Bill Brown
Australian cricketer
Died when: 95 years 229 days (1147 months)Star Sign: Leo
William Alfred Brown, OAM (31 July 1912 – 16 March 2008) was an Australian cricketer who played 22 Test matches between 1934 and 1948, captaining his country in one Test.
A right-handed opening batsman, his partnership with Jack Fingleton in the 1930s is regarded as one of the finest in Australian Test history.
After the interruption of World War II, Brown was a member of the team dubbed "The Invincibles", who toured England in 1948 without defeat under the leadership of Don Bradman.
In a match in November 1947, Brown was the unwitting victim of the first instance of "Mankading".Raised in New South Wales, Brown initially struggled in both work and cricket, before gradually rising through the cricket ranks.
He made his first-class debut for New South Wales in the 1932–33 season and forced his way into the national side during the 1934 tour of England.
When long-term openers Bill Ponsford and Bill Woodfull retired at the end of the tour, Brown and his state opening partner Fingleton took over.
After poor form made his selection for the 1938 tour of England controversial, Brown responded with a total of 1,854 runs, including an unbeaten 206 that saved Australia from defeat in the Second Test, and was honoured as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year.
The outbreak of the Second World War cost Brown his peak years, which he spent in the Royal Australian Air Force.
Cricket resumed in 1945–46 and Brown, in Bradman's absence, captained an Australian eleven in a match that was retrospectively awarded Test status.
Brown missed the entirety of the following season because of injury.Upon his return, he was unable to repeat his previous success and was ousted from the opening positions by Arthur Morris and Sid Barnes.
Selected for the Invincibles tour, he performed reasonably well in the tour matches but, with Morris and Barnes entrenched as openers, he batted out of position in the middle order during the first two Tests.
He struggled and was dropped from the Test team, never to return.Upon returning to Australia, Brown continued playing for Queensland until the end of the 1949–50 season.
In retirement, Brown briefly served as a Test selector and sold cars and, later, sports goods.In 2000, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for his services to cricket.
At the time of his death in 2008, he was Australia's oldest Test cricketer.
