Neil Fairbrother (born Neil Harvey Fairbrother; 9 September 1963) is an English former

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 ...

er who played 75 One Day International matches and 10 Test matches as a batsman for England. Fairbrother, named by his mother after her favourite player, the Australian cricketer

Neil Harvey Robert Neil Harvey (born 8 October 1928) is an Australian former cricketer who was a member of the Australian cricket team between 1948 and 1963, playing in 79 Test matches. He was the vice-captain of the team from 1957 until his retirement. ...

, was educated at

Lymm Grammar School Lymm is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England, which incorporates the hamlets of Booths Hill, Broomedge, Church Green, Deansgreen, Heatley, Heatley Heath, Little Heatley, Oughtrington, Reddish, Rushgreen and ...

and played his

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

for Lancashire. Although primarily a one day player at international level, he had strong success in the

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

and had a first class high score of 366. Fairbrother retired from all cricket in 2002, and became Director of Cricket at

International Sports Management International Sports Management Limited ("ISM") is a sports management agency based in Cheshire, England that represents leading figures from golf. It was founded in 1989 by former European Tour golfer Andrew "Chubby" Chandler. . Golf clients i ...

. He was also a player manager for a time, managing among others

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-orde ...

. In February 2018, Fairbrother set up Phoenix Management.

Domestic career

Fairbrother played for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name Transvaal. * South African Republic (1856–1902; af, ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was team

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Lancashire in 1992–1993. Cricket writer, Colin Bateman, described Fairbrother as "an inventive, intelligent left-hander". In 1990, Fairbrother scored 366 for Lancashire against

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. ...

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

. 311 of his runs came in a single day, and his feat is unique in that he scored at least 100 runs in each of the three sessions that day. Another milestone came in 1998, when he became the first man to play in ten Lord's one-day domestic cricket cup finals. Fairbrother finished on the winning side in seven of these finals, including the

Benson and Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

in 1984, when he top-scored for his side aged 20, and both the

and

NatWest Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scott ...

in both 1990 and 1996. He also helped Lancashire to success in the Refuge Assurance Cup in 1988 and the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(formerly the Refuge Assurance League) in 1989 and 1999.

International career

Fairbrother made his international debut on 2 April 1987, in a

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Following a match-winning century against a

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

side including

Malcolm Marshall Malcolm Denzil Marshall (18 April 1958 – 4 November 1999) was a Barbadian cricketer. Primarily a fast bowler, Marshall is widely regarded as one of the greatest and one of the most accomplished fast bowlers of the modern era in Test cricket. ...

Curtly Ambrose Sir Curtly Elconn Lynwall Ambrose KCN (born 21 September 1963) is an Antiguan former cricketer who played 98 Test matches for the West Indies. Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, he took 405 Test wickets at a ...

and

Courtney Walsh Courtney Andrew Walsh OJ (born 30 October 1962) is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is a fast bowler and considered one of the all-time greats, best ...

Lord's Lord's Cricket Ground, commonly known as Lord's, is a cricket venue in St John's Wood, London. Named after its founder, Thomas Lord, it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and is the home of Middlesex County Cricket Club, the England and ...

in 1991, he established himself as a regular in middle-order of the one-day side for several years. Test success, however, proved elusive. Bowled for a duck on his debut, he made just ten Test appearances for England, with only one half-century from 15 innings, at an average of 15.64. However, his international honours included appearing for England in three

Cricket World Cup The Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Men's Cricket World Cup) is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), e ...

s. Chief among the world cup appearances was the 1992 World Cup Final where Fairbrother topscored for England with a gritty 62 off 70 balls and almost pulled off an improbable chase.

References

External links

* *
Neil Fairbrother: 12 facts about the Lancashire stalwart
Chinmay Jawalekar, Cricket Country, September 9, 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Fairbrother, Neil 1963 births Living people Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup Cricketers from Warrington England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers English cricketers Gauteng cricketers Lancashire cricket captains Lancashire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers