Tom Brooks was born on 28 March 1919 in Paddington, New South Wales, during the initial phases of his earning career, worked for PMG Department and became an accountant. He was better known as a good umpire than as a player.
Early Career
Tom played first grade for Waverley as a pace bowler after which he went on to serve in World War II. In 1939 he was selected for a representative match between Stan McCabe’s XI and Arthur Chipperfield’s XI.
After this he joined the Manly Club and helped them win their first Sydney Premiership with Keith Miller and Jimmy Burke in 1949-50.
Stats show his good performance as a cricketer, with 438 wickets at an average of 20.79 and 2574 runs at an average of 19.07 and one century in all grades.
Tom won his first NSW cap on New Year's Day in 1947, played 16 first class games for NSW, bagging 65 wickets at an average of 22.5.
He played for New South Wales as a cricketer after turning to umpiring at the age of 48 years. He made his first class debut in 1947 and played 16 matches.
Umpiring career
He started his career as an umpire at the age of 48, and made his Test debut as an umpire in Ashes Test in 1970-71.
He won Order Of Australia medal for his services to cricket in 1985.
He was a member of NSW Cricket Association and was the last Australian First Class player to be an umpire in a Test match in Australia.
Stats
He remained an umpire in 23 Tests and 92 first class matches.
Controversies
He gave several erroneous decisions in his career span as an umpire, one of which was when he gave Graeme Wood out caught in the Ashes Test in 1978-79.
Retirement
His career ended from Test umpiring in 1978 on the fifth day of Ashes Test at Perth.
