I say!
I was studying 'Iron Man' Brian Close's statistics the other afternoon, as one does when one has a spare moment, and my goodness, they were very interesting. He had the second longest Test career of any cricketer - 26 years and 355 days to be precise, though of course he only played 22 Tests.
He took more wickets (74) against Nottinghamshire, than any other county. He had 17 century partnerships with Doug Padgett. In First Class cricket, he scored a total of 34,994 runs. He 'walked' in his last innings, even though he had not been given out. Otherwise his total would almost certainly have been 35,000.
In 1975, his batting and fielding stats were:
22 38 6 1284 138 40.13 1 8 14
I think that the above encapsulates the man!
His last day in first-class cricket was Sept 2nd 1986.
The hardest cricketer of all time ever. He stood up to Lindwall, Wes Hall and Michael 'Whispering Death' Holding. He showed no pain! When the England selectors were in need...they called on Brian Close, and he never let them down.
Above are some of the injuries he sustained against Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith's bowling. He went through worse against Michael 'Whispering Death' Holding.
One can see him in the second movie
here. Of course, and quite naturally, he is my cricketing hero.
MM III
