In part because of his pursuit of an academic career as a lecturer in philosophy at the
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, which limited his cricketing activity in
1969 and
1970, Brearley was not selected for England until the age of 34 in 1976. His record in Test cricket as a
batsman was modest (he averaged 22.88 in 66 Test
innings, without a century), but he was an outstanding captain. He made his highest test score of 91 on tour against India in February 1977. Having previously kept wicket, he was also a fine slip catcher, usually at first slip. He took over as captain of England later in 1977. His management skills (he was once described by
Rodney Hogg as having "a degree in people") drew the best from the players in his team, although he was fortunate to be able to call on the services of
Bob Willis,
David Gower and
Ian Botham at their peak. Brearley was captain during the infamous
aluminium bat incident in 1979, when he objected to
Dennis Lillee's use of a metal bat instead of one made of willow. On the same tour, he caused controversy at the end of an international one-day match against the West Indies at the Sydney Cricket Ground when he ordered all his fielders, including the wicketkeeper, to the boundary with three runs required off the last ball (this was legal under the rules of the time). In all, Botham and Willis took 262 wickets during the 31 test matches that Brearley captained. The importance of Willis in particular to England led Brearley into further controversies regarding the bowling of short-pitched deliveries at recognised
tailend batsmen, during Pakistan's tour of England in 1978, and more briefly, during England's 1978–9 tour of Australia. Brearley himself had been an innovator regarding cricket equipment himself, wearing a 'skull cap' under his England cap in 1977 (in the days before players wore helmets). It consisted of a plastic protector with two side pieces protecting his temples. It was later popularised by the Indian batsman
Sunil Gavaskar. Brearley captained England to the final of the
1979 Cricket World Cup, scoring 53 in the semi-final against New Zealand and 64 in the final against the West Indies. However, his opening partnership of 129 with
Geoff Boycott in the final used up 38 of 60 allotted overs; although it was recognised that a potent pace attack of
Andy Roberts,
Michael Holding,
Colin Croft and
Joel Garner needed to be countered, the speed of the partnership greatly added to the pressure on the rest of the order. Garner bowled a spell of 5 wickets for 4 runs to induce a drastic collapse and hand the West Indies the match and the World Cup by 92 runs. Having passed the England captaincy to
Ian Botham in 1980 (losing his Test place in the process), Brearley returned as captain following Botham's resignation for the third Test against
Australia at
Headingley in
1981, going on to win the match and two of the remaining three matches of the series to win
the Ashes 3–1. His leadership benefited from Botham's recovered form following his winless captaincy record and his nosedive in form (he had made a
pair in the second Test at
Lord's) to take a first-innings 6 for 95 and score 50 and 149 not out in the third Test at Headingley, bowl a spell of 5 wickets for 1 run in the fourth Test at
Edgbaston, score 118 from 102 balls in the fifth Test at
Old Trafford, and take a
10-wicket match haul (6 for 125 and 4 for 128) in the sixth Test at
the Oval. In spite of his limited reputation as an international batsman, Brearley also made an important if less high-profile contribution to the fourth test, scoring more runs than any other batsman (61) in a match which England won by 29 runs. In 1981, a letter in the
Guardian, from S.A.Nicholas, read Dear Sir, on Friday I watched JM Brearley very carefully as he directed his fieldsmen. He then looked up at the sun and made a gesture which seemed to indicate that it should move a little squarer. Who is this man? ==Post-cricket career==