Early Career
Brown was a veteran of Douglas Jardine's Bodyline side of 1932-33 and was Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1933. He was a big-hearted, self-confident red-headed all-rounder usually seen wearing a white silk handkerchief round his neck, with a big grin and an avuncular pipe. Over six feet tall and weighing 15 stone (over 200lbs or 100 kilos) he loved to attack the bowling. Captured with Bill Bowes at Tobruk in 1942, Brown spent most of the Second World War in prisoner-of-war camps in Italy and Germany, where they organised games of cricket, baseball and rugby and lost over 60lbs (30 kilos) before being liberated by the Americans. A leg-spinner for Surrey before the war he became a medium-paced seamer in the late 1940s and organised cricket while working as a welfare officer in a Doncaster colliery. When the coal mines were nationalised Brown lost his job and became the captain and assistant-secretary of Northamptonshire County Cricket Club in 1949. From being in seventeenth and last place in the County Championship in 1948 (and failing to win a county match between 1934 and 1939) Brown led Northants to sixth place in 1949. He was rotated in the England captaincy in 1949-50 with George Mann and Norman Yardley without success. He drew twice against a weak New Zealand in 1949 and lost to the West Indies in 1950. After Mann and Yardley had turned down the Ashes tour Brown impressed the selectors by hitting a six into the Lords Pavillon while smashing 122 out of 131 runs inside two hours as captain in the Gentlemen v Players match, followed with three quick wickets, and he was offered the post the same afternoon. This was still the age when the England captain had to be a gentleman, even if he was a 'passenger' in the team, Brown having made only 233 runs (23.30) and taken 14 wickets (40.79) in his 9 Tests.
Read more about this topic: Freddie Brown (cricketer)
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