Mike Brearley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mike Brearley
OBE
Personal information
Full nameJohn Michael Brearley
Born (1942-04-28) 28 April 1942 (age 79)
Harrow, Middlesex, England
NicknameBrears, Scagg
Height5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight arm medium
RelationsHorace Brearley (father)
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 465)3 June 1976 v West Indies
Last Test27 August 1981 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 38)2 June 1977 v Australia
Last ODI22 January 1980 v West Indies
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1961–1983Middlesex
1961–1968Cambridge University
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA
Matches 39 25 455 272
Runs scored 1,442 510 25,186 6135
Batting average 22.88 24.28 37.81 26.44
100s/50s 0/9 0/3 45/134 3/37
Top score 91 78 312* 124*
Balls bowled 0 0 315 48
Wickets 3 4
Bowling average 64.00 15.00
5 wickets in innings 0 0
10 wickets in match 0 0
Best bowling 1/6 2/3
Catches/stumpings 52/– 12/– 418/12 111/–
Source: Cricinfo, 8 February 2008

John Michael Brearley OBE (born 28 April 1942) is a retired English first-class cricketer who captained Cambridge University, Middlesex, and England.

He captained the international side in 31 of his 39 Test matches, winning 17 and losing only 4. He was the President of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in 2007–08. Since his retirement from professional cricket he has pursued a career as a writer and psychoanalyst, serving as President of the British Psychoanalytical Society 2008–10.

He is married to Mana Sarabhai who is from India and they have two children together.[1]

Early life[]

Brearley was educated at the City of London School (where his father Horace, himself a first-class cricketer, was a master). While at St. John's College, Cambridge, Brearley excelled at cricket (he was then a wicketkeeper/batsman). After making 76 on his first-class debut as a wicketkeeper,[2] he played for Cambridge University between 1961 and 1968 (captaining the side from 1964 onwards), first as an undergraduate in the Classical and Moral Sciences tripos, and then as a postgraduate.

While still at Cambridge, he was chosen for the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) tour to South Africa in 1964–65, and to captain the MCC Under-25 side in Pakistan in 1966–67, where he scored 312 not out against North Zone[3] (his highest first-class score) and 223 against the Pakistan Under-25 side[4] he ended the tour with 793 runs from six matches at an average of 132.

County cricket[]

From 1961 onwards, he played for Middlesex County Cricket Club, often opening the innings with Michael Smith. As captain between 1971 and 1982, he led Middlesex to County Championships in 1976, 1977 (jointly with Kent), 1980 and 1982;[5] and he appeared in Free Foresters' very last first-class fixture, in 1968, keeping wicket and scoring 91.[6]

International cricket[]

In part because of his pursuit of an academic career as a lecturer in philosophy at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,[7] which limited his cricketing activity in 1969 and 1970, Brearley was not selected for England until the age of 34 in 1976. His record in Test cricket as a batsman was modest (he averaged 22.88 in 66 Test innings, without a century), but he was an outstanding captain. Having previously kept wicket, he was also a fine slip catcher, usually at first slip. He took over as captain of England in 1977.

His management skills (he was once described by Rodney Hogg as having "a degree in people") drew the best from the players in his team, although he was fortunate to be able to call on the services of Bob Willis, David Gower and Ian Botham at their peak. Brearley was captain during the infamous aluminium bat incident in 1979, when he objected to Dennis Lillee's use of a metal bat instead of one made of willow.[8] On the same tour, he caused controversy at the end of an international one-day match against the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground when he ordered all his fielders, including the wicketkeeper, to the boundary with three runs required off the last ball (this was legal by the rules of the time).[9]

He had been an innovator regarding cricket equipment himself, wearing a 'skull cap' under his England cap in 1977 (in the days before players wore helmets). It consisted of a plastic protector with two side pieces protecting his temples. It was later popularised by the Indian batsman Sunil Gavaskar.[citation needed]

Brearley captained England to the final of the 1979 Cricket World Cup, scoring 53 in the semi-final against New Zealand[10] and 64 in the final against the West Indies.[11] However, his opening partnership of 129 with Geoff Boycott in the final used up 38 of 60 allotted overs; although it was recognised that a potent pace attack of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, Colin Croft and Joel Garner needed to be countered, the speed of the partnership greatly added to the pressure on the rest of the order. Garner bowled a spell of 5 wickets for 4 runs to induce a drastic collapse and hand the West Indies the match and the World Cup by 92 runs.[citation needed]

Having passed the England captaincy to Ian Botham in 1980 (losing his Test place in the process), Brearley returned as captain following Botham's resignation for the third Test against Australia at Headingley in 1981,[12] going on to win the match and two of the remaining three matches of the series to win the Ashes 3–1.

His leadership benefited from Botham's recovered form following his winless captaincy record and his nosedive in form (he had made a pair in the second Test at Lord's) to take a first-innings 6 for 95 and score 50 and 149 not out in the third Test at Headingley, bowl a spell of 5 wickets for 1 run in the fourth Test at Edgbaston, score 118 from 102 balls in the fifth Test at Old Trafford, and take a 10-wicket match haul (6 for 125 and 4 for 128) in the sixth Test at the Oval.[citation needed]

Post-cricket career[]

Brearley opposed sporting links with apartheid South Africa, seconding a motion to the MCC in 1968 calling for the cessation of tours until there was actual progress towards non-racial cricket. He seconded the motion from David Sheppard to the MCC, calling for the England tour to South Africa to be cancelled, and was a supporter of John Arlott who campaigned in The Guardian for the same objective.[citation needed]

He is now a psychoanalyst, psychotherapist (registered with the BPC), motivational speaker, and part-time cricket journalist for The Times. He was appointed an OBE in 1978, and published The Art of Captaincy in 1985. He published another book, On Form, in 2017.[13] In 1998, he became an Honorary Fellow of his Cambridge college, St. John's[14] and in 2006 was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford Brookes University.[15]

Brearley succeeded Doug Insole as President of MCC on 1 October 2007, and chose Derek Underwood to succeed him at the end of his term.[16] He was president of the British Psychoanalytical Society, 2008–10.[17]

References[]

  1. ^ "The Brearleys". Archived from the original on 17 February 2021. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  2. ^ "Cambridge University v Surrey: University Match 1961". Cricketarchive.com. Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  3. ^ "North Zone v Marylebone Cricket Club Under-25s: Marylebone Cricket Club Under-25s in Pakistan 1966/67". Cricketarchive.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  4. ^ "Pakistan Under-25s v Marylebone Cricket Club Under-25s: Marylebone Cricket Club Under-25s in Pakistan 1966/67". Cricketarchive.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  5. ^ "County Championship Winners". 21 November 2005. Archived from the original on 21 November 2005. Retrieved 4 April 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ "Oxford University v Free Foresters: University Match 1968". Cricketarchive.com. Archived from the original on 18 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  7. ^ "The British Psychoanalytical Society : Psychoanalytic Technique Today" (PDF). Archived from the original on 27 June 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  8. ^ Martin Williamson (25 September 2004). "Heavy metal at the WACA". ESPN Cricinfo. Archived from the original on 6 February 2017. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  9. ^ Martin Williamson (23 May 2009). "I do declare". ESPN Cricinfo. Archived from the original on 17 June 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  10. ^ "1st SF: England v New Zealand at Manchester". Content-uk.cricinfo.com. 20 June 1979. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  11. ^ "Final: England v West Indies at Lord's". ESPN Cricinfo. 23 June 1979. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  12. ^ Christopher Martin-Jenkins (20 July 2006). "The great escape". ESPN Cricinfo. Archived from the original on 17 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  13. ^ "A former England cricket captain explores the question of "form"". The Economist. 7 September 2017. Archived from the original on 8 September 2017. Retrieved 8 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Honorary Fellows of the College". Joh.cam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  15. ^ "Michael Brearley — Oxford Brookes University". 17 January 2010. Archived from the original on 17 January 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  16. ^ "Brearley to be new MCC president". BBC News. 2 May 2007. Archived from the original on 17 August 2007. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  17. ^ "The Institute of Psychoanalysis". 24 November 2011. Archived from the original on 24 November 2011. Retrieved 4 April 2017.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)

External links[]

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Tony Greig

Ian Botham
English national cricket captain
1977–1980
(Geoffrey Boycott deputised 1977/78)
1981
Succeeded by
Ian Botham

Keith Fletcher
Preceded by
Peter Parfitt
Middlesex county cricket captain
1971–1982
Succeeded by
Mike Gatting
Preceded by
Doug Insole
Marylebone Cricket Club President
2007–2008
Succeeded by
Derek Underwood
Retrieved from ""