Feared – and effective- fast bowler is shire’s Australia Day Ambassador

Cricket lovers of all ages, but particularly from the days of the game-changing World Series Cricket, will be keen to meet former Australian fast bowler Len Pascoe when he visits Narrabri Shire on Australia Day.

Len Pascoe is the shire’s Australia Day Ambassador and will be officiating functions in Narrabri, Wee Waa and Boggabri.

Pascoe was born in Bridgetown, WA, and is a former Australian Test and ODI cricketer.

He was a classmate at Punchbowl Boys High School of fast bowler Jeff Thomson.

The two of them formed a close friendship, playing cricket together at club, state and test level.

Len Pascoe played in 14 Tests and 29 One Day Internationals between 1977 and 1982, during which time he transferred to World Series Cricket.

It was widely held Len Pascoe would have won more than 14 Test caps had he not defected to World Series Cricket just as he was making his mark in Australia.

Described as a fast bowler ‘with little subtlety but heaps of aggression’ (he regularly topped 144kph) he took 41 wickets at 21.78 on the 1977 tour of England – including 13 in three Tests – and in the hostile environment of WSC he thrived.

He emerged as a genuine Test fast man, taking 5 for 59 in the first innings of the 1980 Centenary Test and followed up with good home series against new Zealand (12 wickets) and India (16) in 1980-81.

Following a knee injury he opted to miss the 1981 tour of England to try to get it sorted.

He returned for one Test against West Indies in 1981-82 .

On retiring he had a spell coaching New South Wales and subsequently ran Len Pascoe Sports Entertainment.

He once stated that “a tiger never changes its spots” in response to wicketkeeper Rod Marsh’s comment, “I thought you were going to bowl more bouncers.”

Pascoe has spoken of an incident when he hit an Indian cricketer during the 1981-82 series, which he has said changed him as a cricketer and stated afterwards that he wanted to retire, which he ultimately did three tests later.

Joining Pascoe over the Australia Day weekend is former Australian captain Ian Chappell and former international cricketer Peter Sleep.