IND vs ENG: How a village of 7000 raised England cricket's Prince Harry Brook
Saturday was the year's longest day but at the village Burley-in-Wharfedale club they wanted it to be longer. They had won an important league game and the boy from their village Harry Brook, playing a Test about 14 miles away, was unbeaten at stumps on Day 2 at Headingley. The bar was busy, laughs kept emerging from tables with families. No one wanted to call it a day.
After furiously talking about cricket, players and members got involved in some fun football. A little boy, of around five, tirelessly chased the ball and everyone indulged him. Brook was that boy not many years back. Now, he is England's big batting hope, white-ball captain and clearly the heir-apparent prince to Test skipper, Ben Stokes.
A 30 minute drive through rolling hills and tranquil meadows with all shades of earthy colours takes one to the village with a population of 7000. Rural Yorkshire can inspire oil paintings, and cricketers. The village's centre is the Burley-in-Wharfedale club that is surrounded by typically English terrace houses. It also has an inviting club house, the water hole that many villagers would call their second home. There is a dispensary on one-side and kitchen gardens on the other. Harry's hits, they say here, would end either in surgery room or squash ripe red tomatoes.
His one-time coach David Cooper gives a short tour of the place and the name 'Brook' keeps popping from everywhere – on the photo frames of triumphant little leagues, honour boards of club captains, a beautifully crafted wooden bench and on a home whose garden lawn is virtually the out-field of this quaint cricket ground.
The charming little cottage next to the sight screen where Harry's grandparents lived and that's where the man who scored 99 at Headingley would spend his vacations. Under overcast conditions, Brook took on Bumrah & Co, and was imperious in disarming their attack, till he was gone on a Bazbally 99. It's not just Harry who's responsible for the 'Brook' footprints at this club. His grandfather, two uncles and father have led Burley-in-Wharfedale in Yorkshire's premier division, a prestigious league around here.
Like that little boy, who everyone gave time to on Saturday, Harry was the one who this village was invested in and had taken the responsibility of grooming into a fine batsman. Listening to Cooper gives an idea about the bond the club and its members have with their Harry. Cooper talks about the day when Harry made his Test debut against South Africa at the Oval in 2023. That day Burley-in-Wharfedale had a game. Generally on match day, the coach says, the bar is empty and everyone is out watching the game. On Harry's debut, it changed.
'As soon as Harry walked in to bat, someone from the bar shouted out loud – 'Harry's in'. It was like an alarm going off, the ground emptied in minutes and the ground was empty,' he said. This was followed by a little private moment the coach had on watching his ward.
'On his first ball, Harry was facing the tall South African bowler Marco Jansen. Jansen bowled a length ball and Harry did what I had trained him for years – he moved back, got into line, played the ball late and under his eyes. Exactly like I have told him to,' says Cooper. There are those who say that Cooper had misty eyes that day. The coach doesn't deny as he says, 'I think there was some dust that flew into my eye or maybe it could be a tear.' At Headingley also, in the ongoing Test, Harry had started his innings by the same copy-book correct forward defensive stroke against Jasprit Bumrah.
Cooper then ambles to the net-area where a father is giving throwdowns to his son. The coach points to a small green mat with an artificial grass top. It was on it with two plastic feet pasted on it with Velcro, they could move around. Cooper has designed the 'coaching mat' to explain to his pupils the correct feet position when hitting every shot in the book. Harry's wagon-wheel and his 360 degree range of strokes at Headingley shows Burley-in-Wharfedale has groomed a world class, all-format player. And also a captain who was made aware about the nuance of field placements and bowling changes very early in life.
Cooper says that when Harry was named the captain for the West Indies tour a few months back, there was this joke at the club about him doing well. As a youngster, while on vacation, Harry had spent long hours watching cricket with the ever-demanding captain of Burley-in-Wharfedale, his grandfather Tony.
'Tony would be there complaining about field positions and bowling changes and young Harry would be absorbing all that. Listening to the real critique from a real expert would surely come in handy as an England captain,' says Cooper, a stodgy opener from the time he played alongside Garry Sobers, Joel Garner, Rohan Kanhai and Carl Hooper in the Central Lancashire League.
Captaincy was something that got ingrained in him organically, the batting lessons were grilled into him at the cricket-crazy Brook house. 'His uncle Richard would say that they would bowl underarm to him in the living room, and in the lounge part of downstairs they obviously could see he was a talented young toddler with a good hand-eye coordination,' says Cooper.
There are a couple incidents that convinced Cooper that he had under his wings a special player committed to the sport and blessed with a robust temperament. The first one happened one cold October evening when staying indoors was a much more comfortable option. ''On that gloomy day, I peeped over the fence, into the club, and I saw a young Harry running around the ground, finishing his laps with push-ups and stuff, and then running again. For a month, in that wet month, he was out there doing his stuff,' recalls Cooper, who was asked by Harry's uncle Nick to come and train their club's future first-teamer.
It was during his stint with the junior team, that Cooper saw Harry play a very feisty game where the opposition were trying everything to win. 'They were sledging, there was time-wasting and bending every rule. Harry played a match-winning knock there. He scored about 30 and he saw us home in a very tense situation. That talks about temperament as a 14-year-old boy,' he says.
While playing for England he has shown the same grit and when leading, like against the West Indies, there have been no signs of nerves. Kevin Pietersen says 'he is the future', Nasser Hussain sticks his neck out to say 'he is going to be a superstar in all formats.' And after the West Indies series sweep, in his debut as captain, coach Brendon McCullum says the new captain's calm and poise can rub off on other players.
Much-needed breakthrough for #TeamIndia! 🔥#PrasidhKrishna grabs his third wicket of the Test, dismissing #HarryBrook on 99! 💥
Will #TeamIndia's bowlers finish off the English tail in a flash? 👀#ENGvIND 1st Test Day 3 LIVE NOW Streaming on JioHotstar 👉… pic.twitter.com/OMbTDbD90j
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 22, 2025
Harry's grandmother, Pauline, too has played a big role in his smooth cricketing journey. She would be the one driving Harry all over Yorkshire for his junior games. She would also be at award functions collecting awards since Harry was on some cricketing tour. 'She was the one who made sure that he was always on time at games. She would support him when he would do well and also when he didn't do well. In a game like cricket if you can't do well all the time and you need someone who can put an arm around your shoulder to say 'never mind, you know there is another game next week'. She played a big role behind the scenes in his development,' he says.
Harry's grandparents, who planted the cricket seed in him, are no longer there. Tony passed away in 2012 and Pauline in 2024. The grandmother's death was the reason Harry missed the tour to India. At Burley-in-Wharfedale club on the boundary rope in front of the Brooks house, is a wooden bench that keeps the memories of Tony and Pauline alive. 'Harry's father is a carpenter, he with his own hand made this bench,' says Cooper. It isn't merely a bench, it's a tribute to the Brooks who stepped out of their front porch and walked into the Burley-in-Wharfedale XI. And then came Harry, he went further ahead and promises to keep marching on.
Playing his first Test near home with his grandmother not in the stands, Harry came to his team's aid when India were threatening to run away with the game. Leed's cheered wildly as he launched England's counter attack. Like at Burley-in-Wharfedale on Saturday, Leeds wanted the day, and Harry's innings, to be longer. It didn't. But an entertaining 99 by the home boy was much-appreciated than the three hundreds by the visitors.
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