Biography

With more than 250 Test wickets, and 2200 first class wickets, one would have thought that Brian Statham was one of those arrogant fast bowlers who intimidated and bullied the batsmen with their pace and words. Not so Statham. In his own words, he liked to bowl straight and “when the batsmen missed, I hit”. However, he also bowled at a very good pace, usually bowled out swingers, and on odd occasions that the ball pitched on seam, it came in like a banana.

Such impeccable was his bowling – especially at the county circuit, that he picked up bucketful of wickets on a consistent basis. He averaged more than 100 wickets per season, and less than 17 runs a wicket in his county career, a rarity. If his bowling partner at the international level, Frank Tyson was the fiercer, verbose kinds, Statham went about doing his business quietly with no qualms whatsoever. His pace did begin to drop towards the end, and by 1965, he had played his last Test. He was appointed the President of the county he played for, Lancashire, between 1995 and 1997.

Statham ran into financial difficulties once his playing days were done, and this did not improve even though he held reasonable positions in various jobs. In 2000, Statham died of leukemia, at an age of 69.