Cricket: Unsung heroes

Whilst the stars make the headlines and common topics of conversation, it’s often the lesser-known names who flesh out our relationships with the entertainment media which matter to us. It could be the TV soap character who sits in the pub uttering just a line at Christmas or the plucky Brit tennis hopeful you only catch on the first day’s Wimbledon highlights.  With cricket, too, the seasoned county pro is just as much a factor in my loyalty to the sport.

It’s not just about the T20 rent-a-slogger or 100-cap fast bowler; I’m talking about the type of player who gives his all to one club, or maybe several, without quite hitting the international heights. They’re the ones who, in Fantasy Cricket terms, may be mid-price but invariably offer unbeatable value ahead of the top-priced England batsmen who are almost invisible on the domestic circuit.

Such people are often disparaged as mere ‘journeymen’ or ‘bed-blockers’ denying starlets the chance of progression. It’s nonsense. Not everyone can be a future, present or past international, and it’s often the experienced stalwarts who do more for the game and its role in schools and clubs than a whole gaggle of ECB fusspots. The only problem with the supporting cast members is that their profiles are so low   that finding references on YouTube is nigh on impossible!

Sometimes, the cricketers who build a fervent following amongst the handful of county followers eventually earn grudging recognition by the blinkered selectors, albeit maybe only for a few matches or as drinks carriers in, say, New Zealand. Sheer volume of runs or wickets, or a well-timed century against the touring side, can propel such icons into the media spotlight for a few glorious weeks or months before being discarded in favour of the next lad from the Surrey nets or a 35 year-old veteran recalled for one final hurrah.

I remember batsmen such as Derbyshire legend Kim Barnett shuffling across the crease wearing the England badge, various Glamorgan favourites like Matthew Maynard, Hugh Morris and Steve James granted fleeting opportunities and bowlers including Phil Newport, Jonathan Agnew, Mark Ilott, Martin Bicknell and Steve Watkin trying their luck against an unforgiving Aussie or Windies line-up. Even left-arm spinner John Childs bowled so well for Essex in 1988 that he made his debut in his late thirties, albeit for only two appearances against Richards, Haynes and co. I also felt sorry for Essex wicketkeeper James Foster whose brilliance was eclipsed by the claims of Matt Prior and the succeeding series of sloggers.

Some, like Simon Kerrigan and Haseeb Hameed, have never recovered from the experience although, at just 22, the latter may yet get another chance. Others, like Adam Lyth and Mal Loye, just dusted themselves off and returned to their counties with renewed vigour.

Many never quite secured a single senior outing for their country. I’ve mentioned Somerset’s James Hildreth but what about the men whose efforts for the county in the Botham-Viv-Garner era have been forgotten by all bar the Taunton faithful. The terrific trio could not have brought success without a supporting cast including Slocombe, Breakwell, Taylor, Denning, Rose and Roebuck.

Similarly, Essex’s sparkling seasons in the late Seventies and Eighties owed much to their entertaining spinner Ray East – always with a smile on his face – Brian Hardie and Paul Prichard. In the Seventies, Scotland-born Hardie was a notoriously slow scorer yet by 1985 out-performed Graham Gooch to hit a match-winning 110 in the 1985 Nat West Trophy final. Billericay-born Prichard didn’t bat that day but I saw him several times in the Nineties as post-Gooch captain and ever-reliable batsman. As an aside, many years later a conversation across desks with an office colleague revealed she had been the Essex man’s girlfriend. Yes, a genuine if unlikely WAG!

Other favourites of mine, for no obvious reasons, included Gloucestershire ‘keeper-batsman Andy Stovold, the anagrammatically perfect Gloucester/Worcester seamer Brian Brain, Derbyshire’s balding medium-pacer Fred Swarbrook, Glamorgan’s Rodney Ontong and Nottinghamshire’s Basharat Hassan (more for their assonance-heavy names than anything) and the Warwickshire batsman and fab fielder Trevor Penney.

In more recent times, I can’t help but admire long-servers such as Worcestershire’s Daryl Mitchell (for whose career-best 298 I was present at Taunton), evergreen seamer David Masters, faithful Glamorgan gloveman Mark Wallace and the gritty Notts all-rounder Steven Mullaney. I had to check Mullaney’s English credentials as I thought his absence from senior recognition must be explained by a South African or Australian nationality. No, he’s a Cheshire lad and only this winter was selected to lead the England Lions in India. 

Before I end this chapter, I should mention Wes Durston. Despite being only a bit-part player, he was much loved in Somerset where he skipped between roles at Glastonbury CC and the county. Finding himself out of contract in 2009, he was picked alongside others in a similar position to represent the Unicorns in the CB40 competition. Brilliant performances attracted Derbyshire’s attention and for a few summers he was one of their brightest all-round stars. Even Somerset fans cheered the late-career success of this archetypal unsung hero.