Kenneth Higgs (14 January 1937 – 7 September 2016) was an English fast-medium bowler, who was most successful as the opening partner to Brian Statham with Lancashire in the 1960s. He later played with success for Leicestershire.
Cricket writer Colin Bateman noted, "Higgs was a fine medium-fast bowler with an impressive pedigree, who suddenly went out of fashion with the selectors after one Test of the 1968 Ashes series". He also represented England Youth. Making progress during military service, he began playing for his native county, Staffordshire, taking 46 wickets for 13.13 each in 1957. Jack Ikin, a Staffordshire native, recommended Higgs to Lancashire, and he began playing for them in 1958.
Lancashire
Higgs caused instant notice, taking 7 for 36 against Hampshire in his first County Championship match. He took over 100 wickets in each season from 1959 to 1960 but was one of the few cricketers to take 100 wickets in a season at over thirty runs each in 1961, and he ceased to be an automatic choice.
In 1965, on a wet summer, he took 102 wickets in County Championship matches and formed a formidable partnership with Statham. His best performance was 7 for 19 against Leicestershire. He was selected for the last Test at The Oval. He took 8 for 143 against a formidable South African batting line-up and was selected for MCC tour of Australia in 1965-66, where he had a modest time but took 17 wickets (9.24) in three Tests in New Zealand.
Test selection
In 1966, against the West Indies, Higgs established himself as England's first-choice opening bowler with 24 wickets for under 26 runs. At the Oval, Higgs, only a tail-end left-hand batsman, made 63, then his highest first-class score and helped England recover from 166 for 7 to 527 all out. His partnership with John Snow for the tenth wicket of 128 was a record for England at home.
Despite injury keeping him out of two Tests against India, Higgs had a good season in 1967, taking 95 wickets at 16.92. He was named one of the Cricketers of the Year by Wisden. That year, he took 17 wickets in the Test series against Pakistan. Despite this, he did not play in England's next Test series, their tour to the West Indies. He was later selected for one match of the Ashes series the following year but was never selected again. According to the cricket writer Peter Mason, Higgs "was entitled to wonder why he had not been picked more often for his country". Higgs retired from County cricket at the end of the 1969 season, and played for Rishton in the Lancashire League.