The Hundred: 30 to 21

30: Anya Shrubsole

As a child, I was aware of Rachel Hayhoe-Flint and her fellow posh girls in skirts but it was only about ten years ago when women’s cricket broke through and turned pro. One of the biggest names to emerge from England’s youthful set-up was Anya Shrubsole, I suppose I was especially interested because she’s from Somerset but her medium-pace bowling was famed for its economy, especially in limited-overs, and she took 4-11 in the Ashes T20 finale  I watched in Cardiff five years ago. Her 6-46 effectively won England the World Cup in 2017.

29: Hashim Amla

There’s something almost supernatural watching a batsman oozing elegance, compiling runs by means of technical excellence, timing, finding the gaps, knowing when to play and when to leave. For several years, Hashim Amla seemed to epitomise such cricketing wizardry. He was close to international retirement when I saw him struggle for fluency against Afghanistan in last year’s World Cup at Cardiff but several years earlier he was probably the finest ODI and Test batsman in the world. I also found it immensely satisfying watching a devout Muslim succeeding in South Africa, a nation which for so long treated such people as 2nd-class citizens. 

28: John Snow

In the early 1970s, genuinely quick bowlers with attitude were usually associated with Australia or the West Indies. However, England had its own fiery fast man in John Snow. He was constantly in trouble with umpires and authorities and I remember in 1971 disliking him intensely for deliberately barging Gavaskar to the ground and slinging his bat towards him. However, in time I came to appreciate his bowling and in the back garden I would copy his bowling action more than anyone’s.

27: Craig Overton

Pace bowlers have traditionally struggled on the flat Taunton pitches but in the early Noughties along came not one but two extremely promising teenagers from North Devon: Craig and Jamie Overton. As twins they were pretty much indistinguishable and, based on the names printed on their shirts, I dubbed them ‘Coverton’ and ‘Joverton’. The former has proved himself the most consistent, in form and fitness, and so gets the nod over his twin, although both have been superb so far this year. Unlike Jamie, Craig has thankfully signed a new contract with Somerset. 

26: Malcolm Marshall

However, when it comes to high-class quicks, surely none can measure up to Malcolm Marshall. Like Snow, he was sub-six feet tall but could generate fearsome pace off even a short curving run-up, delivering perfect bouncers, yorkers, seam or swing apparently at will. His first-class career bowling average was an extraordinary 19.10 and barely 20 in Tests where he often bowled first-change for the West Indies. He also took over a thousand wickets for Hampshire and, 21 years after his tragic death from cancer, he is remembered as one of the greatest fast bowlers - ever. 

25: Zaheer Abbas

In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, the bespectacled Pakistani was probably the most prolific batsman in county cricket, and that includes the likes of Boycott, Richards and Lloyd. Glancing at the weekly averages in the newspaper, Zaheer Abbas would inevitably appear near the top, with few others able to beat his aggregate of runs and centuries. I saw him play for Gloucestershire only once, making just 8 in a 1981 Sunday League clash, but I’d love to have witnessed him in his Championship or Test pomp. With the red ball, I’d rate him above Miandad and Inzamam any day. 

24: Mike Procter

Coincidentally, Mike Procter also played in that 40-over game at Bath, top-scoring with 91, but he was a different kind of Gloucestershire legend. Robbed of international cricket throughout the ‘70s, the South African bestrode the county game like a colossus, definitely one of the best all-rounders of his generation. He struck 48 first-class hundreds and claimed well over 1,000 wickets, with a mix of off-spin and whirlwind pace delivered with a distinctive ‘wrong-foot’ chest-on action. I also loved his easy-going attitude at a time when the game was going through major changes. 

23: Geoff Boycott

When it comes to love-hate characters in cricket, Boycott was possibly the most Marmite of them all – and still is. He played up to the forthright, bloody-minded Yorkshire stereotype as player and commentator but on the pitch his prolific run-scoring simply had to be admired. His career aggregate of 48,426 first-class runs, most of them for his county, will surely never again be surpassed. I remember vividly when at Leeds in ’77 for England he struck that boundary through mid-on to register his 100^th ton, an emotional moment, and not just for Boycott himself. 

22: Saeed Anwar

One of the finest innings I remember witnessing live was the 102 completed by Saeed Anwar for the Pakistan tourists against Essex one warm August afternoon in 1996. The left-handed opener reeled off a series of crisp drives, cuts and pulls  to delight purists like me, and his strokeplay proved easy on the eye in countless Tests and ODIs during the Nineties, notably in his 146-ball 194 against India in ’97. He was also unusual in that his Test record is better outside Pakistan than at home. 

21: Aravinda de Silva

When Sri Lanka announced themselves as a major force on cricket’s global stage by winning the 1996 World Cup, Aravinda De Silva was the undisputed Man of the Match in the final, taking 3-42 and steering his side to victory with an unbeaten 107. I saw him score an unremarkable 42 at Lord’s in a one-off Test in 1991 but I always enjoyed watching him bat. I hadn’t realised he was shorter than me - after all, most of the Sri Lankan side back then were vertically-challenged – but it was Aravinda’s carefree approach to batting and ready smile which were his most endearing traits.

Foreign Inspirations: Overseas County Cricketers

At the start of each year, county websites are full of excited reports raving about their new overseas signing for the forthcoming T20 Blast or maybe three Championship games in May. Rolling my eyes at such promotional puff I recall the days when many of the world's biggest stars would appear for the same county, year after year, April to September, first-class fixtures and one-dayers.

Long before I was born, overseas players would extend their earning period by signing as a professional in the Yorkshire or Lancashire leagues. This continued well into the Eighties – imagine taking guard at say, Haslingden, watching Rishton’s Michael Holding steaming in towards you! – but I feel fortunate that my initiation into the joys of cricket coincided with a golden era of international cricketers on the county circuit.

It was probably no coincidence at all. In the early Seventies, watching live coverage of one-dayers, especially the Sunday League, I was thrilled by the performances of the overseas recruits. Most of them were West Indians or Pakistanis, who seemed to play a different way from the home-grown contingent. It’s cricket, Jim, but not as we know it. The Caribbean crew in particular seemed to boast the fastest bowlers, most athletic fielders and finest strokemakers. Watching the likes of Clive Lloyd (Lancashire), Roy Fredericks (Glamorgan), Alvin Kallicharran (Warwickshire) and Vanburn Holder (Worcestershire) also meant I didn’t have to wait four years for the next West Indies tour to enjoy their unique approach to the sport. I vividly recall the black and white images of Nottinghamshire’s Garfield Sobers heaving poor Malcolm Nash for six sixes in an over in 1968.

It wasn’t just about telly. At my first taste of live cricket in May 1975, it was the batting of Somerset’s Viv Richards and fielding of Essex’s Keith Boyce which made the greatest impression on me. Later that summer, I became engrossed in the inaugural Prudential World Cup, noting that many of the biggest names were already on the county scene. If they weren’t at that stage, I wouldn’t have long to wait.

They weren’t the modern day ‘blink-and-you-miss-it’ contracts either. Lloyd, Richards, Kalli, Greenidge, Walsh, Marshall and Zaheer Abbas each represented their respective counties for a decade or more. With none of today’s distractions of year-round T20 tourneys and short ODI series, they racked up career tallies of first-class runs and wickets which dwarf those of current Test superstars. Boosted by their prolific seasons at Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Northants, Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall and Bishan Bedi each retired with well over 1,500 first-class scalps to their names. At the time of writing, Dale Steyn has a mere 612, and even the perennially fit Jimmy Anderson remains ninety short of the thousand landmark.

Throughout my life I haven’t attended a huge volume of county matches but I’ve been lucky to have witnessed some superb international players in action, even if they weren’t necessarily at their best. In addition to the incomparable Viv and Joel Garner for Somerset, Essex used to feature batsmen of the quality of Andy Flower, South African Ken McEwan and Aussies Allan Border, Mark Waugh and Stuart Law.

Other personal highlights have been the giant Sarfraz Nawaz bowling for Northants and Younis Ahmed’s resounding crack of an off drive for Surrey in ’76  (it resonates in my mind still), the jaw-dropping pace of Warwickshire’s Allan Donald (bowling second change) at Ilford in ’95 and Mike Procter almost singlehandedly saving Gloucestershire against Somerset at Bath in ’81. I’m glad he failed in the end!

My favourite Procter (pictured below) moment, however, was when he destroyed Dad’s beloved Hampshire in a 1977 B&H Cup semi-final, this time with his pace bowling. It must have been the first time I’d seen a hat-trick. Had South Africa not been isolated by their country’s political apartheid abomination, Procter would surely have gone down as one of the greatest ever all-rounders. His compatriot Barry Richards was similarly disadvantaged but he and Gordon Greenidge formed for several years the county game’s most formidable opening partnership.

In subsequent decades, other Southern Africans opted to seek international cricket with England by serving their seven-year county apprenticeship to achieve residential status. Allan Lamb, Graeme Hick and Kevin Pietersen spring to mind. It’s not all about traditional Test playing nations, either. I recall in the ‘80s/’90s the extremely economical Danish seamer Ole Mortensen for Derbyshire and Somerset’s profligate Dutchman, Adrian van Troost promoting the European Union.

Imran Khan graced the county circuit for many years, too, first with Sussex then Worcestershire, by which time Pakistan’s Wasim Akram (Lancs) and Waqar Younis (Surrey and Glamorgan) were also on these shores. Banned rebel West Indian Frankly Stephenson twice achieved the 1000 runs/100 wickets double for Notts in 1988 and 1989. In the Nineties, it was against Durham at Edgbaston that Brian Lara stunned the world with his record-breaking 501 not out, and two decades later with Surrey that both Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara opted to end their first-class careers, the latter in stunning style in 2017.

In more recent times, county fortunes have often been galvanised by the arrival of foreign internationals. Mushtaq Ahmed’s leg-spin transformed Somerset and especially Sussex for whom he helped win two Championship titles. Shane Warne’s overall aura and astute captaincy gave Hampshire impetus in the Noughties, and the veteran Ottis Gibson bowled Durham to success. Several Aussies, unable to break into a formidable Baggy Green batting line-up, also proved influential over here, notably Stuart Law, Michael di Venuto and Chris Rogers, while Michael Klinger’s batting and leadership took Gloucestershire to T20 glory.  

All this brings me back to the current fetish for ultra-brief stints by the likes of Muralitharan, McCullum and Gilchrist, plus jobbing Twenty20 specialists such as Dirk Nannes, Aaron Finch, Colin Munro and the Sultan of Sixes himself, Chris Gayle. These stars undoubtedly help shift season tickets and advance Blast sales. Unfortunately, when in 2015 Somerset snapped up Gayle, the biggest star of them all, it proved to be a bittersweet experience. In the January, it was revealed he’d made good on a three-year promise to join the county for a maximum of six T20 fixtures. Six games! Yippee! He was certainly a huge draw and demonstrated the right attitude towards promotional appearances in schools, etc.

On the pitch, too, the Jamaican fulfilled the hype with devastating innings at Taunton, even if his 151 not out against Kent wasn’t enough to win the match. If only I’d crippled the visitors’ team bus the day before when our paths crossed at Membury Services maybe the result would have been different! Sadly Gayle decided that three matches were enough and duly buggered off. Remember that “maximum of” prefix to the six? He did return to play what must have been an exhausting five matches the following June but with considerably less impact.

All a far cry from those dizzying days of Asif Iqbal, Farokh Engineer, Wayne Daniel and Sylvester Clarke, who’d delight county crowds week in week out. And when they weren’t representing a county, such cricketing celebs would also grace our grounds as part of the country’s tour schedules, which deserves a chapter of its own.....