Born at Enfield St. Mary, Jamaica in 1961, Norman Cowans was on the Lord's groundstaff in 1979 and after a couple of years at Lord's he joined the Middlesex staff in 1980/81 for the tour of Zimbabwe. He made his county debut in 1981 and was a
regular member of the team until 1993 when he left the county after his Benefit Year to join Hampshire. For Middlesex with his right-arm fast bowling he took 532 wickets (22.57) with 5 wickets in an innings 19 times. His best bowling performance was 6 for 61 versus Leicestershire at Leicester in 1985. As a tail end right-handed batsman his best score was 66 versus Surrey at Lord's in 1984. He played 19 Tests for England and toured abroad seven times. His best performances were both against Australia during 1982/83 when he took 6 for 77 at Melbourne and scored 36 at Perth. He was capped in 1984 and was also a useful one-day bowler, in the Sunday League in 1991 against Lancashire at Lord's he returned figures of 6 for 9. Hampshire released him after two seasons in 1995.