It’s a highlight in any cricket lover’s calendar and something greatly missed this year. It offers the chance to escape from the stresses and strains of daily life and watch our nation’s finest cricketers head into battle.

Playing Weather Lottery

Watching Test Cricket in England can be a lottery though thanks to the good old British weather, you find yourself checking the forecast with even more alarming regularity than normal and praying for a decent day. Most of us don’t even want 25 degree sunshine because we’ll most likely get burnt to a crisp by the close of play! No just a dry mild day will always suffice.

On a recent visit to the Lords I managed to choose the first day in 20 odd years that the opening day of a test match at the home of cricket was abandoned without a ball being bowled! The lack of cricket forced my mate and I to seek refuge in a North London hostelry for 9 hours until we could catch our designated train home, every cloud and all that!

The last test match I attended was the 2019 Ashes fixture at a bitterly cold Old Trafford in mid-September. Yes you read correctly a mid-September test match in Manchester, and the North West weather lived up to its reputation with temperatures in single figures and a freezing cold wind howling across the open ground, it was even too cold for beer! The conditions were clearly not enjoyed by Jofra who bowled in multiple sweaters throughout the day, I didn’t blame him I had to make a dash to the Lancashire CCC shop to purchase an additional layer and a bob hat, no such problems ever occur in Brisbane!

The Test Match Venues

Watching a day’s test cricket varies from ground to ground. I am a purist and love going to Lords, it’s a sports stadium like no other I have visited, you can feel the history oozing out of the walls of NW8 and one can visualise the greats of the game walking through the famous Long Room. Lords has an air of calm and tranquillity where you are more likely to hear the pop of champagne corks rather than football style chanting after another beer snake is confiscated by an overzealous steward as you do at most other test match grounds.

Lords – The Home of Cricket looking a picture. (c) Sarah Williams

Trent Bridge, Nottingham is another favourite, slightly smaller and more intimate than some of its counterparts where the stadium architecture blends together seamlessly. Old Trafford, Manchester has improved dramatically over the last few years. When the square was rotated and a big red box like building was erected I wasn’t sure, but the subsequent improvements have turned what was once a soleus stadium in the 80’s and 90’s into something that’s rather quite impressive.

Fortress Edgbaston, Birmingham is traditionally the stronghold of the England cricket team, we have a fantastic record in the West Midlands over recent years where the crowd are always vocal and provide an intimidating atmosphere for visiting opposition. Headingly, Leeds is currently a work in progress with additional ground improvements ongoing, but you can see it is following a similar style to that of Old Trafford and Edgbaston. Visiting teams are always ensured of a hostile welcome from the England supporters watching from the famous Western Terrace where the beer flows like water!

The Oval, London the second ground in our nation’s capital and typically the venue for the summer’s final test match. It has hosted some truly epic cricketing moments over the years as series are decided and heroes made. It’s the views that make The Oval so unique with the iconic gas works visible all around the ground which gives a wonderful reminder of the areas industrial past, further in the distance a view of the City of London and Canary Wharf are a fantastic sight when the weather and the London smog allows.

(c) britishfinefoods.com

The Food Pack-Up

When visiting any of the test grounds unless you are lucky enough to be on a corporate do and have the pleasure of dining in style your food preparation is key to a successful day at the test match. Now you can run the risk of chowing down from one of the overpriced catering vans that adorn the perimeter of the ground, but that’s not advisable unless you particularly enjoy paying £9 for a luke warm burger that tastes like it’s been run over a few times!

Part of the experience is taking a good old fashioned pack-up, who doesn’t love those British classics like Pork Pies, Sausages Rolls, Scotch Eggs and if you’re feeling especially lavish a slice or two of Gala Pie? All washed down with a dozen steady pints of beer, it’s a long day after all!

Next Year?

Hopefully crowds will be back next summer and we can once again enjoy a day at the Test Match.

The post A Day at the Test Match appeared first on CricX.

After BOJO’s vector of disease comments mid-summer, it really didn’t look like we would get any club cricket, but thankfully our ‘mercurial’ leader gave in eventually and let us play. This was mainly down to former England Skipper Michael Vaughan tweeting him and his comrades in government on a daily basis, thanks for banging the drum Vaughany!

The 8 week season I experienced was predictably the strangest of the 26 I have played club cricket. We’re creatures of habit after all aren’t we?!

There were some positives:

1.       Earlier start times resulting in earlier finishes

2.       Reduced overs (40 overs per innings in most leagues)

3.       Win/Lose cricket which I think has to be the way forward especially outside of First XI Cricket

4.       Regionalised format in many league to limit travel

5.       Bowling limitations meaning Captain’s were forced to use more bowlers than they might usually.

There were some negatives too:

1.       No showers, always an integral part of the day.

2.       No teas – whilst taking your own tea did save time between innings, you can’t beat the anticipation of wondering what the quality of the oppositions teas will be like.

3.       Not many club bars open – Sharing a pint with the oppo is another integral part of the day when disagreements are put aside and cricketing stories shared.

4.       Lack of intensity. With no promotion or relegation, we were essentially playing glorified friendlies.

5.       No Overseas Players – It’s always a huge part of the season welcoming an overseas player into your club for the summer and this was greatly missed.

As I mentioned at the start of this blog with everything that’s going on with Covid we were very lucky to get some cricket played this summer, but it just wasn’t quite like how we remember it. They say football is nothing without fans and similarly club cricket is nothing without teas, showers, bars, and proper competitive games. Let’s hope that we can be back to normal come April 2021 and The Covid season will be a socially distanced memory.

Sanitisation break, what’s that?!

The post The Covid Season in Review appeared first on CricX.

There are certain club pro’s guaranteed to cause sleepless nights to us club cricketers because they’re just a little bit too good!

Cricket is supposed to be a relaxing and serene pastime, isn’t it?

Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, especially when you’re up against a professional cricketer on a one-man mission to ruin your Saturday afternoon!

The best pro’s I’ve played against…..

When coming up with the list of the best pro’s I’ve played against the sample size was based on my time playing in the North Staffs and South Cheshire League between 1995-2006, here goes:

Jeff Cook (Australia) – All Rounder – Right Arm Medium and Left Hand Batsmen

I had the pleasure of playing both with and against Jeff Cook during his domination of club cricket in the nineties and noughties.

The giant Australian was an intimidating sight with both bat and ball in hand. Capable of bowling quickly when he felt like it and skillful in his use of swing, seam and ahead of his time when it came to slower balls out of the back of the hand without any discernible change in action!

But it was with bat in hand that Cook oozed quality. Utilising his huge reach the big left-hander was merciless on the majority of club bowlers and when he got into his bubble generally immovable.

Pre the Jofra Archer rule Cook endured a run filled 10 year qualification period in club and county 2^nd XI cricket before he finally qualified to play first-class cricket in England.

He went on to amass 4000 runs across 4 seasons with Northamptonshire CCC before returning to his native Australia where he is now heavily involved in the New South Wales coaching set-up.

Mo Hussain (Pakistan) – All Rounder – Left Arm Spinner and Left Handed Batsmen

In terms of all-round longevity and stats, former Pakistani international Mohammad Hussain was probably the best all-round pro to play in the North Staffs and South Cheshire leagues in the noughties.

The Pakistani left-arm spinner batsmen represented 3 clubs across 9 seasons to the tune of 672 wickets at 14.58 to go with and 6813 runs at 35.

Hussain’s wily left-arm spin and streetwise batting was the golden ticket to any club fortunate enough to engage his services.

Mike Rindell (South Africa) – All Rounder – Left Arm Medium/Left Arm Spin and Left Handed Batsmen

Mike Rindell was one of the first and best pro’s I can remember playing against in the late nineties. I suppose with the greatest respect Rindell was a club pro version of the great Garry Sobers.

He would open the bowling with some canny left-arm medium pace swingers before reverting to miserly left-arm spin presumably to conserve his energy ready to open the batting later in the day, it’s fair to say his club got value for money from Rindell who had a prolific first-class career and represented South Africa in 22 ODI’s post-apartheid era.

Imran Tahir (South Africa) – Right Arm Leg-Spin Bowler

Before Imran Tahir became a household name in both international and global franchise cricket he terrorised the batsmen of North Staffs and South Cheshire league during the early noughties.

Exuberant, deadly accurate, clever and with way too many unreadable variations for us clubbies, a nightmare to face at any point in an innings.

In the 2 seasons (2004 and 2005) worth of stats available Tahir claimed a remarkable 173 wickets at 13 with an economy rate of 2.6 per over.

Aakash Chopra (India) – Right Arm Off Spinner and Right Handed Batsmen

Looking back Aakash Chopra’s quality was probably somewhat overlooked at the time, he wasn’t a batter who would take you apart, but before you knew it he was 90 odd not out and had either set his team up towards a large total or chased down the oppositions score with a chanceless red inker.

The former India Internationals batting had the intelligence and patience to often see out the oppositions pro and feast from the lesser mortals operating at the other end.

Over 3 seasons Chopra scored 4300 runs at an average of over 70 including 19 centuries and 17 half-centuries alongside 148 wickets at 16.

Raj Kumar (India) – Right Handed Batsmen

Statistically the best batsmen in the North Staffs and South Cheshire league over the time period under review with over 12,000 runs at an average of over 50  including a remarkable 28 centuries and 67 half-centuries passing the mythical 1000 run barrier in 6 of his 11 seasons.

Interestingly Kumar didn’t have an overly prolific First-Class career for his state Bihar, but he more than made up for that with his run-scoring exploits in UK club cricket.

Notable mentions

Mick Lewis, Claude Henderson, Otis Gibson, Keith Semple, Najaf Shah, Imran Javed, Paras Mhambrey, Abdur Rehman,  Barrington Browne,  and Sunil Subramaniam.

The post Who’ve we got Saturday Skip? Who’s their pro? appeared first on CricX.

The “great” all-rounders

Now let’s remember the standard rule applied in international cricket is a genuine all-rounder would get into their team as a batter or a bowler. If we consider the great all-rounders of all time there is probably only 6. Jacques Kallis, Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, and Garry Sobers. Ben Stokes should make it into this illustrious list by the end of his career. Would Andrew Flintoff get in a team as a Top Six batter throughout his entire career? Probably not, during his golden period in the early-mid 2000’s yes, but not otherwise. Let’s take a quick look at the stats (Test Cricket Only):

• Jacques Kallis – 13,289 runs @ 55.37 and 292 wickets @ 32.65
• Ian Botham – 5200 runs @ 33.54 and 383 wickets @ 28.40
• Imran Khan – 3807 runs @ 37.69 and 362 wickets @ 22.81
• Richard Hadlee – 3124 runs @ 27.16 and 431 wickets @ 22.29
• Kapil Dev – 5248 @ 31.05 and 434 wickets @ 29.64
• Garry Sobers – 8032 runs @ 57.78 and 235 wickets @ 34.03
• Andrew Flintoff – 3845 runs @ 31.77 and 226 wickets @ 32.78
• Ben Stokes* – 4026 runs @ 36.93 and 143 wickets @ 32.93 (* Still Playing)

The numbers of Kallis and Sobers with the bat are quite remarkable as are those of Hadlee and Imran Khan with the ball, but all of these players will unquestionably go down in cricket history and their superhuman cricketing feats will be talked about enthusiastically by generations to come.

Where does Stokes rank alongside Botham, left, and Flintoff, right? (c) TheTimes

So few all-rounders

But what’s the reason why there are so few genuine all-rounders even on the international stage? An all-rounder not only has to have a special amount of natural ability they also have to have that mental strength, fitness and an unrivaled level of self-belief that all of the great all-rounders possess. To be able to change the course of a cricket match with bat or ball when their teams need it most. We can all recall with great fondness the herculean efforts of the great English all-rounders Stokes, Flintoff, and Botham during their game-changing and match-winning all-round performances.

At club level to be a genuine all-rounder is arguably even harder than at professional or international level. Realistically the average club player practices and plays once per week and to be able to excel at both disciplines consistently throughout the course of your career is incredibly difficult when juggling other life commitments. Everyone wants to be that Stokes-esque Roy of the Rovers all-rounder, but with experience gathered over my long club year career I am now firmly of the belief that a young player should really focus on their strongest suit and let their second suit develop naturally.

I do a bit of both….

I myself do a bit of both and only as I have got older have I truly understood how hard it is to consistently contribute with bat and ball. I look back on my career and being completely honest with myself I can recall only 4 seasons out of 24 where I consistently contributed with bat and ball and could have been classed as an all-rounder when my stats at the end of the season were strong in both departments. When I was younger I was a bowler who batted a bit and as the years have progressed I have become a batter who bowls a bit. With hindsight, my batting was always my strongest suit and I should have focussed on that more as a younger player.

I can think of only a handful of players I have played with and against who could be classed as a genuine all-rounder throughout the majority of their careers which draws a parallel to the professional game. All the more reason why we should savour the brilliance of the great all-rounders whether that be on the international stage or on a Saturday afternoon, they are a rare breed!

The post All Rounders – They’re a rare breed indeed! appeared first on CricX.

The UK club cricket season is long, typically running from mid-April to mid-September, so pretty much half the calendar year. Although we all love the game, it can often be a hard slog, once you get into mid-August you are generally willing the season to end. Those long days standing in a field are starting to take their toll on body, mind, and spirit. The relief comes mid-September is usually palpable across the majority of the club. You get the occasional badger who would play all year round if they could, but they’re usually single, still live at home, buy 7 bats per season and have Play-Cricket and Cricinfo bookmarked on all of their devices.

October

The first month or so post the end of the season is great as you catch-up with friends and family you have mercilessly neglected for the previous 6 months, you do those jobs at home that you have put off all summer, you spend quality Saturday time with your offspring and if you’re of a certain age those cricket related aches and pains gradually start to ease.

November

November brings a startling realisation that the cricket season is over! You feel like your Saturdays lack purpose and structure as kids parties, alcohol, gambling and aimless shopping trips to department stores in search of the perfect cushion take over. Come back cricket season, all is forgiven!

December

Is there a better way to get into the festive spirit than browsing online for that new pair of batting gloves to add to your Christmas list even though you’re 39 years old?! After the struggle of November, I find December to be a good month for cricketers overall with plenty of time off work to lounge around watching England play somewhere overseas and delaying that pre-season fitness push by another month.

January

For non-cricketers, January can be a thoroughly depressing month, but for us cricketers January brings hope!!! You’ve got those new batting gloves from Santa, the date for winter nets has been announced and club chit chat is back up and running discussing new signings, overseas players and which toiletry gift sets will make it into the cricket bag for shower club.

Cricketers up and down the country will be hitting winter nets with great anticipation shortly!

February

Usually, for a lot of clubs, February is when winter nets start. The kit bag is dug out of the loft or garage hopefully without damage following its winter hibernation. You head to that first winter net with plenty of optimism until you realise you have forgotten how to bat and bowl and feel like you have been run over the day after. A couple of months to get up to speed!

March

Your pro or overseas player is now confirmed and winter nets are in full flow. The anticipation is high for the season ahead this despite your club’s ‘fast’ bowlers spending the last few weeks bowling bouncers from 16 yards forgetting in a matter of weeks they will be bowling on soft and stodgy green tops, not The WACA!

April

Like an Oasis rising in the desert cricket season is almost here. No more kids parties (on a Saturday), reduced shopping trips, losing football bets, DIY or drinking 2 bottles of red wine on a Friday night. You look forward to those long summer days – The thwack of leather on willow, dressing room banter, the shower club and of course those post-match beers and match analysis.

Say goodbye to The Dark Months. It’s cricket season, we’ve missed you old friend!

My Next Delivery

Keep an eye out for my next blog when I’ll talk about All Rounders in club and professional cricket.

The post The Dark Months appeared first on CricX.

Having played the first half of my career in The North Staffs and South Cheshire league when it was mandatory for your paid player to be a fully-fledged professional cricketer and then the second half of my career in the Cheshire County League where professionals are not eligible unless they are British qualified, this is a subject I have always debated with teammates and opposition over the years.

Firstly what’s the difference?

Overseas Professional

An overseas professional is a professional cricketer currently playing First Class Cricket which essentially equates to 4-day cricket.  Our version here in The UK is The County Championship whereas internationally the 2 most widely recognised equivalents would be The Sheffield Shield in Australia and The Ranji Trophy in India.

Overseas Amateur

An overseas amateur is usually a cricketer who isn’t playing First-Class cricket and plays in a tier below the professional game. To be clear leagues such as the Cheshire County League that don’t allow overseas professionals to do so of their own volition, it is not an ECB regulation.

It is, of course, the league officials right to run their league as they wish, but personally I have always questioned the logic to this rule especially when players such as former New Zealand International Lou Vincent were deemed eligible despite playing over 100 times for his country. This due to the fact he had only played one day cricket domestically towards the end of his career, which of course isn’t classed as First Class Cricket. Surely a player of this calibre playing in the league is no different to a current first-class player with a handful of domestic first-class appearances, who under league rules would be deemed ineligible? It’s certainly open to debate!

Former New Zealand international played as an “Amateur” for Nantwich back in 2010, helping guide the Dabbers to their historic first Cheshire County League crown.

Pro v’s Overseas – Which is better?

As a clubbie it is unquestionably a privilege to play with and against a proper professional cricketer. It simply doesn’t happen in any other sport with such regularity, you can always see the difference between a proper cricketer and the mere clubbie. The way they move, throw and read the game let alone how they bat, bowl and catch.

However the danger can be an over-reliance on your pro, we have all seen clubs opening the bowling with their pro spinner who then bowls 25-30 overs straight from one end. This is surely detrimental to both the quality of the game itself and more importantly the development of the rest of the amateur players in the team. This can often lead to Pro v’s Pro in leagues such as the North Staffs and South Cheshire League. Does this kind of example back-up the ruling of no overseas pro’s in leagues such as the Cheshire County League? Again, it’s open to debate!

A lot of overseas professional’s tend to live away from the club they represent in the nearest city and therefore don’t always necessarily fully integrate socially or practice with their teammates during the week. At the end of the day, their contract with their club is often simply a business transaction. For all intents and purposes they are essentially working away from home, there are though obviously exceptions to this sweeping generalisation of course!

The Overseas Amateurs tend to be the complete opposite, they come over on a part holiday/part cricket/part life experience basis. They fully embrace club life usually living nearby, doing coaching, practicing, playing and then fully immersing themselves in the social side too and becoming a focal point for their club both on and off the field. It always takes those Aussie boys a while to master the pints though after a lifetime of schooners!

But are the overseas amateurs inferior players to pros? In some cases obviously yes, but in lots of cases no. A high-quality Sydney First Grader who is an amateur will unquestionably be a better cricketer than a young first-class professional from say Bangladesh or Zimbabwe with a handful of professional appearances under their belt.

In Summary

As hopefully this blog will have highlighted there are arguments for both sides on this debate. Personally I feel you learn more from playing with an Overseas Professional, but you make lifelong friendships spending the summer with an Overseas Amateur.

What do you think? It’s time for you to make up your own mind!

My Next Delivery

Keep an eye out for my next blog when I’ll talk about some of the best club pros I’ve played against.

The post Overseas Pro v’s Overseas Amateur? appeared first on CricX.

Aizaz Cheema – Fast Bowler – Pakistan

Following an unfortunate injury to our original pro 5 games into the season, we were scratching around for a replacement, initially having spoken to one of the more unscrupulous agents on the market we’d been sent a ‘Batsmen’ who would turn out for the relatively paltry sum of £100, bargain we thought he’ll do for this week. Alarm bells started ringing when our chairman and I collected him from the train station to see him already dressed in full whites carrying a bat and a Tesco carrier bag after disembarking the 9.20am from London Euston. Needless to say he got a duck opening the batting, didn’t bowl and dropped a couple of catches. I think we made him pay for a taxi back to the train station out his £100 match fee!

We were now onto Plan C!!!! After a few frantic phone calls we were told a fast bowler had just arrived in the country from Pakistan and was looking for a contract for the rest of the season and had his own accommodation sorted in Nottingham. Because we had no other options we agreed to take him on a 1 match trial, same drill as the week previous we agreed to collect said pro from the train station on the Saturday morning before our scheduled league match. Now when you envisage a fast bowler you think Flintoff, Cummins, Garner, Donald, Hazlewood etc – 6ft 4 and full of muscle! Casually strolling out of the train station was a guy with a cricket bag, it had to be him, but he couldn’t have been more than 5 ft 8 and not particularly muscular with it. We’ve been done again we’re thinking!!!!

Onto the game we were unsurprisingly asked to bat first on a damp one and got skittled by former India seamer Abey Kurivilla who used all of his 6ft 8 inch frame to extort alarming bounce from what’s known in the trade as an absolute cabbage patch of a track. Aizaz batted in the middle order and slogged a couple, but looked no batsmen.

Defending just over 100 even on that track would be tough. Aizaz marked his run-up, the compact ground just about big enough for it! Our keeper at tea asked me as skipper where he should stand for Aizaz, still sceptical about his validity as a ‘Fast Bowler’ I suggested he start where he would for the rest of our seam attack, the track was wet and stodgy after all! Aizaz tore in his pace picking up as he approached the crease and unleashed a thunderbolt from a low skiddy trajectory which zipped through to our keeper who remember stood where he would stand for your regular medium pace club trundler!! The force of Cheema’s delivery literally knocked our keeper backwards as he rung his right hand in disbelief. The entire team quickly came alive despite the match predicament, amazing what a fast bowler in your ranks can do for morale! We went on to the lose the match by a few wickets, but we’d seen enough to know we’d found a good one with Aizaz Cheema and quickly signed him up for the rest of the season.

Aizaz went on to collect 74 wickets in 19 matches including 9 five-wicket hauls and astonishingly 4 hat tricks with a best of 7 for 38, with 70% of his wickets bowled or LBW! You can tell someone has a yard of pace with those kind of numbers, but it was the fact he clean bowled several of his professional counterparts including Aakash Chopra the ex Indian Test Opener and the best bat in the league for the last few years, Jeff Cook the Australian born ex Northants batsmen and Abdur Rehman the ex Pakistan all-rounder. All were cleaned up by Aizaz’s skiddy inswinging Yorkers very early in their innings. Aizaz went on to play for Pakistan in all 3 formats and is still tearing it up on the domestic circuit where he has an incredible record with over 800 wickets.

As a captain having a professional fast bowler in your team who could hit the stumps was incredible, the cocky opponents who were usually very vocal suddenly lost their voices knowing you could unleash a guy who was clocked at over 90 mph during his career!!!

Nilesh Kulkarni – Left Arm Spinner – India

Nilesh Kulkarni the only player I have ever played with to claim over 100 wickets in a season AND he arrived late due to his Ranji Trophy commitments with his star-studded state team Mumbai, Sachin Tendulkar et al!

Nilesh when he finally arrived lived in Liverpool with 2 of his Mumbai teammates Paras Mhambrey and Sairaj Bahutule both over ‘proing’ themselves. Often the trio would drive over to net at my club with the rest of us on a Thursday evening if the weather was warm enough, my club practiced on the square which the pro’s preferred to the usual synthetic surfaces found at club grounds. It was some experience batting against 3 Indian internationals even in the nets, with one bowling left-arm spin, one fast leg-spin and the third fast-medium with a ball he’d been polishing all week!

My club had been relegated from the North Staffs and South Cheshire Premier League the previous season and were looking to bounce back at the first attempt, the season didn’t start well as ‘pro-less’ we lost our first 2 games! We then went undefeated for the rest of the season as Kulkarni weaved his magic bamboozling opposition batsmen week after week. Going into the final game of the season it was a 3 horse race for promotion with us and another team vying for the outright league title.

The pro in the opposition ranks for our must-win game was a young Imran Tahir who as you would expect was a dangerous proposition in such a vital game, and so it proved as Tahir spun his web to bowl us out for less than 100 including yours truly shouldering arms to his googly after Kulkarni assured me he didn’t have one!

Was that it? Was the league title and even promotion gone? To add to our misery in the dressing room between innings the other team who were vying for the championship arrived at our ground in a minibus several beers in and already guaranteed promotion having won their match already. As we sat in the dressing room dejected, even our experienced skipper was struggling to rally his troops, Nilesh stood up and calmly assured us we will still win this game despite our meager total. We all had to listen, here was a guy who had been our talisman all season and during that winter had dismissed Matthew Hayden playing for India in a Test Match. We could do this!

In a bold move to try and win the game quickly, Tahir opened the batting and slogged and swatted our opening bowlers to the tune of 30 runs in 3 overs! No choice but to bring the pro on, what followed was the single best spell of bowling I have ever witnessed as Nilesh claimed 9 wickets for not many to bowl us to victory and indeed the league title! Despite only contributing the 1 wicket in the match personally, it is still the most memorable game of my career. We tried to re-sign Nilesh for the following season, but unsurprisingly following his 105 wicket haul he wanted treble his money and ended up moving to a club with significantly deeper pockets than ours!

Following his retirement from first-class cricket Nilesh now runs his own highly successful sports management company in India called IISM – International Institute of Sports Management.

Aashish Kapoor – All Rounder – India

Aashish Kapoor was an off-spinning all-rounder from Madras (now Chennai) with a fearsome reputation in club and first-class cricket. Kapoor had played in the UK previously for Abergavenny CC where he incredibly once scored 300 Not Out in a league match against Swansea CC!!

Kapoor had played both Test and ODI cricket for India with limited success but had superb First Class numbers with 4000 runs and 400 wickets for his state Tamil Nadu. Safe to say he didn’t disappoint and thrilled his teammates and the supporters with his Sehwag-esque stroke play and attacking spin bowling. When opening the innings against our local rivals he hit the first 5 balls of the match for 4 before snicking off from the sixth, that was the way he played and who were we to question? Most of us would have taken the 20 runs off 50 balls let alone 5!

The best all-rounder I played with and he loved a whisky and a fag, after the game of course! He was the pro after all! Kapoor is currently the Cricket Chairman of India’s Junior Selection Committee.

In Summary

3 very different players in terms of their skills and personality, but all 3 were sensational club pro’s and genuine match winners. Isn’t that what you want from a pro after all?

My Next Delivery

Keep an eye out for my next blog when I’ll talk about some of the best club pros I’ve played against.

The post The Best Club Pro’s I’ve played with – Top 3 appeared first on CricX.

Those that have played a good standard of club cricket will have played with and against hundreds of overseas pro’s during their careers. My own senior cricket career started in the mid to late nineties in the tough North Staffs and South Cheshire league whilst still at school.

Back then it was common for most teams in Division One (Now the Premier League post ECB accreditation) to have a Pro that had played International Cricket and all pro’s had to have played first-class cricket as a minimum. Indeed my very first wicket at that level was a West Indian ODI international called Keith Semple. Given the nod to come on as first change by the skipper my first ball was a leg-stump half volley that Semple effortlessly whipped over the pavilion roof, solid start!!!!

After a 5 minute interlude to retrieve the ball from the next village and too petrified to bowl another inswinger (my stock delivery) I opted for what’s now known as a ‘Liam Plunkett Cross Seamer’! The delivery angled in as usual due to my unusual wrong-footed action, but then miraculously seamed away (or hit something) off the pitch to take the edge of Semple’s bat and glide into the safe hands of our veteran skipper at first slip.

League legend, Keith Semple (right) whilst skippering Northern Premier outfit Darwen.

Since that day I have always been fascinated by the role of the overseas pro. The challenge of us meager clubbies playing against proper cricketers, it just doesn’t happen in any other sport. You wouldn’t get Harry Kane working his way back to fitness by turning out for The Dog and Duck Sunday XI or a Brazilian International taking a UK gig in the South American offseason.

But, if money and availability were no object, who would you sign (Past and Present eras under consideration here)?

Warne? Kallis? Brett Lee? Kohli? Flintoff? Afridi?

If money and availability were no object, who would you sign?

You’d think so yes, but often it’s those less iconic names like Ajit Agarkar, Paul Collingwood, Andrew Symonds, Chaminda Vaas or more recently Colin De Grandhomme that come up in clubbies conversation in the pub. The big boys would just be too much high maintenance, wouldn’t they? Not sure Kohli would help to push the covers on during a wet one in April!

Quick? All Rounder? Spinner? Gun Bat?

So what does make the ultimate club pro? Is it the genuine quick who after realising your slips can’t catch specialises in leg stump yorkers and the occasional bumper? Is it the gun all-rounder who can contribute with bat and ball? Is it the classy batsmen who’ll guarantee you the mythical 1000 runs in a league season? Is it the spinner who has the ball on a string and gets hit for 3 boundaries all season?

The answer I guess depends on the make-up of your team and the conditions in which you play? There’s an old saying in club cricket that batsmen keep you up and bowlers take you up and I think that’s pretty accurate.

I think in my 25 years of playing with and against overseas pros I have a few different viewpoints and no definitive answer I’m afraid.

For Consistency

The most consistent performers week in and week out are high-class left-arm spinners. A good one weather permitting should get you a monumental stack of wickets. They tend to have unbelievable control and will go at 2.5 runs an over maximum, they turn it just enough and generally have an arm ball that’s quicker than your opening bowlers stock delivery. Club cricketers simply don’t have the skill or application to thwart that kind of bowler every week!

Enamul Haque jnr is one such left-arm spinner who dominates league cricket, as he did last season in the Liverpool League taking 68 wickets at 11.49 for Northop Hall.

For Excitement

A quick who can hit the stumps. Nothing instills fear into the opposition more than if you have a genuinely fast bowler as your pro. The most dangerous time as a clubbie when facing a professional fast bowler is those first few deliveries. If you can get a couple of sighters it is amazing how quickly you adjust, but if the pro is able to hit your toes or the base of the stumps as soon as you come in you are generally mincemeat!

Quicks who bowl back of a length and outside off stump (the old first-class line and length) just won’t be that effective in club cricket simply because amateur batsmen won’t be good enough to nick it and the slips will drop more than they catch!

I had the pleasure of captaining a Pakistani international fast bowler in the mid 2000’s who thankfully worked this out after his first game and re-aligned his radar to specialise in yorkers, bumpers and slower balls to the tune of 75 wickets in 14 games including 4 hat tricks!

Sir Wes Hall took 329 wickets in his three seasons at Accrington and won the Lancashire League title in 1961.

For Joy

The gun batsmen who can take apart the k**b head opening bowler at your local rivals who’s terrorised you for years. Simply nothing better than seeing said bowler and lots of others during the season being carved to all parts, it’s an absolute joy to watch from the sidelines getting ‘padrash’ and relishing your opposition’s misery!

De Villiers featured for Carrickfergus as a 20-year-old, back in 2004. He went down in local cricketing folklore when he smashed 233 not-out against Cliftonville at Middle Road.

In Summary

Get the pro that fits the make-up of your team and the conditions in which you play, but most importantly enjoy playing with a proper cricketer!

My Next Delivery

Keep an eye out for my next blog when I’ll talk about some of the best club pros I’ve played with and against during a 25-year career in club cricket.

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