The rise and rise of Pat Brown, for whom England have come calling

NICK FRIEND: Brown represents the fruits of a club’s dedicated labour – a patient philosophy of a system dedicated to bringing through its own. He is the blueprint for others to follow, the proof in the pudding, evidence that ‘it’ works

Simon Harmer raced around Edgbaston with his arms aloft; Ravi Bopara strode calmly all alone, taking in the magnitude of what he had achieved with a self-satisfied silence; all those of an Essex persuasion sprung onto the field to embrace a landmark occasion.

Moments later, each team formed their lines, shaking hands where there were hands to be shaken. Some way away at the queue’s rear stood Pat Brown, further back than his teammates, dragging himself desolate from a surface that last year had proven the scene of his finest hour.

Sport is cruel; a game that seemed all but won that became a game lost, a final lost. Brown, such are his high standards, such is his stock, left the field devastated; the contrasting emotions of 12 months previous never further from his mind.

But, just as sport twists, too it turns. And two days later, he was in an England squad – his very first, though surely not his last.

At a county like Worcestershire, one committed to producing its own, one packed full of youngsters whose early cricketing years were spent in the company of one another, it means a lot.

In Brown’s first ever T20 game for the club’s second team – at Cherry Hill Road back in 2015, he featured in the same side as Ed Barnard and George Rhodes – both teammates, though Rhodes is set to leave permanently for Leicestershire. Joe Clarke – now of Nottinghamshire – kept wicket. In a tightknit group, Brown is the first to take that final step.

Before Moeen Ali became part of England’s furniture, the most recent Worcester player to be called up by the national team was Gareth Batty, who left the county a decade ago.

Brown, therefore, represents the fruits of a club’s dedicated labour – a patient philosophy of a system dedicated to backing its own academy. He is the blueprint for others to follow, the proof in the pudding, evidence that ‘it’ works.

“They are really, really good at giving us opportunities,” Dillon Pennington, the club’s 20-year-old seamer, told The Cricketer ahead of Finals Day last week. “That just makes us better cricketers, doesn’t it?”

That, in a nutshell, is the gist of it all. It is why Brown’s own success means so much to those around him; he was 18 when he made his first-team bow for the club. Now, here he is.

Speaking to The Cricketer once again, this time as he reacted to a defence of Worcester’s T20 crown that proved ultimately in vain, Pennington’s joy for his close friend was plain to see.

“Oh, amazing,” he reflected of Brown’s big break.

“Everyone is absolutely delighted for him because he completely 100 percent deserves it – from his skill, but also the amount of effort and hard work he puts in outside of the games.

“Obviously, he has been thinking about it for quite a long time and he deserves it.”

^{Brown almost helped Worcestershire to consecutive T20 Blast crowns}

Pennington is down at Hove acting as twelfth man, where Worcester are taking on Sussex in their final red-ball game of the season. Peterborough-born Brown, meanwhile, has not played a County Championship game since June 2018, though that is not for a lack of desire.

He told The Cricketer at the beginning of the season: “There’s no reason why I wouldn’t want to continue to play red-ball cricket or harbour ambitions to play Test cricket for England. I think that’s everyone’s ambition and it’s still mine.”

“When word got out there onto the field at Hove, I think everyone was just over the moon for him,” Pennington added of his peers’ excitement as the news broke.

“He’s not just a white-ball player, but he has a lot of time and he uses that time really effectively to work on his skills. He also works hard doing extra stuff to really nail those skills. I’m just absolutely over the moon for him. He completely deserves it.”

In an experimental squad also featuring the death-bowling skills of Chris Jordan and Tom Curran, Brown will doubtless earn his opportunity over the course of a five-match series in New Zealand, while even being part of the touring party will allow him to touch base with those who have seen it all before.

It is a chance that Brown will relish, says Riki Wessels, who has played alongside the 21-year-old this year after joining Worcester from Nottinghamshire.

“He’s still young, he’s still developing, he’s got a hunger to learn,” Wessels told The Cricketer last week. “Every game we play, he talks to bowlers. At the Sussex quarter-final, he was talking to Chris Jordan. He’s always learning and trying to improve.”

Advancing his game remains a vital part of Brown’s development. He was due to play for Sylhet Sixers in last year’s Bangladesh Premier League before a stress fracture ruled him out, while a Big Bash deal is thought to be close for this winter.

Thirty-one wickets in last year’s T20 Blast were followed this year by just 17, while he proved far more expensive in his second year than in his first full campaign, when he possessed a sense of novelty as well as his unique skillset.

Ultimately, however, it is simply part of the learning curve. Frankly, an economy rate of 8.12 this season remains a fine effort, given the brutality of the phases in which he bowls – both in the powerplay phase and the final overs. In one improbable win at Durham, where the hosts required 39 runs to win with 51 balls and ten wickets remaining, Brown secured his side a victory that had never looked even remotely likely.

“It’s difficult,” Wessels explains. “Sometimes batsmen play you slightly differently [after you’ve had success] and there’s so much more access to videos and clips and how people get their wickets and how bowlers are being successful.

“When I started playing, we didn’t have any of that sort of stuff. We didn’t even have a morning net – it was just a few throwdowns. It’s something that he’ll have to learn and combat. It’s what good players come back and do.”

^{Moeen Ali is backing Brown to make an impact with England}

On Finals Day, he was almost faultless; if Ed Smith had any lingering doubts over Brown’s big-game appetite, Saturday will have closed off any avenue for uncertainty.

A match-winning spell against Nottinghamshire in the semi-final included the match’s penultimate over – an effort that cost just four runs and accounted for Dan Christian, Tom Moores and the runout of Steven Mullaney. It was a six-ball display of excellence that set up the chaos that followed.

His celebration of Christian’s wicket – a loud roar and a fist pump that temporarily riled the Australian – was testament to a ruthless spirit that will serve the youngster well as he prepares for the rigours of the international game.

“When it comes to game time, he’s really chirpy,” Pennington testifies. “He goes about his business in his own sort of way. He chats to everyone, but he thrives off being really, really competitive.

“He was unbelievable last year and he’s one of my close friends at Worcester. At such a young age, he’s so good to learn off because of what he did last year.

“He learned a lot about T20, so I chat for ages to him about T20 and how he goes about it and how he deals with the pressures around it. He’s got a great winter ahead of him.

“I’m looking forward to when he gets back and he can talk me through how it was, who he’s met and how he went about it. And then he can take me out for dinner! He’s been brilliant.

“I think he’ll do unbelievably. When he gets his chance, which he will, he’ll use the people he’s got around to talk to and learn off. He’s got all his skills as well, so he’s got a lot of confidence in those skills. I think he’ll do amazingly well when he gets his chance.”

There are few greater role models in the English game than Moeen and, for a young pretender readying himself for his first crack at the big stage, Brown could scarcely be in better hands than those of his clubmate.

Worcestershire’s T20 captain is not part of England’s group for the trip to New Zealand, though he is better versed than most on how Brown will cope.

Speaking in the aftermath to their final defeat at Edgbaston, he admitted that he believed Brown was ready.

“I do, yes,” he said. “I think he definitely can [cope]. He’s got huge potential and he’s going to get better.

“Ravi [Bopara] was the first guy who actually played him really well. He’s got huge potential. He’s a gun fielder, he loves the big pressure times and he’s very confident in himself.”

Time, of course, will tell. But Brown, an immensely popular young man and a fascinating selection, can hardly have done more to warrant his chance.