Famous Cricketers No 62 - Ken Barrington

bowler and coach comments “County cricket during most of Ken’s career was played on pitches of variable bounce, so he collected runs, being content to push the straight ball and the short of a length delivery for singles. But if the ball was off line or length he gave it the necessary treatment. On overseas pitches, when he could judge the height of bounce off the pitch, he was a different player.” The Test Match career of Barrington showed that his performances overseas were better than those in England. M Inn NO Runs HS Avge 100 50 Ct Runs Wkts Avge Home 46 73 7 3347 256 50.71 6 21 34 336 9 37.33 Overseas 36 58 8 3459 172 69.18 14 14 24 964 20 48.20 TOTAL 82 131 15 6806 256 58.67 20 35 58 1300 29 44.82 His career average against Australia was 63.97 from 23 matches and over 75 against India from 14 matches. Barrington achieved a unique feat when he exceeded 50 in each of ten first-class innings he played at the Adelaide Oval for England and the MCC. His scores were 104*, 52, 52*, 63 and 132* on the 1962/63 tour, and 69, 51, 63, 60 and 102 in 1965/66. This gave him an average of 93.50 on this ground which was bettered at Melbourne with 94.00. In England his best ground average was 77.63 at Old Trafford where he scored four centuries and seven 50s during fifteen matches on the ground. Whenever the early batsmen had failed to deliver the goods, Ken would invariably stop the rot. He never played any ‘fancy’ strokes, his approach to the bowling being, ‘You will have to get me out, you won’t get any help from me.’ The Australians often said that, if England were in crises, you could almost see the Union Jack behind Barrington as he walked out to the wicket, giving the impression that this nonsense must stop. I know his fellow players appreciated his professional approach to the game. During his career, Barrington was involved in 142 century partnerships, twenty of these with J.H.Edrich sixteen with M.J.Stewart and ten with P.B.H.May. Away from Surrey, the most partnerships over 100 were scored with M.C.Cowdrey (7). He was awarded a benefit in 1964, which raised £10,702. In 1966 he missed several games as he was on the brink of a nervous breakdown. Controversy was never far away from Barrington. There was a long running saga with C.C.Griffith as Barrington believed that Griffith “threw” his faster delivery. This reached its zenith in 1966 and eventually led to Barrington having a physical and mental breakdown. When he went to the West Indies in 1967/68 he was taunted consistently by the crowds. However Barrington “came good” scoring 143 in the First Test at Port-of-Spain and was part of the triumphant England team. In his benefit match against Yorkshire, Trueman caught him and Barrington walked when Trueman confirmed that he had taken a clean catch. Later a photographer showed Barrington a picture of the dismissal, which appeared to cast doubt on Trueman’s claim of a fair catch. A furious Barrington confronted Trueman but the matter was never resolved owing to lack of conclusive evidence either way. In South Africa, further controversy followed when he “walked” after being given not out by the umpire for a catch behind, an obvious point being made to the South Africans when one of their team had refused to walk on an earlier occasion, a straightforward catch having been taken for which the England players had not immediately appealed. During his career, the one-day game was only in its infancy. The Gillette Cup started in 1963 and Barrington played in only 14 matches up to 1968 finishing on the winning side eight times. His batting average was 33.25 with 3 fifties, his highest score being 70. Limited Over International cricket did not start until 1970/71. 5