Video: Farewell to Brian Close, cricket’s ‘boyhood hero’
Close, who died on September 13, aged 84, was Botham’s captain when the young all-rounder burst on the scene at Somerset in the 1970s, along with West Indian star Viv Richards.
And in front of several hundred people at St Chad’s Church, Leeds, Botham acknowledged the debt of gratitude he will always owe Close, who joined Somerset after being sacked by Yorkshire in 1970.
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Hide Ad“If it wasn’t for Brian, who knows where Vivian Richards and myself would have ended up,” said Botham, who announced that Richards had intended to be present but was forced to pull out at the last minute due to personal reasons.
“Closey was an amazing man, a man who never asked you to do something that he hadn’t, or couldn’t, do himself.