Read about Brian Close cricket player from England profile, stats, rankings, records, videos, photos at ESPNcricinfo ...

Brian Close, born February 24, 1931, had a Test career spanning 27 years, ... When he took off his shirt in the dressing room, his teammates gasped at the number of welts and bruises.

Brian Close was the bravest man to ever play cricket. Yorkshire great, who has died aged 84 after a battle with cancer, was renowned for his ferocious battles with West Indies' great fast bowlers ...

Dennis Brian Close, who has died of cancer at the age of 84, ... upon surveying the myriad bruises which suggested Close had been in a car crash rather than a cricketing contest: ...

Brian Close: The combative brave-heart of cricket He was tough, very tough. Even his characteristically controversial auto-biography was titled I Don’t Bruise Easily.

For that miscued sweep, Close spent four-and-a-half years in the wilderness and, from a possible 244 Tests that England played between his first and last appearances, featured in just 22 of them ...

WITHOUT wishing to trivialise a serious subject, it is tempting to wonder what Brian Close would have thought of concussion checks in cricket. All Sections. News you can trust since 1754.

Former England captains Ian Botham and Michael Vaughan have led the tributes to Brian Close after the hard man of cricket died from lung cancer at the age of 84.