English cricket team in Australia in 1950–51

Freddie Brown captained the English cricket team in Australia in 1950–51, playing as England in the 1950–51 Ashes series against the Australians and as the MCC in their other matches on the tour.

[1] In selecting their team for Australia the MCC selectors (Sir Pelham Warner, Harry Altham, Gubby Allen, Les Ames, William Findlay, Tom Pearce, Walter Robins, Brian Sellers and Bob Wyatt) made the mistake on relying on experience on one hand and youth on the other, but with little between.

[2] The captain Freddie Brown had last toured Australia in 1932–33 with Douglas Jardine and Len Hutton, Cyril Washbrook, Denis Compton, Doug Wright, Alec Bedser and Godfrey Evans in 1946–47 under Wally Hammond; the rest of the team had never travelled down under.

Bill Edrich who had made a gutsy 462 runs (46.20) in 1946–47 and would tour Australia again in 1954–55, but was out of favour at Lord's (he was being divorced, and such things counted in the 1950s) and had had an injury-struck season.

[3] Laker had taken an astounding 8/2 in the 1950 Bradford Test Trial, but his brand of off-spin was deemed too slow for the hard Australian pitches and he was not chosen for the 1954–55 tour either.

Freddie Brown was the selector's third choice to lead the tour, after Norman Yardley of Yorkshire and George Mann of Middlesex both declined the job and he was only chosen as Lord's was determined to have an amateur captain.

His unstinted devotion to his job and the unselfish manner in which he delved in with a will when the going was hardest won the admiration of all Australian enthusiasts and met a fitting reward when England emerged victorious from the Fifth Test at the end of the tour.

Born in Peru and educated in Chile and Cambridge University he was a big-hearted, self-confident red-headed all-rounder usually seen wearing a white silk handkerchief round his neck, with a big grin and an avuncular pipe.

Captured with Bill Bowes at Tobruk in 1942 Brown spent most of the Second World War in prisoner-of-war camps in Italy and Germany, where they organised games of cricket, baseball and rugby and lost over 60lbs (30 kilos) before being liberated by the Americans.

After Mann and Yardley had turned down the Ashes tour Brown impressed the selectors by hitting a six into the Lord's Pavilion while smashing 122 out of 131 runs inside two hours as captain in the Gentlemen v Players match, followed with three quick wickets, and he was offered the post the same afternoon.

Brown's jovial bonhomie and refusal to admit defeat won him many fans in Australia and he was a magnificent ambassador for the game, a role which the MCC regarded quite as important as sporting success, and the scorer Bill Ferguson said it was the easiest, happiest tour he had been on for over 40 years.

Superb in craftsmanship, magnificent in the hour of stress, veritably a giant among all batsmen and worthy of ranking with such famous names as Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Woolley, Hammond...they were masters of all they surveyed.

[19] He was forced to review his technique and use a lightened bat, but his defence was flawless and he was an expert on 'sticky dogs' like Brisbane and averaged higher in post-war Tests than in his youth, when he had made the record score of 364 at the Oval in 1938.

The Yorkshireman was saddled with the heavy burden of knowing that England depended on his skill and was the prime target of the Australian fast bowlers Keith Miller and Ray Lindwall.

This innings was the finest of his career, first adding 131 with Hutton and 64 out of a stand of 74 for the last wicket to put England 103 runs ahead and gave them their first victory against Australia since 1938.

Sheppard is best remembered for taking holy orders, becoming the first Reverend to play Test cricket, becoming captain of Sussex and England and later Bishop of Liverpool.

Gilbert Parkhouse was a Welsh middle order batsman who was sent in to open for Glamorgan in 1950 and made such as success of it that he broke the county record by making seven centuries in a season.

[22] Despite respectable all-round figures Close never reached the heights expected of him in Test cricket, though his tough, uncompromising, captaincy of Yorkshire, Somerset and England would become the stuff of legend.

His huge hands and powerful shoulders allowed him to bowl a lethal combination of in-swingers and leg-cutters off a short run-up and only Keith Miller – briefly – was able to cut loose from his control.

In 1950–51 series he did have the support of his captain Freddie Brown, another big medium paced bowler, who surprised everybody by taking 18 wickets (21.61) despite celebrating his 40th birthday on the tour.

[29] John Warr quickly proved himself to be the worst player in the team, he took only one test wicket – for 281 runs – when Ian Johnson walked after the umpire declined to give him out, an almost unheard of practice in Australia at the time.

However, they made a considerable improvement in the Tests with "...first class work in the field, in direct contrast to the slovenly and often lackadaisical displays in the previous games of the tour".

His deputy was Arthur McIntyre, who kept wicket for Alec Bedser, Jim Laker and Tony Lock in the Surrey side that would win the County Championship seven times in a row in 1952–58.