Surrey were castigated for terminating Brown’s contract at the close of the 2008 season after a 21-year stint; Notts immediately took advantage of this blunder and signed the then 39-year old on an initial two year contract.

An explosive opener in one-day cricket, he played for England in 16 one-day internationals and hit a 160-ball 268 against Glamorgan in 2002 (still the highest List-A score in English cricket). During his time at The Oval, Brown scored First-Class centuries against every other county

He was brought into the Nottinghamshire side as an opener in Twenty20 matches and number 6 or 7 in the Championship games – his reputation was for swashbuckling innings in the shorter forms of cricket.

Brown played a major part in winning the 2010 Championship, as well as taking the Notts Outlaws into the Twenty20 Finals Day at Southampton.

His purple patch in the Championship produced two successive victories in 2010. Against Hampshire, he and Mullaney added 111 for the 7th wicket, when the top order faltered; Nottinghamshire went on to win by 5 wickets. Against Durham he scored 134, adding 237 with Read, again for the 7th wicket.

His best knock in Twenty20 cricket was also against Durham, in 2010, when he struck 73 off 52 balls, provided Nottinghamshire with another victory. His two year contract was renewed for 2011, but he was only called upon for five First-Class matches and did not feature in the Twenty20 competition.

In First-Class games he scored 1,941 at an average of 38.06, in Twenty20 games he scored 588 runs at an average of 21.77 and in List-A games he scored 263 at an average of 15.47.

 

July 2020

Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 602

See Ally Brown's career stats here