Stuart Christopher John Broad (born 24 June 1986) is an English cricket commentator and former cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team and captained the team in One Day and Twenty20 Internationals. Broad was a member of the England team that won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. His longevity, and highly successful partnership with fellow fast bowler James Anderson cemented him as one of England's greatest ever Test bowlers.
A right-arm seam bowler and left-handed batsman, Broad began his professional career at Leicestershire; in 2008 he transferred to Nottinghamshire, the county of his birth and the team for which his father played. In August 2006 he was voted the Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year. In the fourth Test of the 2015 Ashes series Broad took career-best figures of 8/15 in the Australian first innings as they were dismissed for just 60. This performance was named as Wisden's Men's Test spell of the decade.
Broad was awarded the Man of the Match in the fifth Test of the 2009 Ashes series at the Oval, after figures of 5/37 in the afternoon session of the second day. On 30 July 2011, at the Nottingham Test match against India, he achieved a Test match hat-trick in the process gaining his then best Test figures of 6/46. As a batsman, he holds the second-highest Test score ever made by a number 9, having scored 169 against Pakistan in August 2010. At the start of the summer in 2012 Broad, returning from injury, produced figures of 7/72 in a match haul of 11 wickets against the West Indies. He is England's second-highest wicket taker in Test cricket. In December 2021, in the second match of the 2021–22 Ashes series, Broad played in his 150th Test match.
During the 2023 Ashes series against Australia, Broad joined the small list of bowlers to take 600 wickets in Test cricket. Broad is only the second fast bowler and second bowler for England to reach the milestone after James Anderson, who was bowling alongside him that day. He is England's second most-capped Test cricketer after Anderson.
On 29 July 2023, Broad announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. In his farewell match at The Oval on the concluding day of the Ashes, Broad hit a six from the last ball he faced, then took a wicket with the final ball he bowled to win the Test for the home side.
Broad was born 12 weeks prematurely and his life was saved by a doctor called John, after whom he was (middle) named when he survived.
At the age of 16, he considered himself better at playing hockey and played as a goalkeeper, for Leicestershire and the Midlands, and had a trial with an England underage team.
Broad was educated at Brooke Priory School and Oakham School, a co-educational independent school in the market town of Oakham in Rutland, where he was in the same year as England Rugby back-row Tom Croft. Broad finished his school career with three B grades at A-level, and was given the choice of a place at Durham University or a contract with Leicestershire County Cricket Club.
Broad originally started his cricketing career as an opening batsman, following in the footsteps of his father, the former England opener and current ICC match referee Chris Broad. It was not until he was 17 and had a growth spurt that he started to consider being a fast bowler. Broad had been associated with Leicestershire since he was 8 years old, having represented them at Under-9 level, and played for Melton Mowbray club Egerton Park, which also produced England seamer Tim Munton. Broad played for Egerton Park from the ages of 9 to 19; in his final two seasons he opened the batting with fellow Leicestershire player Matthew Boyce and spearheaded the attack. He was awarded the Leicestershire Young Cricketers Batsman Award in 1996.
Broad played his first game for Leicestershire 2nd XI in 2004 just before his 18th birthday and impressed enough to be given a full contract for the following season. Broad continued to impress Director of Cricket James Whitaker and made his first-class debut early in the 2005 season against Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence. He returned creditable figures of 1/40 from 15 overs. His maiden first-class wicket was that of Nick Lamb. Broad followed this appearance with his first County Championship appearance against Somerset at the familiar location of Oakham.
In the 2006 season Broad took his first 5 wicket haul against championship favourites Surrey and scored his first championship 50 against Derbyshire. His most eye-catching performances were in the Twenty20 Cup, where his economy of 4.50 was the second-best of the season of bowlers with more than 15 overs bowled. In the County Championship Broad played twelve of Leicestershire's 13 matches until called up for England, and his 44 wickets at an average of 31.38 meant he led his county both in terms of wickets and bowling average. On 23 August 2007 it was announced that Broad would be leaving Leicestershire at the end of the season to join Nottinghamshire, after choosing not to renew his contract and to return to his home county.
In the 2013 season, Broad played in the final of the Yorkshire Bank 40 tournament. He was out for a duck and got three wickets in his last over wrapping up the game against Glamorgan. Broad was a part of the Nottinghamshire side that beat Surrey in the final of the Royal London One Day Cup in 2017 played at Lords.
Broad played for the England Under-19 squad in 2005, facing the Sri Lankan Under-19 squad, and took five for seventeen in the first ’Test’ at Shenley. He was named in the ECB National Academy squad for the winter of 2005–06 and was then called up to the England ‘A’ squad touring the West Indies, as a replacement for James Anderson, who had been drafted into the Test side touring India. In April 2006, Broad was again called up to the England A squad, facing the touring Sri Lankan team.
Broad was also included in the ECB's 25-man development squad for the 2006 season. David Graveney, the chairman of selectors, said, "The squad essentially enables the England Head Coach (Duncan Fletcher), working with his support staff and the National Academy staff, to monitor more closely the development of international players and better prepare them for the demands of the international game."
2006–07: Pakistan, West Indies, India, T20 World Cup and Sri Lanka
On 23 August 2006, Broad was included in the England one-day squad for the one-day internationals against Pakistan, and a couple of days later was named Young Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writers' Club. On 28 August, Broad made his first England appearance, in the Twenty20 International against Pakistan. Broad bowled four overs for 35 runs, and took two wickets in two balls, Shoaib Malik and Younis Khan, and narrowly missed out on a hat-trick, after a lofted shot from Shahid Afridi fell just short of Kevin Pietersen. On 30 August, he made his ODI debut, taking a wicket in his first over, as well as being involved in a last-wicket partnership of 29 with Darren Gough. In the third ODI on 5 September 2006, Broad once again found himself on a hat-trick with the wickets of Abdul Razzaq and Kamran Akmal, but again missed out on the third. He bowled ten overs and ended with figures of three for 57 with one maiden.
Broad was left out of the squad for the 2006 ICC Champions Trophy and the 2006-07 Commonwealth Bank Series. However, he was called up for the finals in the latter following injuries to Jon Lewis and Chris Tremlett. He was also called into England's squad as a replacement partway through the 2007 World Cup. He finished the tournament by scoring the winning runs in England's final match against the West Indies.
Broad also featured in the ODI squad at the end of the West Indies tour of England in summer 2007, taking three for twenty in the first match to take England to a 1–0 lead in the ODI series. In the second ODI he took 2–49 but England lost the match by 61 runs. Broad was expensive in the final match of the series, conceding 71 runs for no wickets.