Mike Brearley

Mike Brearley was educated at Cambridge, where he read classics and moral sciences, and captained the university. He played for Middlesex County Cricket Club intermittently from 1961 to 1970, and regularly from 1971, captaining the side until his retirement in 1982. He first played for England in 1976 and captained the side from 1977 to 1980, winning seventeen test matches and losing only four. He was recalled to the captaincy in 1981 for the Ashes home series, leading England to one of their most famous victories. From 1981, he trained and continues to work as a psychoanalyst, and is a lecturer both on leadership and on psychoanalysis. He is the author of the bestselling The Art of Captaincy, On Form, On Cricket, Spirit of Cricket and has written on cricket and the psychology of sport for the Sunday Times, Observer, The Times and Prospect.