Cricket legend wins praise – 17 years after retiring!

GRAPPENHALL cricket legend Neil Fairbrother won praise at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year prize night – 17 years after he retired from the game.
Fairbrother, the former Lancashire and England batsman, who started his career at Grappenhall Cricket Club and is still a regular visitor to the Broad Lane ground, was singled out for praise by the winner – superstar Ben Stokes.
Stokes, whose performances for England in the World Cup final and the third Ashes Test at Headingley, thanked all who had helped him through what he admitted had been a difficult two years.
But he singled out Fairbrother – his agent – for special praise.
He said: “Two years ago was a tough time in my life. I’ve had so many people help me through that.
“My fantastic manager and friend, Neil Fairbrother is here tonight. You are more than an agent, as you get called these days. You’re an incredible human being and an incredible man.
“I literally don’t know how you’ve put up with Andrew Flintoff to start with and then me!”
Neil Fairbrother was educated at Lymm Grammar School – now Lymm High School – and started his cricketing career at Grappenhall.
He was a long serving player at Lancashire, where he was captain in 1992-93 and played until 2002. He played in 10 Test matches and 75 One Day Internationals between 1987 and 1999. His top score was 366 for Lancashire against Surrey – scored in a single day.
Last summer, Ben Stokes showed an earlier sign of his regard for his manager when he took time off from the Old Trafford Test to visit Grappenhall, along with other England players, including captain Joe Root, to present a commemorative bench in memory of Fairbrother’s father, Les, a stalwart of the Broad Lane club who had sadly died in July.
Our picture shows Fairbrother, front, right, with Stokes and the other England players.