Born on 9th September 1963 in Upfield, Victoria, is former Test and ODI player for Australia, Karen Maree Brown.
Primarily a right-arm medium fast bowler, Karen could also swing a bat. She made her debut for Australia in an ODI against New Zealand in Melbourne in 1984/85, taking 1-13 from 12 overs. Welcome to international cricket! (As an aside, the scorers in that match were RJ Kendall and RJ Signal.)
Over the course of the next eight years Karen would continue to shine with the new ball, taking 52 wickets in her 43 matches at 16.71, with a best of 4-4 against the Netherlands in Perth in 1988 during the World Cup. It was the first of two World Cups in which Karen would appear, the other being 1993. Few opportunities with the bat in that strong team but a top score of 38 and an average of 12.71.
Karen’s Test debut came in England in 1987 at Worcester. She came on at first change in England’s first innings and took 3-17 from 14 overs. It was on that same England tour of ’87 where Karen took her best figures of 5-32 at Hove which included England greats Jan Brittin and Carole Hodges.
Over her nine Test matches Karen took 22 wickets at 22.72 but that is only part of the story. Her economy rate in Tests was a theme that would run through her career and leave her in second place of all time with 1.30, behind Sally Ann Moffat 1.11.
Australia batted in 14 innings in the Test matches Karen played. She batted in 6 of them, “DNB” being her most common entry in the score book. However against New Zealand at Hagley Oval, Christchurch in 1990 Karen top scored for Australia making 65 runs batting at number eight, sharing partnerships with Christina Matthews (14) and Joanne Broadbent (36*) in a rescue mission for Australia. Perhaps with more opportunities would have come more runs over her career.
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