Angus Robert Charles Fraser (born 8 August 1965) is an English cricket administrator. He served as the

managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of Middlesex Cricket between 2009 and 2021, before assuming a new role heading the club's academy. He is currently serving as Managing Director of the Middlesex in the Community charity. He is also a former English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er, journalist and England selector. Fraser played in forty-six Test matches and forty-two One Day Internationals for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Cricket commentator Colin Bateman commented that Fraser was "a reliable, intelligent and hard-working bowler".

Early life

Born in Billinge Higher End, Lancashire, Fraser was educated at the Gayton High School in

Harrow, London Harrow () is a large town in Greater London, England, and serves as the principal settlement of the London Borough of Harrow. Lying about north-west of Charing Cross and south of Watford, the entire town including its localities had a populat ...

and Orange Hill High School, Edgware, Greater London.

Cricket career

Fraser began his career with Middlesex in 1984, helping them to win the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

in 1985, 1990 and 1993. He also helped Middlesex to win the 1988 NatWest Trophy, taking 3–36 in the final, and the 1990 Refuge Assurance Cup. He made his Test match debut with England in 1989 against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. In his fourth Test in 1990 he took his first

five-wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batter. Takin ...

in Tests, in the process helping England to their first Test victory over the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

for sixteen years and 30 Tests. However England missed his contributions when he was forced to withdraw from this series with injury, as was the case during the Ashes series the following winter. A hip injury then kept him out of Test cricket for two and a half years, but he made an immediate impact on his return at

the Oval The Oval, currently named 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 sinc ...

in 1993, taking eight wickets as England recorded their first Test victory over Australia for 18 Tests and six and a half years. Perhaps his finest hour came in the

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

Test match of the 1993/94

tour when Fraser took 8–75 in the first

innings An innings is one of the divisions of a cricket match during which one team takes its turn to bat. Innings also means the period in which an individual player bats (acts as either striker or nonstriker). In cricket and rounders, "innings" is ...

to help set up a famous victory, West Indies' first defeat at

Bridgetown Bridgetown (UN/LOCODE: BB BGI) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Barbados. Formerly The Town of Saint Michael, the Greater Bridgetown area is located within the Parishes of Barbados, parish of Saint Michael, Barbados, Saint Mic ...

for over half a century. His career-best

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

innings bowling figures of 8–53 were taken in a

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

match and against the same opposition, this time at

Port of Spain Port of Spain ( ; Trinidadian and Tobagonian English, Trinidadian English: ''Port ah Spain'' ) is the capital and chief port of Trinidad and Tobago. With a municipal population of 49,867 (2017), an urban population of 81,142 and a transient dail ...

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago, officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean, comprising the main islands of Trinidad and Tobago, along with several List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, smaller i ...

, in 1997/98. Despite taking eight wickets in that innings, and Test career best match figures of 11–110, he was not named

Man of the Match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

which was awarded to Carl Hooper, from the victorious West Indies side. In all, Fraser toured the West Indies three times, and as of 2022, he has taken more Test wickets in the West Indies than any other visiting bowler. His

one-day international One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

highest score of 38 not out was made late in the innings at number 10, which included a massive six off

Steve Waugh Stephen Rodger Waugh (born 2 June 1965) is an Australian former international cricketer and twin brother of cricketer Mark Waugh. A right-handed batsman and a medium-pace bowler, Waugh is considered one of the greatest cricketers of all time. ...

and almost brought England back from the brink of defeat against

during the 1990/91 tour (Australia won by three runs). Another fine moment with the bat was in a last-wicket second-innings stand with Robert Croft to save the Third Test at

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and is the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,197, it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after W ...

against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 1998. According to the recollection of then England coach David Lloyd, as Fraser went out to face the bowling of Allan Donald, Fraser said :"‘The only way he'll get me out is if he knocks me through all three tumps’ I said: 'He probably will, Gus, but good luck'. But he survived. A red-inker it was and in retrospect one of the most important innings of the series". Fraser's short innings indeed helped to reverse the momentum in the series, Fraser taking three fivefers in the next two Tests to help England to an unlikely series victory. He also toured

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

and

, and played in one-day tournaments in Asia, representing

. Throughout his career he used a bat nicknamed the "Gussy Hitter", the blade of which was designed by his mother. Fraser last played for England during the 1999

Cricket world cup The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup is a quadrennial world cup for cricket in One Day International (ODI) format, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The tournament is one of the world's most viewed sporting events and consid ...

. Although born in Lancashire, Fraser played all of his

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

in a first-class career lasting until 2002; he served as county captain from 2001 until his retirement in 2002. After that, he worked as the cricket correspondent of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' newspaper (2002–2009), until his appointment to the newly created role of managing director of Cricket by Middlesex County Cricket Club in January 2009. He is a regular contributor to the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. The programme is available on BB ...

'' and a cricket

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. In the 1996 edition of ''

Wisden ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', or simply ''Wisden'', colloquially the Bible of Cricket, is a cricket reference book published annually in the United Kingdom. The description "Bible of cricket" (or variations thereof) has been applied to ''Wi ...

'', Fraser was one of the

Wisden Cricketers of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based "primarily for their influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

. Fraser served as the managing director of cricket at Middlesex County Cricket Club between 2009 and 2021. He assumed a new role in heading the club's academy in July 2021.

He also served as a selector for the

England cricket team The England men's cricket team represents cricket in England, England and cricket in Wales, Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Maryleb ...

for a period after 2014.

Personal life

He now resides in Pinner with his wife Denise and two children, Alex and Bethan. In 2008, in his first managerial role, Fraser secured the U15 Middlesex Schools Association County Cup with The John Lyon School, where his son was in the squad. Fraser is a fan of, and regular visitor to, Wealdstone Football Club.

References

External links

*
Debrett's People of Today

Middlesex in the Community
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fraser, Angus 1965 births Living people English cricket administrators English cricket coaches English cricket commentators English cricketers English cricketers of 1969 to 2000 20th-century English sportsmen English male journalists England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers Managing Directors of Cricket Members of the Order of the British Empire Middlesex cricket captains Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers People educated at Harrow High School People from Higher End Sportspeople from the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan Wellington cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year Cricketers at the 1999 Cricket World Cup Middlesex cricketers Cricketers from Greater Manchester