Leicestershire County Cricket Club

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Leicestershire County Cricket Club
250px
One-day name: Leicestershire Foxes
Second XI: Leicestershire 2nd XI
Captain: Australia Mark Cosgrove
Coach: Australia Andrew McDonald
Overseas player(s): Australia Clint McKay
Pakistan Umar Akmal
Founded: 25 February 1879
Home ground: Grace Road
Capacity: 12,000 (expanding to 13000)
Chief executive: England Wasim Khan
First-class debut: MCC
in 1895
at Lord's
Championship wins: 3
Pro40 wins: 2
FP Trophy wins: 0
Twenty20 Cup wins: 3
Official website: LeicestershireCCC
Grace Road cricket ground,Leicester.
The pavilion end.
The Bennett Road end.

Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen major county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland. The club's limited overs team is called the Leicestershire Foxes. Founded in 1879, the club had minor county status until 1894 when it was promoted to major status pending its entry into the County Championship in 1895. Leicestershire is classified as an unofficial first-class team by substantial sources in 1894;[1][2] classified as an official first-class team from 1895 by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the County Championship clubs;[3] classified as a List A team since the beginning of limited overs cricket in 1963;[4] and classified as a major Twenty20 team since 2003.[5]

The club is based at Grace Road, Leicester and have also played home games at Aylestone Road in Leicester, at Hinckley, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and in Coalville inside the traditional county boundaries; and at Uppingham and Oakham over the border in Rutland.

In limited overs cricket, the kit colours are red with black trim in the Clydesdale Bank 40 and black with red trim in the T20. The shirt sponsors are Oval Insurance Broking with Highcross Leicester (shopping centre) on the top reverse side of the shirt.

Leicestershire are in the second division of the County Championship and in Group C of the Pro40 one day league. They recently finished bottom of the County Championship for the first time since the introduction of two divisions. Their best showing in recent years has been in the Twenty20 Cup with the Foxes winning the trophy three times in eight years.

Honours

First XI honours

Runners-Up (2) – 1982, 1994
Runners-up: 1972, 2001
Runners-up: 1992, 2001
Runners-up: 1974, 1998

Second XI honours

Runners-up: 1961, 1975

+ 1 Bain Hogg Trophy – 2nd 11 one day competition – 1996

History

Earliest cricket

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Main article: Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club

Cricket may not have reached the county until well into the 18th century. A notice in the Leicester Journal dated 17 August 1776 is the earliest known mention of cricket in Leicestershire.

But it was only a few years after that before a Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club was taking part in important matches, mainly against Nottingham Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). This club was prominent from 1781 until the beginning of the 19th century.

19th century

Little more is heard of Leicestershire cricket until the formation of the present club on 25 March 1879.

Essex CCC versus Leicestershire CCC at Leyton on 14, 15 & 16 May 1894 was the initial first-class match played by either club. In 1895, the County Championship was restructured into a 14-team competition with the introduction of Essex, Leicestershire and Warwickshire CCC.

Early and mid 20th century

Leicestershire's first 70 years were largely spent in lower table mediocrity, with few notable exceptions. In 1953, the motivation of secretary-captain Charles Palmer lifted the side fleetingly to third place, but most of the rest of the 1950s was spent propping up the table, or thereabouts.

Start of improvement: The late 1950s and the 1960s

Change came in the late 1950s with the recruitment of the charismatic Willie Watson at the end of a distinguished career with England and Yorkshire. Watson's run gathering sparked the home-grown Maurice Hallam into becoming one of England's best opening batsmen. In bowling, Leicestershire had an erratically successful group of seamers in Terry Spencer, Brian Boshier, John Cotton and Jack van Geloven, plus the spin of John Savage.

Another change was in the captaincy: Tony Lock, the former England and Surrey spinner who had galvanised Western Australia.

The 1970s and the first golden era

Ray Illingworth, again from Yorkshire, instilled self-belief to the extent that the county took its first ever trophy in 1972, the Benson & Hedges Cup with Chris Balderstone man of the match. This was start of the first golden era as the first of five trophies in five years and included Leicestershire's first ever County Championship title in 1975. A couple of runners up spots were also thrown in.[6]

The game when Leicestershire won their first ever County Championship, on 15 September 1975, marked something of a personal triumph for Chris Balderstone. Batting on 51 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, after close of play he changed into his football kit to play for Doncaster Rovers in an evening match 30 miles away (a 1–1 draw with Brentford). Thus he is the only player to have played League Football and first class cricket on the same day. He then returned to Chesterfield to complete a century the following morning and take three wickets to wrap up the title. To add to that season's success for Leicestershire was a second Benson & Hedges victory.[6]

The 1980s

A runners up spot in the 1982 County Championship brought some respectability, but the decade's only first class silverware was in the 1985 Benson & Hedges Cup with Balderstone still on board making him the most successful trophy winner in the club's history with six.[6]

Success in the late 1990s

Leicestershire won the county championship in 1996, and again in 1998. This was an amazing achievement considering the resources of the club compared to other county teams. This Leicestershire side, led by Jack Birkenshaw and James Whitaker, used team spirit and togetherness to get the best out of a group of players who were either discarded from other counties or brought through the Leicestershire ranks.

This team did not have many stars, but Aftab Habib, Darren Maddy, Vince Wells, Jimmy Ormond, Alan Mullally and Chris Lewis all had chances for England. West Indian all-rounder Phil Simmons was also named as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the year in 1997 while playing for the club.

2000 and beyond: Twenty20 success and four-day struggles

The advent of Twenty20 cricket saw Leicestershire find a new source of success, winning the domestic T20 competition in 2004, 2006 and 2011. However, in the era of two-division County Championship cricket they have found success more difficult to come by, having not played in the top division since 2003 and been regular "wooden spoon" contenders. In 2013 and 2014 they finished without a single Championship win, the first team to achieve this unwanted feat in back to back seasons since Northamptonshire just before World War II.

Grounds

Current

Previous

Players

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Current squad

  • No. denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt.
  • double-dagger denotes players with international caps.
  •  *  denotes a player who has been awarded a county cap.
No. Name Nat Birth date Batting Style Bowling Style Notes
Batsmen
8 Angus Robson  Australia (1992-02-19) 19 February 1992 (age 32) Right-handed Right arm leg break British passport
14 Aadil Ali  England (1994-12-29) 29 December 1994 (age 29) Right-handed Right arm off break
55 Mark Cosgrove double-dagger  Australia (1984-06-14) 14 June 1984 (age 40) Left-handed Right arm medium Club captain; British passport
— Paul Horton  England (1982-09-20) 20 September 1982 (age 42) Right-handed Right arm medium
— Mark Pettini  England (1983-08-07) 7 August 1983 (age 41) Right-handed Right arm medium
All-rounders
10 Rob Taylor double-dagger  Scotland (1989-12-21) 21 December 1989 (age 34) Left-handed Left arm medium
19 Tom Wells  England (1993-03-15) 15 March 1993 (age 31) Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
31 Kevin O'Brien double-dagger  Ireland (1984-03-04) 4 March 1984 (age 40) Right-handed Right arm medium One-day Only
35 Wayne White  England (1985-09-22) 22 September 1985 (age 39) Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
44 Ben Raine  England (1991-09-14) 14 September 1991 (age 33) Left-handed Right arm medium-fast
— Neil Dexter  England (1984-08-21) 21 August 1984 (age 40) Right-handed Right arm medium
Wicket-keepers
20 Michael Burgess  England (1994-07-08) 8 July 1994 (age 30) Right-handed —
23 Lewis Hill  England (1990-10-05) 5 October 1990 (age 34) Right-handed —
33 Ned Eckersley  England (1989-08-09) 9 August 1989 (age 35) Right-handed Right arm off break Vice-captain
81 Niall O'Brien double-dagger  Ireland (1981-11-08) 8 November 1981 (age 42) Left-handed —
96 Umar Akmal double-dagger  Pakistan (1990-05-26) 26 May 1990 (age 34) Right-handed Right arm off break Overseas player
Bowlers
3 Atif Sheikh  England (1991-02-18) 18 February 1991 (age 33) Right-handed Left arm medium-fast
4 Charlie Shreck  England (1978-01-06) 6 January 1978 (age 46) Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
12 Rob Sayer  England (1995-01-25) 25 January 1995 (age 29) Right-handed Right arm off break
22 Jigar Naik  England (1984-08-10) 10 August 1984 (age 40) Right-handed Right arm off break
24 Ollie Freckingham  England (1988-11-12) 12 November 1988 (age 35) Right-handed Right arm medium-fast
27 Clint McKay double-dagger  Australia (1983-02-20) 20 February 1983 (age 41) Right-handed Right arm fast-medium Overseas player
32 Zak Chappell  England (1996-01-21) 21 January 1996 (age 28) Right-handed Right arm fast-medium
80 James Sykes  England (1992-04-26) 26 April 1992 (age 32) Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox

Former captains

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See also: List of Leicestershire cricket captains

International players

File:Cricket 057.jpg
Members of the current squad warming up

Records

Most first team winners medal for Leicestershire

  • J. C. Balderstone – 6

Batting

Best partnership for each wicket (county championship)

  • 1st – 390 B.Dudleston and J.F.Steele v Derbyshire Leicester 1979
  • 2nd – 289* J.C.Balderstone and D.I.Gower v Essex Leicester 1981
  • 3rd – 316* W.Watson and A.Wharton v Somerset Taunton 1961
  • 4th – 290* P.Willey and T.J.Boon v Warwickshire Leicester 1984
  • 5th – 322 B.F.Smith and P.V.Simmons v Nottinghamshire Worksop 1998
  • 6th – 284 P.V.Simmons and P.A.Nixon v Durham Chester-le-Street 1996
  • 7th – 219* J.D.R.Benson and P.Whitticase v Hampshire Bournemouth 1991
  • 8th – 195 JWA Taylor and JKH Naik v Derbyshire Leicester 2009
  • 9th – 160 R.T.Crawford and W.W.Odell v Worcestershire Leicester 1902
  • 10th – 228 R.Illingworth and K.Higgs v Northamptonshire Leicester 1977

Bowling

  • Most first-class wickets: 2131 by Ewart Astill
  • Most first-class wickets in a season: 170 by Jack Walsh in 1948
  • Best bowling figures in an innings: 10–18 by George Geary in 1929 against Glamorgan at Ynysangharad Park, Pontypridd.
  • Best bowling figures in a match: 16–96 by George Geary in the same match.

Fielding

  • Most dismissals in an innings: 7 by Neil Burns vs Somerset at Grace Road in 2001.
  • Most dismissals in a match: 10 by Percy Corrall vs Sussex at Hove in 1936.

Sub Academy

The Leicestershire Sub Academy is designed for young cricketers who have potential to play at the highest level. It is also called the EPP (Emerging Player Programme). Many players who are involved in this set up move on to the LCCC academy, where they will play matches against academies from other counties.

References

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  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Birley, p. 145.
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  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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Further reading

External links

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