Dennis Brian Close, CBE (24 February 1931 – 13 September 2015) was an English
cricketer, the youngest man ever to play
Test cricket for
England. He was picked to play against
New Zealand in July 1949, when he was 18 years old. Close went on to play 22
Test matches for England,
captaining them seven times (six wins, one draw). Close also captained
Yorkshire to four
county championship titles – the main domestic trophy in English cricket. He later went on to captain
Somerset, where he is widely credited with developing the county into a hard-playing team, and helping to mould
Viv Richards and
Ian Botham into the successful players they became.