Patient batsman who was one of Australia’s ‘Invincibles’

Bill Brown, who died on 16 March, 2008, aged 95, was a multiple Ashes winner, one-time captain of Australia and a member of the legendary Invincibles team of 1948.

His career was split by the Second World War and included four successful Ashes series, a total of 22 Tests and a place in Wisden’s prestigious ‘Cricketers of the Year’ list in 1939.

He was a graceful and patient opening batsman who was never in a hurry to score runs, though he made almost 14,000. It was often noted that he performed much better in England than Australia, perhaps because he felt less pressured by the more reserved English crowds.

William Alfred Brown was born on 31 July, 1912, in Toowoomba, Queensland’s ‘Garden City’. The family moved to Sydney when Bill was three and he started playing cricket as a wicket-keeper at the high schools he attended there.

He left school at the first opportunity but the country was in the grips of the Great Depression so finding regular work was next to impossible. He joined Marrickville Cricket Club as a batsman in 1929, though his career there looked unpromising until an innings of 172 brought him new confidence.

In 1932, aged 20, he was selected for New South Wales but was run out without facing a ball in his first innings. Nevertheless, before the season was done he had reached an average of 29 runs. The following year he surprised many with several high scores – in one match he out-scored Australia’s hero and New South Wales team-mate, Don Bradman, with 154 of a 294 partnership.

He had more than doubled his average by the end of the 1933/34 season and was rewarded with a place in the team to tour England, personally selected by Bradman to fill the one available slot in the squad. His performances against Cambridge University and Lancashire saw him break into the Test side and his debut came at Trent Bridge in June. He ended the series with a round 300 and Australia came away with a 2-1 victory.

In 1936 he moved to Queensland as a player-coach and was made captain within a year. Injury hampered him in the 1936/37 Ashes and he only played two unrewarding Tests, though the home side retained the famous trophy 3-2.

When the Aussies headed for England in 1938 looking for a third successive win, falling averages meant Brown’s selection was controversial, but he proved his doubters wrong in the second Test at Lord’s by reaching 206 not out to help the side to a valuable draw. The series, which Brown ended on 512, finished as a draw, meaning the Ashes stayed in Australian hands. That year the Wisden almanac selected him as one of their ‘Cricketers of the Year’, saying he batted "with a charming skill, coolness, thoughtfulness and certainty" but also hinting that he hadn’t yet hit his peak.

If that peak was coming, and his two strongest seasons to date in the domestic competitions suggested it was, the Second World War prevented it. He served in New Guinea and the Philippines with the Royal Australian Air Force as a flight lieutenant. When he resumed the sport in 1945, his average was down by 15 runs and his best years had been stolen.

Nevertheless, in 1946 he captained the Australian side during a single-Test tour of New Zealand, the first side the neighbouring countries had met in Test circumstances and Australia’s first post-war Test. Despite fielding seven new players due to retirements and injuries, Australia won by an innings and 103 runs and Brown was praised for his leadership-by-example.

A thumb injury kept him out of the 1946/47 Ashes and at 34 he seemed to have lost his place permanently to Arthur Morris. A year later he was back in the team but dismissed twice by Indian bowler Vinoo Mankad who unsportingly pulled out of his run up to hit the bails at the non-striking end while Brown was out of his crease.

It was yet another piece of bad luck on home soil that led to his record in Tests in Australia being almost half as good as his travelling one. His confidence was threatened with increased competition for his place, but a score of 99 in his final innings of the series with India meant he was still in the squad when Australia headed for England in 1948.

The 1948 Australia Ashes side is rated as among the best to ever play. England were severely weakened after the war, but that takes little away from the Invincibles’ achievement of winning the Ashes 4-0 (with one draw) and going unbeaten in a total of 31 first-class fixtures. It was Bradman’s last series and the squad also featured Keith Miller, Arthur Morris, Don Tallon and many of the other all-time greats.

Following Bradman’s retirement at 40, Brown felt he still had a chance of another Test series, but despite a strong domestic season he wasn’t called up for a tour of South Africa and retired at the end of the 1949/50 season to become a selector for Queensland. He was made a life member of Queensland Cricket Association in 1992 and given the Medal of the Order of Australia 2000.