Jack Alexander Brooks (born 4 June 1984) is an English professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

player, currently playing for

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

after successful spells at

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

in the

Minor Counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

, and

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

. He is predominantly a right arm medium fast bowler who can also bat.

Career

Brooks played for Oxfordshire between 2004 and 2008. He played for Northamptonshire Second XI at the end of the 2008 season before signing a professional contract with the club for the 2009 season. He made his professional debut against the Australian tourist team taking the wickets of Andrew McDonald and

Mitchell Johnson Mitchell Guy Johnson (born 2 November 1981) is a former Australian cricketer, who played all forms of the game for his national side. He is a left-arm fast bowler and left-handed batsman. He made his Test debut for Australia in November 2007 ...

. He hoped that his performance against Australia would lead to more first-class matches. On his Northants debut, he took 4 wickets for 76 against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

. He signed a two-year contract extension on 2 September 2009, keeping him at the club until the end of the 2011 season. During the 2010 season, Brooks was a regular in the team opening the bowling. Brooks signed up to play for Yorkshire in October 2012, becoming a key part of the county's back-to-back Championship wins in 2014 and 2015. In the 2016 County Championship season, he took more wickets in Division One than any other fast bowler. During the 2017 season Brooks scored his maiden first class century against Yorkshire's rivals Lancashire, helping to earn his team a valuable draw in their fight for Division 1 survival. Jack is known for his trademark headband, earning him the nickname "The Headband Warrior", originally worn functionally to keep his lustrous, flowing locks out of his eyes while bowling, Jack has continued wearing the headband as an affectation despite a new, shorter hair style. On 28 August 2018, Brooks agreed a three-year contract with

ahead of the 2019 season. In November 2021, Brooks became involved in the

Azeem Rafiq Azeem Rafiq ( ur, عظیم رفیق; born 27 February 1991) is a British Asian cricketer who played professionally in England for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. A right arm off-spin bowler, Rafiq played for the county between 2008 and 2014 and 20 ...

racism scandal after he was named at the DCMS hearing on 16 November as having given

Cheteshwar Pujara Cheteshwar Arvind Pujara (born 25 January 1988) is an Indian international cricketer who plays Test cricket for India and represents Saurashtra in domestic cricket. He is a right-handed batter and is known for his disciplined batting style. ...

the nickname 'Steve', even though Pujara preferred his first name. It also came to light that Brooks had made use of possibly offensive language in two Twitter responses to friends of African heritage. Somerset have launched an investigation against him.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Jack 1984 births Living people English cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Oxfordshire cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Somerset cricketers Sussex cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Cricketers from Oxford