When Steve Waugh inaugurated the custom of a former Australian Test cricketer presenting baggy green caps to new selections, his choice settled without hesitation on Bill Brown. Brown was puzzled. Yes, he had batted with Don Bradman; captained Australia too. But shouldn't they get someone important? He was just a battler, really.
On the contrary, insisted Waugh: "Bill is a baggy green icon who represents all that is good about playing for your country. He is humble, self-effacing and respectful, proud to have been afforded the honour of being an Australian Test cricketer, and a man who always looks for the positive in people." Waugh looked on delightedly as Brown, who has died aged 95, settled a cap on Adam Gilchrist, feeling the old man's "emotion and pride".
Curiously, an Australian who played cricket less like the bristling, bustling Waugh can hardly be imagined: Brown, born in Queensland but brought up in New South Wales, was a slight figure with a light touch at the crease, a serene man who made friends easily and lastingly, among opponents as well as teammates. The last Australian pre-war Test player, he was amused by his late celebrity. Yet Brown was a better player than he let on, with an average of 51 to show for his 13,840 runs in 189 first-class games, and of 47 for his 1,592 runs in 22 Tests. Beginning the innings suited him, and he shared in the first Australian double-century opening partnership: 233 with his favourite partner, Jack Fingleton, at Cape Town at Newlands on the second day of the 1936 Test.
Brown would make less of his achievements than his misadventures, such as when he played a ball gently on to his stumps at Adelaide Oval in December 1938 without dislodging a bail. He turned his 27 at the time into an unbeaten 174, apologising guiltily all the way.
In the summer of 1947-48, Brown was twice run out at the bowler's end in Sydney by the Indian Vinoo Mankad, bequeathing to cricket the term "Mankaded". Brown formed part of Bradman's much-feted Invincibles in England in 1948, scoring eight centuries, although he had only a modest impact on his two Tests. When Bradman left New South Wales for South Australia in 1935, Brown took over the job he held down for the men's outfitters FJ Palmer. Relocating to Queensland, he sold Chevrolets for the Brisbane firm of Egars, before running a sports store in the shadow of the giant emporium McDonnell and East. Brown celebrated his 67th wedding anniversary with Barbara last December. She survives him, as do three sons. "They were well spaced," Brown said. "Like my centuries."
