Brian Statham

(John) Brian Statham (born June 17, 1930, Manchester; died June 10, 2000, Stockport, Cheshire) was one of the finest bowlers in the history of 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 its strongest attack of the twentieth century during the 1950s. In all, he took 252 wickets in Test matches, a tally bettered only by Freddie Trueman at the time.

Into His Prime

Selected to tour Australia in 1954/1955, Stham's superb bowling, generally into the wind, helped the fiery "Typhoon" Tyson win England the Ashes series by three Tests to one, and against South Africa at Lord's the following year Statham produced his finest-ever Test performance: he bowled unchanged for two hours on a good pitch and took 7 for 39 to give England an unexpected victory. Had injury not intervened, Statham would have had remarkable figures for Lancashire, but 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.

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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 the very helpful pitches.

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