Len Pascoe

Leonard Stephen Pascoe (born Leonard Stephen Durtanovich, 13 February 1950)[1] is a former Australian Test and One Day International cricketer.

Len Pascoe

Personal information
Full name	Leonard Stephen Pascoe
Born	13 February 1950 Bridgetown, Western Australia
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm fast
International information
National side	Australia
Test debut (cap 277)	16 June 1977 v England
Last Test	30 January 1982 v West Indies
ODI debut (cap 35)	2 June 1977 v England
Last ODI	20 February 1982 v New Zealand
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1974/75–1983/84	New South Wales
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 14 29 80 41 Runs scored 106 39 502 50 Batting average 10.59 9.75 8.96 8.33 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 0/1 0/0 Top score 30* 15* 51* 15* Balls bowled 3,403 1,568 15,460 2,145 Wickets 64 53 309 69 Bowling average 26.06 20.11 25.60 20.52 5 wickets in innings 1 1 12 2 10 wickets in match 0 0 2 0 Best bowling 5/59 5/30 8/41 5/28 Catches/stumpings 2/– 6/– 23/– 6/–
Source: CricketArchive, 16 December 2009

Born at Bridgetown, Western Australia, Pascoe was educated at Punchbowl Boys' High School in New South Wales, where he was a classmate of Jeff Thomson.[2] The two of them would form a close friendship, playing cricket together at club, state and test level.

Pascoe played in 14 Tests and 29 ODIs between 1977 and 1982, during which time he transferred to World Series Cricket.[3] In the 1980 Centenary Test at The Oval in London, he took 5/59 in the 1st innings. Pascoe retired from international cricket due to a knee injury after the 1981/82 Frank Worrell Trophy series in Australia.

Pascoe is the son of a Macedonian immigrant father.[4][5] While a former NSW teammate, Geoff Lawson, claimed in his autobiography that Pascoe was often subject to baiting about his ethnicity during matches, especially from brothers Ian and Greg Chappell, this was contradicted by Pascoe in court, under oath in a defamation case, when he stated that such comments were never made.

He is a popular after dinner speaker.[5] He once stated, tongue-in-cheek that "a tiger never changes its spots" (in response to wicketkeeper Rod Marsh’s comment “I thought you were going to bowl more bouncers”).[5]

Pascoe has spoken of an incident when he hit an Indian cricketer during the 1981-82 series, which he has stated changed him as a cricketer and stated afterwards that he wanted to retire, which he did after playing another three tests.[6]

In November 2017, after returning home from a tour of South Australia and Western Australia with former teammates Doug Walters and Jeff Thomson, it was reported that Pascoe had been diagnosed with an infection of cryptococcal gattii and had to spend three weeks in a hospital in Sydney for treatment.[7]

References

1. "Take up thy bed and bat". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
2. Moore, Tony (23 October 2015). "Cricket greats' tall tales bring light to dark battle with depression, PTSD". Brisbane Times.
3. Cricinfo – Players and Officials – Len Pascoe
4. Peter, Hill. (1989) The Macedonians in Australia, Hesperian Press, Carlisle, pp.131
5. Mustafi, Suvajit (13 February 2017). "Len Pascoe: 23 facts about the fearsome Australian pacer of Yugoslavian origin". Cricket Country. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
6. "The contradictory fear of the fast bowler". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
7. "Pascoe's Close Call". The Age. 24 November 2017. p. 48.