Brian Booth

Brian Booth
Personal information
Full name	Brian Charles Booth MBE
Born	19 October 1933; Perthville, New South Wales, Australia
Died	19 May 2023 (aged 89)
Nickname	Sam
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off spin
Role	Middle-order batsman
International information
National side	Australia;
Test debut (cap 221)	27 July 1961 v England
Last Test	7 January 1966 v England
Domestic team information
1954/55–1968/69	New South Wales
Career statistics
	Source: CricketArchive, 4 March 2008

Brian Charles Booth (19 October 1933 – 19 May 2023) was an Australian cricketer and hockey player who 29 tests and captaining in 2 of them. He played hockey at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne. On 19 May 2023, Cricket Australia announced that Booth had died at the age of 89.^[1]^[2]

Biography

Brian Booth played hockey for Australia at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. His team finished in 5th place. However, he is much better known as a cricketer. He was a member of the St. George Club and later became a life member.^[3]

Booth played 29 Test matches for Australia from 1961 to 1966. This included playing in the 1961 Ashes series in England. He was also a Test captain (skipper) for Australia two times.^[4]

In his 29 Test matches, Booth scored 1,773 runs with a batting average of 42.21, including five centuries (100s). He also played 93 first-class matches for New South Wales. In those matches, he scored 5,577 runs with an average of 43.57 and hit 11 centuries.^[5]

After he was dropped from the national team, he received a letter from team selector Sir Donald Bradman, who apologized for removing him. Booth later worked as a coach at St. George. In 1982, he was awarded an MBE from the Queen.^[6]

Olympic Results

1956 Summer Olympics (Melbourne): Men's Hockey, representing Australia (AUS). The team finished in 5th place.

Brian Booth Media

Booth's Test career batting performance. The red bars indicate the runs that he scored in an innings, with the blue line indicating the batting average in his last ten innings. The blue dots indicate an innings where he remained not out.
Ian Craig, Johnny Martin and Booth (right) in New Zealand in 1960
Booth stood in as captain for Bob Simpson (pictured) when Simpson was ill and injured.
Booth strongly criticised the sledging tactics used by the Australian team led by Steve Waugh (pictured).