the 1955 Wisden.
win England the Ashes series by three Tests to one. Whilst he never achieved anything sensational, his back up to Tyson made sure the pressure Tyson's pace put on the Australians was maintained at both ends. With Tyson unavailable due to a blistered heel, Statham paired up with Trueman to open the bowling against South Africa
at Lord's in 1955. Statham produced best bowling figures in Test matches in South Africa's second innings in the match; his 7/39 as England won by 79 runs. He bowled unchanged for two hours on a good pitch in England's unexpected victory. Had injury not intervened and kept his appearances down to only half of Lancashire's County Championship matches, Statham would have had remarkable figures. The highest first-class score of his career came against Leicestershire
in 1955; however, his innings was cut short on the orders of his captain, Cyril Washbrook, who asked that Statham get himself out so that he would be fresh to bowl. In 1956, with pitches consistently favouring spinners, Statham did so little that he failed to reach 100 wickets. Still, his 6 for 27 against the Australians was enough to show his greatness was not in doubt.
On some dubious pitches in South Africa that winter, and in the following two English summers, England's unparalleled spread of bowling talent again gave Statham little chance to show his ability, but in county cricket, even with no regular partner, Statham was still the most reliable bowler and almost never failed to produce some extraordinary analyses. In 1957 against Warwickshire
at Edgbaston
, he took 15 for 89; against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in 1958 13 for 64; and at Cardiff that year he and Tattersall bowled Glamorgan
out for 26. His average of 12.29 that year was his best-ever but he was still only third in the first-class list due to large numbers of very helpful pitches.
providing the support Statham had been yearning for since he began, 1958 marked the beginning of Statham's greatest period. Despite England's "old guard" of May, Laker
and Lock
collapsing in the Australian tour of 1958/1959 and England losing four-nil, Statham bowled as beautifully as ever. His 7 for 57 at the MCG
was regarded as some of the best bowling ever seen at the ground, and represents his best figures against Australia.
In the following two seasons, though pitches in England were covered after play began for the first time, Statham carried all before him both at county and Test level. So good was he that in 1960 his speed and accuracy gave him an average of 10.91 from 19 county matches, and in the Tests against the South Africans he was equally formidable: taking 11 for 97 at Lord's and inflicting only the third "king pair" (out first ball in each innings) on "Tich" Wesley in the third match. The previous year, in an exceptionally dry summer, Statham's consistency was shown by the fact that, with only one haul of six in an innings, he still took 97 wickets for 16.49 each despite missing seven games with a strain. By 1960, Higgs' assistance, gave Lancashire so formidable an opening attack that until mid-August, they looked like winning the Championship. In many games, such as that against Gloucestershire
at Bristol
, they dominated proceedings so completely that Lancashire won with little support from their batting. Against the West Indies in 1960/1961, Statham confirmed his position as the best bowler in the world with 27 wickets for 20 runs each on pitches offering bowlers very little.
When Fred Trueman
and Statham toured Australia for the 1962-63 Ashes series they had 216 and 229 wickets respectively were poised to overtake the record of 236 Test wickets set by the assistant-manager Alec Bedser
. The Australian captain Richie Benaud
was another contender with 219 wickets, but it was Statham who broke the record in the Fourth Test at Adelaide. Trueman caught
Barry Shepherd
in the gully to give him his record 237th wicket. Despite the record Statham rarely shined on the tour, taking 13 wickets (44.61), and was used as a steady stock bowler. Statham took his record to 242 wickets, but returned to England while Trueman continued to New Zealand, where he broke Statham's record after only two months.
In 1963, whilst his county form on overgrassed pitches was back to something close to his best, on the less grassy surfaces in the First Test against the West Indies his bowling lacked its old venom, and he was surprisingly replaced by the veteran Derek Shackleton
for the rest of the series - a move criticised heavily in the press because it was known fast bowlers would do well at Lord's. A highlight that year came when Statham took five wickets in the first-ever Gillette Cup match against Leicestershire.
In 1964, Statham, despite the arrival of Sonny Ramadhin
to provide help, was disappointing and out of contention for the Ashes Tests. He did take 15 for 108 against a weak Leicestershire side and 7 for 50 against Warwickshire at Coventry
, but had more bad matches than in any other season of his career.
The cares of captaincy were, perhaps, not well-suited to Statham and many of the decision he made as captain between 1965 and 1967 were widely criticised – perhaps because Lancashire's form did not improve from its poor level of the 1961 to 1964 period. Despite this, the club's committee declared Statham's first year as captain "an unqualified success". Yet, as a bowler, Statham, aided he admitted by some atrocious and deliberately untrue pitches, was as deadly as ever in the 1965 County Championship, taking 124 wickets for 12.41 apiece, and doing almost as well in 1966 and 1967. He in fact was so good that England recalled him at the age of 35 for the final Test against South Africa in 1965, and Statham did not disappoint, with an excellent 5 for 40 in the first innings. His form was so good it was known MCC would have selected him to tour Australia for the fifth time had Statham not made it known by then that he did not wish to be considered for tours.
Statham was also awarded a CBE
in 1968 in recognition of his services to cricket.
Statham became a member of the Lancashire committee in 1970, and was a member of it until 1995. He was appointed as president of the club from 1997 to 1998. In his later years, despite his earnings as a cricketer, Statham was consistently troubled financially; in fact, he always lived in quite poor conditions off the cricket field. When Fred Trueman
learned of Statham's financial difficulties in 1989, he organised two testimonial dinners to raise money for Statham. He died of leukemia
a week before his 70th birthday.
The section of Warwick Road which runs past Lancashire County Cricket Club's Old Trafford Cricket Ground was renamed "Brian Statham Way" in Statham's honour. Incidentally, the other end of Warwick Road was previously renamed Sir Matt Busby Way after the former Manchester United manager, as the road runs past their stadium's Scoreboard End.
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE (17 June 1930, Gorton
, Manchester
– 10 June 2000, Stockport
, Greater Manchester
) was one of the leading English fast bowlers
in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast. This, together with unflagging accuracy and the ability to make the ball new or old break back, made Statham a consistent force both for Lancashire
in the County Championship
and in Test cricket
, where his strikepower helped give England perhaps its strongest attack of the 20th century during the 1950s and early 1960s. He overtook Alec Bedser
's record of 236 Test wickets in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval
in 1962-63. This new record of 242 Test wickets (24.27) was rapidly overtaken by his famous new-ball partner Fred Trueman
two months later in New Zealand. Statham finsihed with 252 Test wickets (24.84).
Statham was remarkably gentlemanly for a fast bowler and would rarely bowl a bouncer (and would warn the batsmen beforehand if he did), but his straight, full-length bowling could easily hit a batsman on the foot. Statham was also a brilliantly athletic out-fielder who was well suited to the one-day game when it emerged in the latter part of his career.
On 30 August 2009, Brian Statham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
for his national service
. He was based at Stafford
and would return home at weekends to play cricket. He joined Stockport Cricket Club
and played for them in the Central Lancashire Cricket League
. Statham also played football for Denton West as left wing, and was offered trials with Liverpool
and Manchester City
. However, it went no further as his father did not want him to pursue football as a career. At the age of eighteen, he came to the notice of the Lancashire officials who needed considerable reinforcement for their bowling attack, and was offered an engagement a year later, which he accepted.
were so favourable to spinners Roy Tattersall
and Malcolm Hilton
. Nonetheless, two fine performances against Somerset
and Yorkshire
and several valuable early wickets in other innings gave him an excellent average even though he only took 36 wickets in the County Championship
. This placed him top of the average amongst bowlers of pace, but at the time he was seen as only a promising newcomer who might strengthen a department in which England had been deplorably weak ever since the resumption of first-class cricket after the Second World War. However, when England were depleted by injuries in Australia, Statham and off-spinner Tattersall were surprisingly called into the team despite no previous representative experience. Though Statham did not achieve anything of note in his initial Test, by the time the 1951 season began he had made a meteoric rise.
and the spinners doing most of the work against South Africa in 1951, Statham had to do very little in the Tests, but he only missed 100 first-class wickets due to injury and showed himself a formidable bowler on a pitch offering help. In India, his average was good, but the heat and humidity certainly seemed to take their toll upon his body and he did little in the Tests, with the result that he was not chosen for a Test match in 1952 even though he was gaining speed and straightness and was often extremely formidable despite conditions rarely favouring bowlers. In 1953, Statham was within a whisker of heading the first-class averages and bowled wonderfully on the most placid of pitches against Hampshire
, but Bedser ensured he was not needed in the Ashes Tests. Statham and fellow fast-bowler Fred Trueman
were on occasion, in 1953, called up to the Test squad, but with the England team maturing, the captain, Len Hutton
did not feel comfortable playing two fast-bowlers, often preferring the more economical, slower bowling of Alec Bedser
and Trevor Bailey
. This meant that Statham and Trueman rarely bowled in tandem in this period.
It was against the West Indies in 1953/1954 that Statham's determination saw him gain a regular Test spot. Excellent performances on placid pitches made him the leading bowler on either side with 16 wickets for 28.60 each, and in 1954 he was deadly when cricket was possible against Pakistan (injury kept him out of England's shock loss at the Oval
). Statham headed the first-class averages for the first of four occasions, though he only took 92 wickets due to appalling weather constantly interrupting cricket in Lancashire, and was made a Cricketer of the Year by the 1955 Wisden.
win England the Ashes series by three Tests to one. Whilst he never achieved anything sensational, his back up to Tyson made sure the pressure Tyson's pace put on the Australians was maintained at both ends. With Tyson unavailable due to a blistered heel, Statham paired up with Trueman to open the bowling against South Africa
at Lord's in 1955. Statham produced best bowling figures in Test matches in South Africa's second innings in the match; his 7/39 as England won by 79 runs. He bowled unchanged for two hours on a good pitch in England's unexpected victory. Had injury not intervened and kept his appearances down to only half of Lancashire's County Championship matches, Statham would have had remarkable figures. The highest first-class score of his career came against Leicestershire
in 1955; however, his innings was cut short on the orders of his captain, Cyril Washbrook, who asked that Statham get himself out so that he would be fresh to bowl. In 1956, with pitches consistently favouring spinners, Statham did so little that he failed to reach 100 wickets. Still, his 6 for 27 against the Australians was enough to show his greatness was not in doubt.
On some dubious pitches in South Africa that winter, and in the following two English summers, England's unparalleled spread of bowling talent again gave Statham little chance to show his ability, but in county cricket, even with no regular partner, Statham was still the most reliable bowler and almost never failed to produce some extraordinary analyses. In 1957 against Warwickshire
at Edgbaston
, he took 15 for 89; against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in 1958 13 for 64; and at Cardiff that year he and Tattersall bowled Glamorgan
out for 26. His average of 12.29 that year was his best-ever but he was still only third in the first-class list due to large numbers of very helpful pitches.
providing the support Statham had been yearning for since he began, 1958 marked the beginning of Statham's greatest period. Despite England's "old guard" of May, Laker
and Lock
collapsing in the Australian tour of 1958/1959 and England losing four-nil, Statham bowled as beautifully as ever. His 7 for 57 at the MCG
was regarded as some of the best bowling ever seen at the ground, and represents his best figures against Australia.
In the following two seasons, though pitches in England were covered after play began for the first time, Statham carried all before him both at county and Test level. So good was he that in 1960 his speed and accuracy gave him an average of 10.91 from 19 county matches, and in the Tests against the South Africans he was equally formidable: taking 11 for 97 at Lord's and inflicting only the third "king pair" (out first ball in each innings) on "Tich" Wesley in the third match. The previous year, in an exceptionally dry summer, Statham's consistency was shown by the fact that, with only one haul of six in an innings, he still took 97 wickets for 16.49 each despite missing seven games with a strain. By 1960, Higgs' assistance, gave Lancashire so formidable an opening attack that until mid-August, they looked like winning the Championship. In many games, such as that against Gloucestershire
at Bristol
, they dominated proceedings so completely that Lancashire won with little support from their batting. Against the West Indies in 1960/1961, Statham confirmed his position as the best bowler in the world with 27 wickets for 20 runs each on pitches offering bowlers very little.
When Fred Trueman
and Statham toured Australia for the 1962-63 Ashes series they had 216 and 229 wickets respectively were poised to overtake the record of 236 Test wickets set by the assistant-manager Alec Bedser
. The Australian captain Richie Benaud
was another contender with 219 wickets, but it was Statham who broke the record in the Fourth Test at Adelaide. Trueman caught
Barry Shepherd
in the gully to give him his record 237th wicket. Despite the record Statham rarely shined on the tour, taking 13 wickets (44.61), and was used as a steady stock bowler. Statham took his record to 242 wickets, but returned to England while Trueman continued to New Zealand, where he broke Statham's record after only two months.
In 1963, whilst his county form on overgrassed pitches was back to something close to his best, on the less grassy surfaces in the First Test against the West Indies his bowling lacked its old venom, and he was surprisingly replaced by the veteran Derek Shackleton
for the rest of the series - a move criticised heavily in the press because it was known fast bowlers would do well at Lord's. A highlight that year came when Statham took five wickets in the first-ever Gillette Cup match against Leicestershire.
In 1964, Statham, despite the arrival of Sonny Ramadhin
to provide help, was disappointing and out of contention for the Ashes Tests. He did take 15 for 108 against a weak Leicestershire side and 7 for 50 against Warwickshire at Coventry
, but had more bad matches than in any other season of his career.
The cares of captaincy were, perhaps, not well-suited to Statham and many of the decision he made as captain between 1965 and 1967 were widely criticised – perhaps because Lancashire's form did not improve from its poor level of the 1961 to 1964 period. Despite this, the club's committee declared Statham's first year as captain "an unqualified success". Yet, as a bowler, Statham, aided he admitted by some atrocious and deliberately untrue pitches, was as deadly as ever in the 1965 County Championship, taking 124 wickets for 12.41 apiece, and doing almost as well in 1966 and 1967. He in fact was so good that England recalled him at the age of 35 for the final Test against South Africa in 1965, and Statham did not disappoint, with an excellent 5 for 40 in the first innings. His form was so good it was known MCC would have selected him to tour Australia for the fifth time had Statham not made it known by then that he did not wish to be considered for tours.
Statham was also awarded a CBE
in 1968 in recognition of his services to cricket.
Statham became a member of the Lancashire committee in 1970, and was a member of it until 1995. He was appointed as president of the club from 1997 to 1998. In his later years, despite his earnings as a cricketer, Statham was consistently troubled financially; in fact, he always lived in quite poor conditions off the cricket field. When Fred Trueman
learned of Statham's financial difficulties in 1989, he organised two testimonial dinners to raise money for Statham. He died of leukemia
a week before his 70th birthday.
The section of Warwick Road which runs past Lancashire County Cricket Club's Old Trafford Cricket Ground was renamed "Brian Statham Way" in Statham's honour. Incidentally, the other end of Warwick Road was previously renamed Sir Matt Busby Way after the former Manchester United manager, as the road runs past their stadium's Scoreboard End.
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE (17 June 1930, Gorton
, Manchester
– 10 June 2000, Stockport
, Greater Manchester
) was one of the leading English fast bowlers
in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast. This, together with unflagging accuracy and the ability to make the ball new or old break back, made Statham a consistent force both for Lancashire
in the County Championship
and in Test cricket
, where his strikepower helped give England perhaps its strongest attack of the 20th century during the 1950s and early 1960s. He overtook Alec Bedser
's record of 236 Test wickets in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval
in 1962-63. This new record of 242 Test wickets (24.27) was rapidly overtaken by his famous new-ball partner Fred Trueman
two months later in New Zealand. Statham finsihed with 252 Test wickets (24.84).
Statham was remarkably gentlemanly for a fast bowler and would rarely bowl a bouncer (and would warn the batsmen beforehand if he did), but his straight, full-length bowling could easily hit a batsman on the foot. Statham was also a brilliantly athletic out-fielder who was well suited to the one-day game when it emerged in the latter part of his career.
On 30 August 2009, Brian Statham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
for his national service
. He was based at Stafford
and would return home at weekends to play cricket. He joined Stockport Cricket Club
and played for them in the Central Lancashire Cricket League
. Statham also played football for Denton West as left wing, and was offered trials with Liverpool
and Manchester City
. However, it went no further as his father did not want him to pursue football as a career. At the age of eighteen, he came to the notice of the Lancashire officials who needed considerable reinforcement for their bowling attack, and was offered an engagement a year later, which he accepted.
were so favourable to spinners Roy Tattersall
and Malcolm Hilton
. Nonetheless, two fine performances against Somerset
and Yorkshire
and several valuable early wickets in other innings gave him an excellent average even though he only took 36 wickets in the County Championship
. This placed him top of the average amongst bowlers of pace, but at the time he was seen as only a promising newcomer who might strengthen a department in which England had been deplorably weak ever since the resumption of first-class cricket after the Second World War. However, when England were depleted by injuries in Australia, Statham and off-spinner Tattersall were surprisingly called into the team despite no previous representative experience. Though Statham did not achieve anything of note in his initial Test, by the time the 1951 season began he had made a meteoric rise.
and the spinners doing most of the work against South Africa in 1951, Statham had to do very little in the Tests, but he only missed 100 first-class wickets due to injury and showed himself a formidable bowler on a pitch offering help. In India, his average was good, but the heat and humidity certainly seemed to take their toll upon his body and he did little in the Tests, with the result that he was not chosen for a Test match in 1952 even though he was gaining speed and straightness and was often extremely formidable despite conditions rarely favouring bowlers. In 1953, Statham was within a whisker of heading the first-class averages and bowled wonderfully on the most placid of pitches against Hampshire
, but Bedser ensured he was not needed in the Ashes Tests. Statham and fellow fast-bowler Fred Trueman
were on occasion, in 1953, called up to the Test squad, but with the England team maturing, the captain, Len Hutton
did not feel comfortable playing two fast-bowlers, often preferring the more economical, slower bowling of Alec Bedser
and Trevor Bailey
. This meant that Statham and Trueman rarely bowled in tandem in this period.
It was against the West Indies in 1953/1954 that Statham's determination saw him gain a regular Test spot. Excellent performances on placid pitches made him the leading bowler on either side with 16 wickets for 28.60 each, and in 1954 he was deadly when cricket was possible against Pakistan (injury kept him out of England's shock loss at the Oval
). Statham headed the first-class averages for the first of four occasions, though he only took 92 wickets due to appalling weather constantly interrupting cricket in Lancashire, and was made a Cricketer of the Year by the 1955 Wisden.
win England the Ashes series by three Tests to one. Whilst he never achieved anything sensational, his back up to Tyson made sure the pressure Tyson's pace put on the Australians was maintained at both ends. With Tyson unavailable due to a blistered heel, Statham paired up with Trueman to open the bowling against South Africa
at Lord's in 1955. Statham produced best bowling figures in Test matches in South Africa's second innings in the match; his 7/39 as England won by 79 runs. He bowled unchanged for two hours on a good pitch in England's unexpected victory. Had injury not intervened and kept his appearances down to only half of Lancashire's County Championship matches, Statham would have had remarkable figures. The highest first-class score of his career came against Leicestershire
in 1955; however, his innings was cut short on the orders of his captain, Cyril Washbrook, who asked that Statham get himself out so that he would be fresh to bowl. In 1956, with pitches consistently favouring spinners, Statham did so little that he failed to reach 100 wickets. Still, his 6 for 27 against the Australians was enough to show his greatness was not in doubt.
On some dubious pitches in South Africa that winter, and in the following two English summers, England's unparalleled spread of bowling talent again gave Statham little chance to show his ability, but in county cricket, even with no regular partner, Statham was still the most reliable bowler and almost never failed to produce some extraordinary analyses. In 1957 against Warwickshire
at Edgbaston
, he took 15 for 89; against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in 1958 13 for 64; and at Cardiff that year he and Tattersall bowled Glamorgan
out for 26. His average of 12.29 that year was his best-ever but he was still only third in the first-class list due to large numbers of very helpful pitches.
providing the support Statham had been yearning for since he began, 1958 marked the beginning of Statham's greatest period. Despite England's "old guard" of May, Laker
and Lock
collapsing in the Australian tour of 1958/1959 and England losing four-nil, Statham bowled as beautifully as ever. His 7 for 57 at the MCG
was regarded as some of the best bowling ever seen at the ground, and represents his best figures against Australia.
In the following two seasons, though pitches in England were covered after play began for the first time, Statham carried all before him both at county and Test level. So good was he that in 1960 his speed and accuracy gave him an average of 10.91 from 19 county matches, and in the Tests against the South Africans he was equally formidable: taking 11 for 97 at Lord's and inflicting only the third "king pair" (out first ball in each innings) on "Tich" Wesley in the third match. The previous year, in an exceptionally dry summer, Statham's consistency was shown by the fact that, with only one haul of six in an innings, he still took 97 wickets for 16.49 each despite missing seven games with a strain. By 1960, Higgs' assistance, gave Lancashire so formidable an opening attack that until mid-August, they looked like winning the Championship. In many games, such as that against Gloucestershire
at Bristol
, they dominated proceedings so completely that Lancashire won with little support from their batting. Against the West Indies in 1960/1961, Statham confirmed his position as the best bowler in the world with 27 wickets for 20 runs each on pitches offering bowlers very little.
When Fred Trueman
and Statham toured Australia for the 1962-63 Ashes series they had 216 and 229 wickets respectively were poised to overtake the record of 236 Test wickets set by the assistant-manager Alec Bedser
. The Australian captain Richie Benaud
was another contender with 219 wickets, but it was Statham who broke the record in the Fourth Test at Adelaide. Trueman caught
Barry Shepherd
in the gully to give him his record 237th wicket. Despite the record Statham rarely shined on the tour, taking 13 wickets (44.61), and was used as a steady stock bowler. Statham took his record to 242 wickets, but returned to England while Trueman continued to New Zealand, where he broke Statham's record after only two months.
In 1963, whilst his county form on overgrassed pitches was back to something close to his best, on the less grassy surfaces in the First Test against the West Indies his bowling lacked its old venom, and he was surprisingly replaced by the veteran Derek Shackleton
for the rest of the series - a move criticised heavily in the press because it was known fast bowlers would do well at Lord's. A highlight that year came when Statham took five wickets in the first-ever Gillette Cup match against Leicestershire.
In 1964, Statham, despite the arrival of Sonny Ramadhin
to provide help, was disappointing and out of contention for the Ashes Tests. He did take 15 for 108 against a weak Leicestershire side and 7 for 50 against Warwickshire at Coventry
, but had more bad matches than in any other season of his career.
The cares of captaincy were, perhaps, not well-suited to Statham and many of the decision he made as captain between 1965 and 1967 were widely criticised – perhaps because Lancashire's form did not improve from its poor level of the 1961 to 1964 period. Despite this, the club's committee declared Statham's first year as captain "an unqualified success". Yet, as a bowler, Statham, aided he admitted by some atrocious and deliberately untrue pitches, was as deadly as ever in the 1965 County Championship, taking 124 wickets for 12.41 apiece, and doing almost as well in 1966 and 1967. He in fact was so good that England recalled him at the age of 35 for the final Test against South Africa in 1965, and Statham did not disappoint, with an excellent 5 for 40 in the first innings. His form was so good it was known MCC would have selected him to tour Australia for the fifth time had Statham not made it known by then that he did not wish to be considered for tours.
Statham was also awarded a CBE
in 1968 in recognition of his services to cricket.
Statham became a member of the Lancashire committee in 1970, and was a member of it until 1995. He was appointed as president of the club from 1997 to 1998. In his later years, despite his earnings as a cricketer, Statham was consistently troubled financially; in fact, he always lived in quite poor conditions off the cricket field. When Fred Trueman
learned of Statham's financial difficulties in 1989, he organised two testimonial dinners to raise money for Statham. He died of leukemia
a week before his 70th birthday.
The section of Warwick Road which runs past Lancashire County Cricket Club's Old Trafford Cricket Ground was renamed "Brian Statham Way" in Statham's honour. Incidentally, the other end of Warwick Road was previously renamed Sir Matt Busby Way after the former Manchester United manager, as the road runs past their stadium's Scoreboard End.
Gorton
Gorton is an area of the city of Manchester, in North West England. It is located to the southeast of Manchester city centre. Neighbouring areas include Longsight and Levenshulme....
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
– 10 June 2000, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
) was one of the leading English fast bowlers
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast. This, together with unflagging accuracy and the ability to make the ball new or old break back, made Statham a consistent force both for Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
and in Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, where his strikepower helped give England perhaps its strongest attack of the 20th century during the 1950s and early 1960s. He overtook Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
's record of 236 Test wickets in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
in 1962-63. This new record of 242 Test wickets (24.27) was rapidly overtaken by his famous new-ball partner Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
two months later in New Zealand. Statham finsihed with 252 Test wickets (24.84).
Statham was remarkably gentlemanly for a fast bowler and would rarely bowl a bouncer (and would warn the batsmen beforehand if he did), but his straight, full-length bowling could easily hit a batsman on the foot. Statham was also a brilliantly athletic out-fielder who was well suited to the one-day game when it emerged in the latter part of his career.
On 30 August 2009, Brian Statham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Youth and early career
Statham was born in Gorton on 17 June 1930. He played cricket for Whitworth Street in Manchester schools cricket matches. Statham played his earliest cricket for Denton West CC in the North Western League, along with his three brothers. Statham joined the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
for his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
. He was based at Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
and would return home at weekends to play cricket. He joined Stockport Cricket Club
Stockport Cricket Club
Stockport Cricket Club is situated on Beech Road, Cale Green, Stockport in the North West of England. The club has three senior sides and a junior section...
and played for them in the Central Lancashire Cricket League
Central Lancashire Cricket League
The Central Lancashire League is a fifteen team cricket league, traditionally based in Lancashire, England. It is now based around Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The league runs competitions at First Team, Second Team, Third Team, Under 18, Under 15, Under 13 and Under 11 levels.The...
. Statham also played football for Denton West as left wing, and was offered trials with Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
and Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
. However, it went no further as his father did not want him to pursue football as a career. At the age of eighteen, he came to the notice of the Lancashire officials who needed considerable reinforcement for their bowling attack, and was offered an engagement a year later, which he accepted.
Sudden emergence
Prior to making his Lancashire debut on 17 June 1950, his 20th birthday, Statham had received no formal coaching. Early on in his career with the club, he became known as George because when he arrived it was the first time in years that there was no one player called George. In his first year, 1950, Statham had relatively little bowling to do because the under-prepared pitches at Old TraffordOld Trafford (cricket)
Old Trafford is a cricket ground situated on Talbot Road in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. It has been the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club since its foundation in 1864, having been the ground of Manchester Cricket Club from 1857...
were so favourable to spinners Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall is an English former Lancashire cricketer, who played sixteen Tests for England as a specialist off spin bowler....
and Malcolm Hilton
Malcolm Hilton
Malcolm Jameson Hilton was an English left-arm spin bowler, who played for Lancashire and in four Test matches for England....
. Nonetheless, two fine performances against Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
and Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
and several valuable early wickets in other innings gave him an excellent average even though he only took 36 wickets in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
. This placed him top of the average amongst bowlers of pace, but at the time he was seen as only a promising newcomer who might strengthen a department in which England had been deplorably weak ever since the resumption of first-class cricket after the Second World War. However, when England were depleted by injuries in Australia, Statham and off-spinner Tattersall were surprisingly called into the team despite no previous representative experience. Though Statham did not achieve anything of note in his initial Test, by the time the 1951 season began he had made a meteoric rise.
Establishment
With Alec BedserAlec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
and the spinners doing most of the work against South Africa in 1951, Statham had to do very little in the Tests, but he only missed 100 first-class wickets due to injury and showed himself a formidable bowler on a pitch offering help. In India, his average was good, but the heat and humidity certainly seemed to take their toll upon his body and he did little in the Tests, with the result that he was not chosen for a Test match in 1952 even though he was gaining speed and straightness and was often extremely formidable despite conditions rarely favouring bowlers. In 1953, Statham was within a whisker of heading the first-class averages and bowled wonderfully on the most placid of pitches against Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, but Bedser ensured he was not needed in the Ashes Tests. Statham and fellow fast-bowler Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
were on occasion, in 1953, called up to the Test squad, but with the England team maturing, the captain, Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
did not feel comfortable playing two fast-bowlers, often preferring the more economical, slower bowling of Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
and Trevor Bailey
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Edward Bailey CBE was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.An all-rounder, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting...
. This meant that Statham and Trueman rarely bowled in tandem in this period.
It was against the West Indies in 1953/1954 that Statham's determination saw him gain a regular Test spot. Excellent performances on placid pitches made him the leading bowler on either side with 16 wickets for 28.60 each, and in 1954 he was deadly when cricket was possible against Pakistan (injury kept him out of England's shock loss at the Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
). Statham headed the first-class averages for the first of four occasions, though he only took 92 wickets due to appalling weather constantly interrupting cricket in Lancashire, and was made a Cricketer of the Year by the 1955 Wisden.
Into his prime
Selected to tour Australia in 1954/1955, Statham's superb bowling, generally into the wind, helped the fiery Frank "Typhoon" TysonFrank Tyson
Frank Holmes Tyson is an England cricketer of the 1950s who became a journalist and cricket commentator after he emigrated to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets in...
win England the Ashes series by three Tests to one. Whilst he never achieved anything sensational, his back up to Tyson made sure the pressure Tyson's pace put on the Australians was maintained at both ends. With Tyson unavailable due to a blistered heel, Statham paired up with Trueman to open the bowling against South Africa
South African cricket team in England in 1955
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1955 season to play a five-match Test series against England.England won the series 3-2 with no matches drawn.-South African team:...
at Lord's in 1955. Statham produced best bowling figures in Test matches in South Africa's second innings in the match; his 7/39 as England won by 79 runs. He bowled unchanged for two hours on a good pitch in England's unexpected victory. Had injury not intervened and kept his appearances down to only half of Lancashire's County Championship matches, Statham would have had remarkable figures. The highest first-class score of his career came against Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
in 1955; however, his innings was cut short on the orders of his captain, Cyril Washbrook, who asked that Statham get himself out so that he would be fresh to bowl. In 1956, with pitches consistently favouring spinners, Statham did so little that he failed to reach 100 wickets. Still, his 6 for 27 against the Australians was enough to show his greatness was not in doubt.
On some dubious pitches in South Africa that winter, and in the following two English summers, England's unparalleled spread of bowling talent again gave Statham little chance to show his ability, but in county cricket, even with no regular partner, Statham was still the most reliable bowler and almost never failed to produce some extraordinary analyses. In 1957 against Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
at Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...
, he took 15 for 89; against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in 1958 13 for 64; and at Cardiff that year he and Tattersall bowled Glamorgan
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...
out for 26. His average of 12.29 that year was his best-ever but he was still only third in the first-class list due to large numbers of very helpful pitches.
Helped by Higgs to incomparable heights
With Ken HiggsKen Higgs
For the American basketball player, see Kenny Higgs.Ken Higgs was an English fast-medium bowler, who was most successful as the opening partner to Brian Statham with Lancashire in the 1960s...
providing the support Statham had been yearning for since he began, 1958 marked the beginning of Statham's greatest period. Despite England's "old guard" of May, Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...
and Lock
Tony Lock
Graham Anthony Richard Lock was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in forty nine Tests for England taking 174 wickets at 25.58 each.-Life and career:...
collapsing in the Australian tour of 1958/1959 and England losing four-nil, Statham bowled as beautifully as ever. His 7 for 57 at the MCG
McG
Joseph McGinty Nichol , better known as McG, is an American director and producer of film and television, as well as a former record producer....
was regarded as some of the best bowling ever seen at the ground, and represents his best figures against Australia.
In the following two seasons, though pitches in England were covered after play began for the first time, Statham carried all before him both at county and Test level. So good was he that in 1960 his speed and accuracy gave him an average of 10.91 from 19 county matches, and in the Tests against the South Africans he was equally formidable: taking 11 for 97 at Lord's and inflicting only the third "king pair" (out first ball in each innings) on "Tich" Wesley in the third match. The previous year, in an exceptionally dry summer, Statham's consistency was shown by the fact that, with only one haul of six in an innings, he still took 97 wickets for 16.49 each despite missing seven games with a strain. By 1960, Higgs' assistance, gave Lancashire so formidable an opening attack that until mid-August, they looked like winning the Championship. In many games, such as that against Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
at Bristol
County Cricket Ground, Bristol
The County Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in Bristol, England. It is in the district of Ashley Down. The ground is home to the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club....
, they dominated proceedings so completely that Lancashire won with little support from their batting. Against the West Indies in 1960/1961, Statham confirmed his position as the best bowler in the world with 27 wickets for 20 runs each on pitches offering bowlers very little.
Fading from the heights
Despite a record benefit against the Australians and a few wonderful performances in 1961 (notably 8 for 47 against Hampshire), decline set in for the previously incomparable bowler. His haul of wickets fell from 97 at 10.91 to 78 at 17.93 and Lancashire became a weak county for the first time in Championship history. In 1962, though he was as good as ever in the Tests against Pakistan, with little support for him and Higgs, Statham fell further and only just reached 100 wickets, with Lancashire only just escaping finishing last.When Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
and Statham toured Australia for the 1962-63 Ashes series they had 216 and 229 wickets respectively were poised to overtake the record of 236 Test wickets set by the assistant-manager Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
. The Australian captain Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
was another contender with 219 wickets, but it was Statham who broke the record in the Fourth Test at Adelaide. Trueman caught
Caught
Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. Being caught out is the most common method of dismissal at higher levels of competition...
Barry Shepherd
Barry Shepherd
Barry Kenneth Shepherd was an Australian cricketer who played in 9 Tests from 1963 to 1965....
in the gully to give him his record 237th wicket. Despite the record Statham rarely shined on the tour, taking 13 wickets (44.61), and was used as a steady stock bowler. Statham took his record to 242 wickets, but returned to England while Trueman continued to New Zealand, where he broke Statham's record after only two months.
In 1963, whilst his county form on overgrassed pitches was back to something close to his best, on the less grassy surfaces in the First Test against the West Indies his bowling lacked its old venom, and he was surprisingly replaced by the veteran Derek Shackleton
Derek Shackleton
Derek Shackleton was a Hampshire and England bowler. He took over 100 wickets in 20 consecutive seasons of first-class cricket, but only played in seven Tests for England. As of 2007, he has the seventh-highest tally of first-class wickets, and the most first-class wickets of any player who...
for the rest of the series - a move criticised heavily in the press because it was known fast bowlers would do well at Lord's. A highlight that year came when Statham took five wickets in the first-ever Gillette Cup match against Leicestershire.
In 1964, Statham, despite the arrival of Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin was a West Indian cricketer, and a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.- Biography and career :...
to provide help, was disappointing and out of contention for the Ashes Tests. He did take 15 for 108 against a weak Leicestershire side and 7 for 50 against Warwickshire at Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, but had more bad matches than in any other season of his career.
Lancashire captain
Troubled by internal strife, Lancashire chose Statham as a full-time captain for 1965 (he had led them a few times in 1962).The cares of captaincy were, perhaps, not well-suited to Statham and many of the decision he made as captain between 1965 and 1967 were widely criticised – perhaps because Lancashire's form did not improve from its poor level of the 1961 to 1964 period. Despite this, the club's committee declared Statham's first year as captain "an unqualified success". Yet, as a bowler, Statham, aided he admitted by some atrocious and deliberately untrue pitches, was as deadly as ever in the 1965 County Championship, taking 124 wickets for 12.41 apiece, and doing almost as well in 1966 and 1967. He in fact was so good that England recalled him at the age of 35 for the final Test against South Africa in 1965, and Statham did not disappoint, with an excellent 5 for 40 in the first innings. His form was so good it was known MCC would have selected him to tour Australia for the fifth time had Statham not made it known by then that he did not wish to be considered for tours.
Last days
After being relieved of the Lancashire captaincy, Statham announced that the 1968 season would be his last indeed he announced early on he would not play after the August Bank Holiday match with Yorkshire. With Lancashire no longer dependent on him due to Higgs' great form, Statham still went off on a high note with a first innings return of 6 for 31. In 1968, he took 69 wickets at an average of 17.08. Statham had given such service to Lancashire that the county gave him a second benefit in 1969, but it raised only £1,850 compared to over £13,800 for his 1961 benefit.Statham was also awarded a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1968 in recognition of his services to cricket.
Statham became a member of the Lancashire committee in 1970, and was a member of it until 1995. He was appointed as president of the club from 1997 to 1998. In his later years, despite his earnings as a cricketer, Statham was consistently troubled financially; in fact, he always lived in quite poor conditions off the cricket field. When Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
learned of Statham's financial difficulties in 1989, he organised two testimonial dinners to raise money for Statham. He died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
a week before his 70th birthday.
The section of Warwick Road which runs past Lancashire County Cricket Club's Old Trafford Cricket Ground was renamed "Brian Statham Way" in Statham's honour. Incidentally, the other end of Warwick Road was previously renamed Sir Matt Busby Way after the former Manchester United manager, as the road runs past their stadium's Scoreboard End.
Noteworthy feats
- Statham's first-class career bowling average of 16.37 is the lowest among any bowler since 1900 who has taken over 2000 first-class wickets.
- His average of 10.91 in the 1960 County Championship is the third lowest by any bowler playing more than ten matches in that competition since 1894.
External links
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE (17 June 1930, Gorton
Gorton
Gorton is an area of the city of Manchester, in North West England. It is located to the southeast of Manchester city centre. Neighbouring areas include Longsight and Levenshulme....
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
– 10 June 2000, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
) was one of the leading English fast bowlers
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast. This, together with unflagging accuracy and the ability to make the ball new or old break back, made Statham a consistent force both for Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
and in Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, where his strikepower helped give England perhaps its strongest attack of the 20th century during the 1950s and early 1960s. He overtook Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
's record of 236 Test wickets in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
in 1962-63. This new record of 242 Test wickets (24.27) was rapidly overtaken by his famous new-ball partner Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
two months later in New Zealand. Statham finsihed with 252 Test wickets (24.84).
Statham was remarkably gentlemanly for a fast bowler and would rarely bowl a bouncer (and would warn the batsmen beforehand if he did), but his straight, full-length bowling could easily hit a batsman on the foot. Statham was also a brilliantly athletic out-fielder who was well suited to the one-day game when it emerged in the latter part of his career.
On 30 August 2009, Brian Statham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Youth and early career
Statham was born in Gorton on 17 June 1930. He played cricket for Whitworth Street in Manchester schools cricket matches. Statham played his earliest cricket for Denton West CC in the North Western League, along with his three brothers. Statham joined the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
for his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
. He was based at Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
and would return home at weekends to play cricket. He joined Stockport Cricket Club
Stockport Cricket Club
Stockport Cricket Club is situated on Beech Road, Cale Green, Stockport in the North West of England. The club has three senior sides and a junior section...
and played for them in the Central Lancashire Cricket League
Central Lancashire Cricket League
The Central Lancashire League is a fifteen team cricket league, traditionally based in Lancashire, England. It is now based around Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The league runs competitions at First Team, Second Team, Third Team, Under 18, Under 15, Under 13 and Under 11 levels.The...
. Statham also played football for Denton West as left wing, and was offered trials with Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
and Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
. However, it went no further as his father did not want him to pursue football as a career. At the age of eighteen, he came to the notice of the Lancashire officials who needed considerable reinforcement for their bowling attack, and was offered an engagement a year later, which he accepted.
Sudden emergence
Prior to making his Lancashire debut on 17 June 1950, his 20th birthday, Statham had received no formal coaching. Early on in his career with the club, he became known as George because when he arrived it was the first time in years that there was no one player called George. In his first year, 1950, Statham had relatively little bowling to do because the under-prepared pitches at Old TraffordOld Trafford (cricket)
Old Trafford is a cricket ground situated on Talbot Road in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. It has been the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club since its foundation in 1864, having been the ground of Manchester Cricket Club from 1857...
were so favourable to spinners Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall is an English former Lancashire cricketer, who played sixteen Tests for England as a specialist off spin bowler....
and Malcolm Hilton
Malcolm Hilton
Malcolm Jameson Hilton was an English left-arm spin bowler, who played for Lancashire and in four Test matches for England....
. Nonetheless, two fine performances against Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
and Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
and several valuable early wickets in other innings gave him an excellent average even though he only took 36 wickets in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
. This placed him top of the average amongst bowlers of pace, but at the time he was seen as only a promising newcomer who might strengthen a department in which England had been deplorably weak ever since the resumption of first-class cricket after the Second World War. However, when England were depleted by injuries in Australia, Statham and off-spinner Tattersall were surprisingly called into the team despite no previous representative experience. Though Statham did not achieve anything of note in his initial Test, by the time the 1951 season began he had made a meteoric rise.
Establishment
With Alec BedserAlec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
and the spinners doing most of the work against South Africa in 1951, Statham had to do very little in the Tests, but he only missed 100 first-class wickets due to injury and showed himself a formidable bowler on a pitch offering help. In India, his average was good, but the heat and humidity certainly seemed to take their toll upon his body and he did little in the Tests, with the result that he was not chosen for a Test match in 1952 even though he was gaining speed and straightness and was often extremely formidable despite conditions rarely favouring bowlers. In 1953, Statham was within a whisker of heading the first-class averages and bowled wonderfully on the most placid of pitches against Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, but Bedser ensured he was not needed in the Ashes Tests. Statham and fellow fast-bowler Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
were on occasion, in 1953, called up to the Test squad, but with the England team maturing, the captain, Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
did not feel comfortable playing two fast-bowlers, often preferring the more economical, slower bowling of Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
and Trevor Bailey
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Edward Bailey CBE was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.An all-rounder, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting...
. This meant that Statham and Trueman rarely bowled in tandem in this period.
It was against the West Indies in 1953/1954 that Statham's determination saw him gain a regular Test spot. Excellent performances on placid pitches made him the leading bowler on either side with 16 wickets for 28.60 each, and in 1954 he was deadly when cricket was possible against Pakistan (injury kept him out of England's shock loss at the Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
). Statham headed the first-class averages for the first of four occasions, though he only took 92 wickets due to appalling weather constantly interrupting cricket in Lancashire, and was made a Cricketer of the Year by the 1955 Wisden.
Into his prime
Selected to tour Australia in 1954/1955, Statham's superb bowling, generally into the wind, helped the fiery Frank "Typhoon" TysonFrank Tyson
Frank Holmes Tyson is an England cricketer of the 1950s who became a journalist and cricket commentator after he emigrated to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets in...
win England the Ashes series by three Tests to one. Whilst he never achieved anything sensational, his back up to Tyson made sure the pressure Tyson's pace put on the Australians was maintained at both ends. With Tyson unavailable due to a blistered heel, Statham paired up with Trueman to open the bowling against South Africa
South African cricket team in England in 1955
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1955 season to play a five-match Test series against England.England won the series 3-2 with no matches drawn.-South African team:...
at Lord's in 1955. Statham produced best bowling figures in Test matches in South Africa's second innings in the match; his 7/39 as England won by 79 runs. He bowled unchanged for two hours on a good pitch in England's unexpected victory. Had injury not intervened and kept his appearances down to only half of Lancashire's County Championship matches, Statham would have had remarkable figures. The highest first-class score of his career came against Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
in 1955; however, his innings was cut short on the orders of his captain, Cyril Washbrook, who asked that Statham get himself out so that he would be fresh to bowl. In 1956, with pitches consistently favouring spinners, Statham did so little that he failed to reach 100 wickets. Still, his 6 for 27 against the Australians was enough to show his greatness was not in doubt.
On some dubious pitches in South Africa that winter, and in the following two English summers, England's unparalleled spread of bowling talent again gave Statham little chance to show his ability, but in county cricket, even with no regular partner, Statham was still the most reliable bowler and almost never failed to produce some extraordinary analyses. In 1957 against Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
at Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...
, he took 15 for 89; against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in 1958 13 for 64; and at Cardiff that year he and Tattersall bowled Glamorgan
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...
out for 26. His average of 12.29 that year was his best-ever but he was still only third in the first-class list due to large numbers of very helpful pitches.
Helped by Higgs to incomparable heights
With Ken HiggsKen Higgs
For the American basketball player, see Kenny Higgs.Ken Higgs was an English fast-medium bowler, who was most successful as the opening partner to Brian Statham with Lancashire in the 1960s...
providing the support Statham had been yearning for since he began, 1958 marked the beginning of Statham's greatest period. Despite England's "old guard" of May, Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...
and Lock
Tony Lock
Graham Anthony Richard Lock was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in forty nine Tests for England taking 174 wickets at 25.58 each.-Life and career:...
collapsing in the Australian tour of 1958/1959 and England losing four-nil, Statham bowled as beautifully as ever. His 7 for 57 at the MCG
McG
Joseph McGinty Nichol , better known as McG, is an American director and producer of film and television, as well as a former record producer....
was regarded as some of the best bowling ever seen at the ground, and represents his best figures against Australia.
In the following two seasons, though pitches in England were covered after play began for the first time, Statham carried all before him both at county and Test level. So good was he that in 1960 his speed and accuracy gave him an average of 10.91 from 19 county matches, and in the Tests against the South Africans he was equally formidable: taking 11 for 97 at Lord's and inflicting only the third "king pair" (out first ball in each innings) on "Tich" Wesley in the third match. The previous year, in an exceptionally dry summer, Statham's consistency was shown by the fact that, with only one haul of six in an innings, he still took 97 wickets for 16.49 each despite missing seven games with a strain. By 1960, Higgs' assistance, gave Lancashire so formidable an opening attack that until mid-August, they looked like winning the Championship. In many games, such as that against Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
at Bristol
County Cricket Ground, Bristol
The County Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in Bristol, England. It is in the district of Ashley Down. The ground is home to the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club....
, they dominated proceedings so completely that Lancashire won with little support from their batting. Against the West Indies in 1960/1961, Statham confirmed his position as the best bowler in the world with 27 wickets for 20 runs each on pitches offering bowlers very little.
Fading from the heights
Despite a record benefit against the Australians and a few wonderful performances in 1961 (notably 8 for 47 against Hampshire), decline set in for the previously incomparable bowler. His haul of wickets fell from 97 at 10.91 to 78 at 17.93 and Lancashire became a weak county for the first time in Championship history. In 1962, though he was as good as ever in the Tests against Pakistan, with little support for him and Higgs, Statham fell further and only just reached 100 wickets, with Lancashire only just escaping finishing last.When Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
and Statham toured Australia for the 1962-63 Ashes series they had 216 and 229 wickets respectively were poised to overtake the record of 236 Test wickets set by the assistant-manager Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
. The Australian captain Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
was another contender with 219 wickets, but it was Statham who broke the record in the Fourth Test at Adelaide. Trueman caught
Caught
Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. Being caught out is the most common method of dismissal at higher levels of competition...
Barry Shepherd
Barry Shepherd
Barry Kenneth Shepherd was an Australian cricketer who played in 9 Tests from 1963 to 1965....
in the gully to give him his record 237th wicket. Despite the record Statham rarely shined on the tour, taking 13 wickets (44.61), and was used as a steady stock bowler. Statham took his record to 242 wickets, but returned to England while Trueman continued to New Zealand, where he broke Statham's record after only two months.
In 1963, whilst his county form on overgrassed pitches was back to something close to his best, on the less grassy surfaces in the First Test against the West Indies his bowling lacked its old venom, and he was surprisingly replaced by the veteran Derek Shackleton
Derek Shackleton
Derek Shackleton was a Hampshire and England bowler. He took over 100 wickets in 20 consecutive seasons of first-class cricket, but only played in seven Tests for England. As of 2007, he has the seventh-highest tally of first-class wickets, and the most first-class wickets of any player who...
for the rest of the series - a move criticised heavily in the press because it was known fast bowlers would do well at Lord's. A highlight that year came when Statham took five wickets in the first-ever Gillette Cup match against Leicestershire.
In 1964, Statham, despite the arrival of Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin was a West Indian cricketer, and a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.- Biography and career :...
to provide help, was disappointing and out of contention for the Ashes Tests. He did take 15 for 108 against a weak Leicestershire side and 7 for 50 against Warwickshire at Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, but had more bad matches than in any other season of his career.
Lancashire captain
Troubled by internal strife, Lancashire chose Statham as a full-time captain for 1965 (he had led them a few times in 1962).The cares of captaincy were, perhaps, not well-suited to Statham and many of the decision he made as captain between 1965 and 1967 were widely criticised – perhaps because Lancashire's form did not improve from its poor level of the 1961 to 1964 period. Despite this, the club's committee declared Statham's first year as captain "an unqualified success". Yet, as a bowler, Statham, aided he admitted by some atrocious and deliberately untrue pitches, was as deadly as ever in the 1965 County Championship, taking 124 wickets for 12.41 apiece, and doing almost as well in 1966 and 1967. He in fact was so good that England recalled him at the age of 35 for the final Test against South Africa in 1965, and Statham did not disappoint, with an excellent 5 for 40 in the first innings. His form was so good it was known MCC would have selected him to tour Australia for the fifth time had Statham not made it known by then that he did not wish to be considered for tours.
Last days
After being relieved of the Lancashire captaincy, Statham announced that the 1968 season would be his last indeed he announced early on he would not play after the August Bank Holiday match with Yorkshire. With Lancashire no longer dependent on him due to Higgs' great form, Statham still went off on a high note with a first innings return of 6 for 31. In 1968, he took 69 wickets at an average of 17.08. Statham had given such service to Lancashire that the county gave him a second benefit in 1969, but it raised only £1,850 compared to over £13,800 for his 1961 benefit.Statham was also awarded a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1968 in recognition of his services to cricket.
Statham became a member of the Lancashire committee in 1970, and was a member of it until 1995. He was appointed as president of the club from 1997 to 1998. In his later years, despite his earnings as a cricketer, Statham was consistently troubled financially; in fact, he always lived in quite poor conditions off the cricket field. When Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
learned of Statham's financial difficulties in 1989, he organised two testimonial dinners to raise money for Statham. He died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
a week before his 70th birthday.
The section of Warwick Road which runs past Lancashire County Cricket Club's Old Trafford Cricket Ground was renamed "Brian Statham Way" in Statham's honour. Incidentally, the other end of Warwick Road was previously renamed Sir Matt Busby Way after the former Manchester United manager, as the road runs past their stadium's Scoreboard End.
Noteworthy feats
- Statham's first-class career bowling average of 16.37 is the lowest among any bowler since 1900 who has taken over 2000 first-class wickets.
- His average of 10.91 in the 1960 County Championship is the third lowest by any bowler playing more than ten matches in that competition since 1894.
External links
John Brian "George" Statham, CBE (17 June 1930, Gorton
Gorton
Gorton is an area of the city of Manchester, in North West England. It is located to the southeast of Manchester city centre. Neighbouring areas include Longsight and Levenshulme....
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
– 10 June 2000, Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 2.6 million. It encompasses one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United Kingdom and comprises ten metropolitan boroughs: Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan, and the...
) was one of the leading English fast bowlers
Fast bowling
Fast bowling, sometimes known as pace bowling, is one of the two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket. The other is spin bowling...
in 20th-century English cricket. Initially a bowler of a brisk fast-medium pace, Statham was able to remodel his action to generate enough speed to become genuinely fast. This, together with unflagging accuracy and the ability to make the ball new or old break back, made Statham a consistent force both for Lancashire
Lancashire County Cricket Club
Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1864 as a successor to Manchester Cricket Club and has played at Old Trafford since then...
in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
and in Test cricket
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
, where his strikepower helped give England perhaps its strongest attack of the 20th century during the 1950s and early 1960s. He overtook Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
's record of 236 Test wickets in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval
Adelaide Oval
The Adelaide Oval is a sports ground in Adelaide, South Australia, located in the parklands between the Central Business District and North Adelaide...
in 1962-63. This new record of 242 Test wickets (24.27) was rapidly overtaken by his famous new-ball partner Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
two months later in New Zealand. Statham finsihed with 252 Test wickets (24.84).
Statham was remarkably gentlemanly for a fast bowler and would rarely bowl a bouncer (and would warn the batsmen beforehand if he did), but his straight, full-length bowling could easily hit a batsman on the foot. Statham was also a brilliantly athletic out-fielder who was well suited to the one-day game when it emerged in the latter part of his career.
On 30 August 2009, Brian Statham was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
Youth and early career
Statham was born in Gorton on 17 June 1930. He played cricket for Whitworth Street in Manchester schools cricket matches. Statham played his earliest cricket for Denton West CC in the North Western League, along with his three brothers. Statham joined the Royal Air ForceRoyal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
for his national service
National service
National service is a common name for mandatory government service programmes . The term became common British usage during and for some years following the Second World War. Many young people spent one or more years in such programmes...
. He was based at Stafford
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies approximately north of Wolverhampton and south of Stoke-on-Trent, adjacent to the M6 motorway Junction 13 to Junction 14...
and would return home at weekends to play cricket. He joined Stockport Cricket Club
Stockport Cricket Club
Stockport Cricket Club is situated on Beech Road, Cale Green, Stockport in the North West of England. The club has three senior sides and a junior section...
and played for them in the Central Lancashire Cricket League
Central Lancashire Cricket League
The Central Lancashire League is a fifteen team cricket league, traditionally based in Lancashire, England. It is now based around Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire. The league runs competitions at First Team, Second Team, Third Team, Under 18, Under 15, Under 13 and Under 11 levels.The...
. Statham also played football for Denton West as left wing, and was offered trials with Liverpool
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Liverpool, Merseyside. Liverpool has won eighteen League titles, second most in English football, seven FA Cups and a record seven League Cups...
and Manchester City
Manchester City F.C.
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's , they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894...
. However, it went no further as his father did not want him to pursue football as a career. At the age of eighteen, he came to the notice of the Lancashire officials who needed considerable reinforcement for their bowling attack, and was offered an engagement a year later, which he accepted.
Sudden emergence
Prior to making his Lancashire debut on 17 June 1950, his 20th birthday, Statham had received no formal coaching. Early on in his career with the club, he became known as George because when he arrived it was the first time in years that there was no one player called George. In his first year, 1950, Statham had relatively little bowling to do because the under-prepared pitches at Old TraffordOld Trafford (cricket)
Old Trafford is a cricket ground situated on Talbot Road in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester. It has been the home of Lancashire County Cricket Club since its foundation in 1864, having been the ground of Manchester Cricket Club from 1857...
were so favourable to spinners Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall
Roy Tattersall is an English former Lancashire cricketer, who played sixteen Tests for England as a specialist off spin bowler....
and Malcolm Hilton
Malcolm Hilton
Malcolm Jameson Hilton was an English left-arm spin bowler, who played for Lancashire and in four Test matches for England....
. Nonetheless, two fine performances against Somerset
Somerset County Cricket Club
Somerset County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Somerset...
and Yorkshire
Yorkshire County Cricket Club
Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....
and several valuable early wickets in other innings gave him an excellent average even though he only took 36 wickets in the County Championship
County Championship
The County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales...
. This placed him top of the average amongst bowlers of pace, but at the time he was seen as only a promising newcomer who might strengthen a department in which England had been deplorably weak ever since the resumption of first-class cricket after the Second World War. However, when England were depleted by injuries in Australia, Statham and off-spinner Tattersall were surprisingly called into the team despite no previous representative experience. Though Statham did not achieve anything of note in his initial Test, by the time the 1951 season began he had made a meteoric rise.
Establishment
With Alec BedserAlec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
and the spinners doing most of the work against South Africa in 1951, Statham had to do very little in the Tests, but he only missed 100 first-class wickets due to injury and showed himself a formidable bowler on a pitch offering help. In India, his average was good, but the heat and humidity certainly seemed to take their toll upon his body and he did little in the Tests, with the result that he was not chosen for a Test match in 1952 even though he was gaining speed and straightness and was often extremely formidable despite conditions rarely favouring bowlers. In 1953, Statham was within a whisker of heading the first-class averages and bowled wonderfully on the most placid of pitches against Hampshire
Hampshire County Cricket Club
Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...
, but Bedser ensured he was not needed in the Ashes Tests. Statham and fellow fast-bowler Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
were on occasion, in 1953, called up to the Test squad, but with the England team maturing, the captain, Len Hutton
Len Hutton
Sir Leonard "Len" Hutton was an English Test cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club and England in the years around the Second World War as an opening batsman. He was described by Wisden Cricketer's Almanack as one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket...
did not feel comfortable playing two fast-bowlers, often preferring the more economical, slower bowling of Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
and Trevor Bailey
Trevor Bailey
Trevor Edward Bailey CBE was an England Test cricketer, cricket writer and broadcaster.An all-rounder, Bailey was known for his skilful but unspectacular batting...
. This meant that Statham and Trueman rarely bowled in tandem in this period.
It was against the West Indies in 1953/1954 that Statham's determination saw him gain a regular Test spot. Excellent performances on placid pitches made him the leading bowler on either side with 16 wickets for 28.60 each, and in 1954 he was deadly when cricket was possible against Pakistan (injury kept him out of England's shock loss at the Oval
The Oval
The Kia Oval, still commonly referred to by its original name of The Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, in the London Borough of Lambeth. In the past it was also sometimes called the Kennington Oval...
). Statham headed the first-class averages for the first of four occasions, though he only took 92 wickets due to appalling weather constantly interrupting cricket in Lancashire, and was made a Cricketer of the Year by the 1955 Wisden.
Into his prime
Selected to tour Australia in 1954/1955, Statham's superb bowling, generally into the wind, helped the fiery Frank "Typhoon" TysonFrank Tyson
Frank Holmes Tyson is an England cricketer of the 1950s who became a journalist and cricket commentator after he emigrated to Australia in 1960. Nicknamed "Typhoon Tyson" by the press he was regarded by many commentators as one of the fastest bowlers ever seen in cricket and took 76 wickets in...
win England the Ashes series by three Tests to one. Whilst he never achieved anything sensational, his back up to Tyson made sure the pressure Tyson's pace put on the Australians was maintained at both ends. With Tyson unavailable due to a blistered heel, Statham paired up with Trueman to open the bowling against South Africa
South African cricket team in England in 1955
The South African cricket team toured England in the 1955 season to play a five-match Test series against England.England won the series 3-2 with no matches drawn.-South African team:...
at Lord's in 1955. Statham produced best bowling figures in Test matches in South Africa's second innings in the match; his 7/39 as England won by 79 runs. He bowled unchanged for two hours on a good pitch in England's unexpected victory. Had injury not intervened and kept his appearances down to only half of Lancashire's County Championship matches, Statham would have had remarkable figures. The highest first-class score of his career came against Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Cricket Club
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland....
in 1955; however, his innings was cut short on the orders of his captain, Cyril Washbrook, who asked that Statham get himself out so that he would be fresh to bowl. In 1956, with pitches consistently favouring spinners, Statham did so little that he failed to reach 100 wickets. Still, his 6 for 27 against the Australians was enough to show his greatness was not in doubt.
On some dubious pitches in South Africa that winter, and in the following two English summers, England's unparalleled spread of bowling talent again gave Statham little chance to show his ability, but in county cricket, even with no regular partner, Statham was still the most reliable bowler and almost never failed to produce some extraordinary analyses. In 1957 against Warwickshire
Warwickshire County Cricket Club
Warwickshire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Warwickshire. Its limited overs team is called the Warwickshire Bears. Their kit colours are black and gold and the shirt sponsor...
at Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...
, he took 15 for 89; against Leicestershire at Old Trafford in 1958 13 for 64; and at Cardiff that year he and Tattersall bowled Glamorgan
Glamorgan County Cricket Club
Glamorgan County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Glamorgan aka Glamorganshire . Glamorgan CCC is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. Glamorgan CCC have won the English County...
out for 26. His average of 12.29 that year was his best-ever but he was still only third in the first-class list due to large numbers of very helpful pitches.
Helped by Higgs to incomparable heights
With Ken HiggsKen Higgs
For the American basketball player, see Kenny Higgs.Ken Higgs was an English fast-medium bowler, who was most successful as the opening partner to Brian Statham with Lancashire in the 1960s...
providing the support Statham had been yearning for since he began, 1958 marked the beginning of Statham's greatest period. Despite England's "old guard" of May, Laker
Jim Laker
James "Jim" Charles Laker was a cricketer who played for England in the 1950s, known for "Laker's match" in 1956 at Old Trafford, when he took nineteen wickets in England's victory against Australia...
and Lock
Tony Lock
Graham Anthony Richard Lock was an English cricketer, who played primarily as a left-arm spinner. He played in forty nine Tests for England taking 174 wickets at 25.58 each.-Life and career:...
collapsing in the Australian tour of 1958/1959 and England losing four-nil, Statham bowled as beautifully as ever. His 7 for 57 at the MCG
McG
Joseph McGinty Nichol , better known as McG, is an American director and producer of film and television, as well as a former record producer....
was regarded as some of the best bowling ever seen at the ground, and represents his best figures against Australia.
In the following two seasons, though pitches in England were covered after play began for the first time, Statham carried all before him both at county and Test level. So good was he that in 1960 his speed and accuracy gave him an average of 10.91 from 19 county matches, and in the Tests against the South Africans he was equally formidable: taking 11 for 97 at Lord's and inflicting only the third "king pair" (out first ball in each innings) on "Tich" Wesley in the third match. The previous year, in an exceptionally dry summer, Statham's consistency was shown by the fact that, with only one haul of six in an innings, he still took 97 wickets for 16.49 each despite missing seven games with a strain. By 1960, Higgs' assistance, gave Lancashire so formidable an opening attack that until mid-August, they looked like winning the Championship. In many games, such as that against Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club
Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators....
at Bristol
County Cricket Ground, Bristol
The County Cricket Ground is a cricket venue in Bristol, England. It is in the district of Ashley Down. The ground is home to the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club....
, they dominated proceedings so completely that Lancashire won with little support from their batting. Against the West Indies in 1960/1961, Statham confirmed his position as the best bowler in the world with 27 wickets for 20 runs each on pitches offering bowlers very little.
Fading from the heights
Despite a record benefit against the Australians and a few wonderful performances in 1961 (notably 8 for 47 against Hampshire), decline set in for the previously incomparable bowler. His haul of wickets fell from 97 at 10.91 to 78 at 17.93 and Lancashire became a weak county for the first time in Championship history. In 1962, though he was as good as ever in the Tests against Pakistan, with little support for him and Higgs, Statham fell further and only just reached 100 wickets, with Lancashire only just escaping finishing last.When Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
and Statham toured Australia for the 1962-63 Ashes series they had 216 and 229 wickets respectively were poised to overtake the record of 236 Test wickets set by the assistant-manager Alec Bedser
Alec Bedser
Sir Alec Victor Bedser, CBE was a professional English cricketer. He was the chairman of selectors for the English national cricket team, and the president of Surrey County Cricket Club...
. The Australian captain Richie Benaud
Richie Benaud
Richard "Richie" Benaud OBE is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game....
was another contender with 219 wickets, but it was Statham who broke the record in the Fourth Test at Adelaide. Trueman caught
Caught
Caught is a method of dismissing a batsman in the sport of cricket. Being caught out is the most common method of dismissal at higher levels of competition...
Barry Shepherd
Barry Shepherd
Barry Kenneth Shepherd was an Australian cricketer who played in 9 Tests from 1963 to 1965....
in the gully to give him his record 237th wicket. Despite the record Statham rarely shined on the tour, taking 13 wickets (44.61), and was used as a steady stock bowler. Statham took his record to 242 wickets, but returned to England while Trueman continued to New Zealand, where he broke Statham's record after only two months.
In 1963, whilst his county form on overgrassed pitches was back to something close to his best, on the less grassy surfaces in the First Test against the West Indies his bowling lacked its old venom, and he was surprisingly replaced by the veteran Derek Shackleton
Derek Shackleton
Derek Shackleton was a Hampshire and England bowler. He took over 100 wickets in 20 consecutive seasons of first-class cricket, but only played in seven Tests for England. As of 2007, he has the seventh-highest tally of first-class wickets, and the most first-class wickets of any player who...
for the rest of the series - a move criticised heavily in the press because it was known fast bowlers would do well at Lord's. A highlight that year came when Statham took five wickets in the first-ever Gillette Cup match against Leicestershire.
In 1964, Statham, despite the arrival of Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin
Sonny Ramadhin was a West Indian cricketer, and a dominant bowler of the 1950s. He was the first West Indian cricketers of Indian origin, and was one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1951.- Biography and career :...
to provide help, was disappointing and out of contention for the Ashes Tests. He did take 15 for 108 against a weak Leicestershire side and 7 for 50 against Warwickshire at Coventry
Coventry
Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...
, but had more bad matches than in any other season of his career.
Lancashire captain
Troubled by internal strife, Lancashire chose Statham as a full-time captain for 1965 (he had led them a few times in 1962).The cares of captaincy were, perhaps, not well-suited to Statham and many of the decision he made as captain between 1965 and 1967 were widely criticised – perhaps because Lancashire's form did not improve from its poor level of the 1961 to 1964 period. Despite this, the club's committee declared Statham's first year as captain "an unqualified success". Yet, as a bowler, Statham, aided he admitted by some atrocious and deliberately untrue pitches, was as deadly as ever in the 1965 County Championship, taking 124 wickets for 12.41 apiece, and doing almost as well in 1966 and 1967. He in fact was so good that England recalled him at the age of 35 for the final Test against South Africa in 1965, and Statham did not disappoint, with an excellent 5 for 40 in the first innings. His form was so good it was known MCC would have selected him to tour Australia for the fifth time had Statham not made it known by then that he did not wish to be considered for tours.
Last days
After being relieved of the Lancashire captaincy, Statham announced that the 1968 season would be his last indeed he announced early on he would not play after the August Bank Holiday match with Yorkshire. With Lancashire no longer dependent on him due to Higgs' great form, Statham still went off on a high note with a first innings return of 6 for 31. In 1968, he took 69 wickets at an average of 17.08. Statham had given such service to Lancashire that the county gave him a second benefit in 1969, but it raised only £1,850 compared to over £13,800 for his 1961 benefit.Statham was also awarded a CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1968 in recognition of his services to cricket.
Statham became a member of the Lancashire committee in 1970, and was a member of it until 1995. He was appointed as president of the club from 1997 to 1998. In his later years, despite his earnings as a cricketer, Statham was consistently troubled financially; in fact, he always lived in quite poor conditions off the cricket field. When Fred Trueman
Fred Trueman
Frederick Sewards Trueman OBE was an English cricketer, generally acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers in history. A bowler of genuinely fast pace who was widely known as Fiery Fred, Trueman played first-class cricket for Yorkshire County Cricket Club from 1949 until he retired in 1968...
learned of Statham's financial difficulties in 1989, he organised two testimonial dinners to raise money for Statham. He died of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
a week before his 70th birthday.
The section of Warwick Road which runs past Lancashire County Cricket Club's Old Trafford Cricket Ground was renamed "Brian Statham Way" in Statham's honour. Incidentally, the other end of Warwick Road was previously renamed Sir Matt Busby Way after the former Manchester United manager, as the road runs past their stadium's Scoreboard End.
Noteworthy feats
- Statham's first-class career bowling average of 16.37 is the lowest among any bowler since 1900 who has taken over 2000 first-class wickets.
- His average of 10.91 in the 1960 County Championship is the third lowest by any bowler playing more than ten matches in that competition since 1894.