Rory James Hamilton-Brown (born 3 September 1987) is a former English first-class cricketer who last played for

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. Previously, he was captain of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

until August 2012. Playing primarily as a right-handed batsman, he was also an occasional off spin bowler.

Early life

Hamilton-Brown was born in

Wellington Hospital Wellington Hospital might refer to: * Wellington Hospital, New Zealand, a hospital in Wellington, New Zealand * Wellington Hospital, London The Wellington Hospital in St John's Wood, London is the largest private hospital in the United Kingdom, an ...

, St John's Wood, London. He was educated at Dulwich College Preparatory School and Millfield School, where he played both rugby union and cricket to a high standard.

Domestic career

Early career

He first appeared for the

2nd XI aged just 16 and made his first-class debut in 2005 against

Bangladesh A The Bangladesh A cricket team, also known as Bangladesh Emerging cricket team, is a cricket team representing Bangladesh, and is the second tier of international Bangladeshi cricket below the full Bangladesh national cricket team. The team played ...

but failed to make an impact with the bat, gaining scores of 5 and 9. On 17 September 2007, he was released by Surrey at his own request and joined County Champions Sussex. In the 2009 Twenty20 Cup quarter final against Warwickshire Hamilton-Brown won the man of the match award thanks to an innings of 27 and four wickets for 15 runs. He celebrated his maiden first-class century scoring 171 not out against Yorkshire on 18 September 2009.

Return to Surrey

On 24 December 2009, it was announced that Hamilton-Brown would be returning to his home county of Surrey as captain in a three-year deal. His former Sussex captain and current Surrey manager Chris Adams had personally flown to South Africa, where Hamilton-Brown had been playing for the England performance squad. Upon signing him, Adams appointed Hamilton-Brown as captain, thereby making him the youngest captain in the current English county circuit. In 2010 he scored 844 runs in first-class cricket at an average of 30.14, including two centuries. He also made his maiden century in a

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

match, whilst scoring 478 runs at 43.45. The following season he passed one thousand runs in first-class cricket for the first time, with 1039 at an average of 37.10, with one century. Surrey had a mediocre season in 2010 under his captaincy, but in 2011 they achieved promotion to the first division of the County Championship and also won the

Clydesdale Bank 40 The ECB40, last known as the Yorkshire Bank 40 (YB40) for sponsorship reasons, was a forty-over limited overs cricket competition for the English first-class counties. It began in the 2010 English cricket season as a replacement for the Pro40 a ...

competition. In the final he scored 78 in 62 balls. Following the death of his Surrey teammate Tom Maynard in June 2012, whom Hamilton-Brown shared a house with and had known since the two attended Millfield School, he took an extended break from the game on compassionate grounds, handing the captaincy over to Gareth Batty. In August Hamilton-Brown resumed playing, but announced that he was relinquishing the captaincy. It was subsequently announced that he would be leaving Surrey, the club having given him permission to find another county even though he had two years left on his contract.

Second Spell at Sussex

Hamilton-Brown re-signed for Sussex on 28 September 2012. Hamilton-Brown said: 'Losing my best friend Tom in June was indescribably painful. We were extremely close but ultimately I know I will emerge from this awful tragedy with renewed strength and purpose. 'I am delighted to be returning to Sussex, a club where I was previously very happy. I would like to thank Mark Robinson, his coaching staff, the players, management and board at Sussex for welcoming me back so warmly. 'There is nothing like feeling wanted to raise spirits and I fully intend to repay the confidence they have shown in me.' Robinson, Sussex's cricket manager, said of Hamilton-Brown: 'He is a very talented cricketer who is yet to reach his full potential, which makes him such an exciting and dangerous player.'

Retirement

Hamilton-Brown retired from cricket on 1 March 2015, after failing to recover from a wrist injury that sidelined him for much of the 2014 season.

International career

He was set to lead England U-19 for the 2006–07 winter tour of Malaysia, but was unable to because he required shoulder surgery. In August 2007, he was stripped of the England Under-19 captaincy after allegedly drinking alcohol the night before a match. However, these allegations were later found to be false, so the decision was reversed by the ECB.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton-Brown, Rory 1987 births Living people Cricketers from Greater London People from St John's Wood Sportspeople from the City of Westminster English cricketers Surrey cricketers Sussex cricketers Wellington cricketers Surrey cricket captains People educated at Millfield Mashonaland Eagles cricketers