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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".
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 cricket 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.
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. In the twelve seasons for Lancashire Higgs took 1,033 wickets, a figure which only eight players had then exceeded.
After 1979, Higgs seldom played first-class cricket, and he retired from one-day cricket after 1982. In 1986, he returned at the age of 49, taking 5 for 22 against Yorkshire. He played once more against Somerset, without taking a wicket. He took 100 wickets in a season five times and over 90 twice. He took 42 List-A wickets in both 1975 and 1977.
Higgs was one of ten members of Leicestershire's first County Championship-winning team in 1975, and he had a road named after him by the city council in Leicester. Chris Balderstone, Peter Booth, Brian Davison, Barry Dudleston, David Humphries, Ray Illingworth, Norman McVicker, John Steele and Roger Tolchard were the others. Jack Birkenshaw, Graham McKenzie and Mick Norman missed out as there were already roads using their surnames.
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