The English Hero of World Cup 1992, He played One of The Best Match Winning ODI innings of English Cricket in target chasing (113 vs West Indies, 1991) against great bowlers Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh & Patterson. He was unfulfilled talent which can be a ODI great. In Carlton & United series 1999 he made 320 odd runs at an exceptional average of 64 but World Cup 1999 proved his last appearance. Fairbrother was another example of how in worst way English selectors treated Robin Smith, Graeme Hick.
His Test batting average of 15 hardly suggests Fairbrother was a top-class batsman! As Wisden editor Graeme Wright pointed out in his 1991 editorial, the huge scores of the 1990 season reflected, plainly and simply, rigged pitches and the complete absence of class bowlers eligible for England. Wright demonstrated that bowlers like Ian Bishop, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose and Waqar Younis could even on the rigged pitches of 1990, demonstrate how technically bad English batting was. That was Fairbrotherʼs fate in Test cricket. What many today forget is that England once did have bowlers of comparable class - Tom Richardson, J.T. Hearne, Sydney Barnes, George Lohmann, Maurice Tate, Harold Larwood, Bill Bowes, Brian Statham, Fred Trueman - who could have done the same on a much wider scale. Not to mention that spin bowlers - vastly worse hit by rigging of pitches and heavier bats - would have done it on an even wider scale otherwise!
