Brief profile of Dougie Brown by Matthew Reed

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Player:

DR Brown

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DateLine: 13th February 2006

 

Born in Stirling, when Dougie Brown crossed Hadrian’s Wall he embarked on a cricketing career which would eventually see him play for England, coach and play for Namibia and then finally return to play for his home county again. His First-class debut came in the Scotland vs. Ireland fixture in 1989, and he also played for Scotland in the 1990 Benson & Hedges Cup group stage, taking 3-50 as the underdogs completed a shock away win against Northamptonshire. He made his debut for Warwickshire the following season, and after being peripheral in 1994 he settled into the team nicely for their second successive Championship title in 1995. He was one of a number of players selected for the Sharjah tournament of 1997/8 in a patchwork quilt of an England side. However, the reliance on bits and pieces players worked perfectly as England improbably claimed the trophy, with Brown having the honour of hitting the winning four in the final against the West Indies. He had earlier been a thorn in their side after dismissing Philo Wallace and former Warwickshire colleague Brian Lara with his first and third balls of the match in a preliminary match against them earlier in the tournament. Ironically it was against the Windies that his England carer came to an end, after his bowling had been on the expensive side against them in a five match series against them in March/April 1998. He didn’t complete 10 overs in any of the five matches of the series, and although his lower order batting was useful, it wasn’t really good enough for him to justify a place in the side if he wasn’t going to be bowling a full allocation. Although he’s always been classed as a near all-rounder, the last few seasons have really seen his batting blossom, with 10 centuries in his seven seasons, a career best 203 in 2000 and 1,000 First-class runs in 2003. Brown coached Namibia at the 2003 World Cup (where the African country ran England unexpectedly close) and played for Scotland in the 2005 ICC Trophy, helping his native country qualify for the next World Cup, which he will almost certainly play in. With his reddy-blonde curly hair, penchant for talismanic necklaces and enthusiastic run up completed with a slightly jerky, slightly stompy action, Brown was always going to be distinctive before his interesting, tri-national career. He may yet have one last international hurrah left in him.

 

(February 2006)

(Article: Copyright © 2006 Matthew Reed)