County cricket stalwarts retire in 2014

While most media articles have concentrated on global stars' decisions to quit Test cricket or ODIs (for example, Kallis and Jayawardene), I'd like to redress the balance and celebrate the careers of others who have graced the county game (and a few internationals) for many years.

Murray Goodwin has been around for two decades in his native Zimbabwe, adopted homeland of Australia and England, amassing almost 38,000 runs along the way. He retired in August after a good run for Glamorgan in one-dayers but a poor early summer in the Championship. He was part of the great Zimbabwe side of the late 1990s (the Flowers, Streak et al) but also excelled at Western Australia and for Sussex. He spent several prolific seasons down at Hove, the highlight being an unbeaten 335 to clinch the county's first Championship in 2003. Despite being best known for his first-class cricket performances, like many great players he demonstrated ability to succeed in the shorter stuff in his twilight years both with the bat and in the field. Even so, I was surprised when at 40 he moved from the South Coast to Cardiff but he maintained his form in 2013 before losing it this year. An under-rated star of the sport, he'll be missed.

His Glamorgan team mate Gareth Rees also quit cricket last month. Not always a first team regular, the Swansea-born, Comprehensive-educated left-hander nonetheless played 189 matches, including 13 first-class centuries. Twenty20 is not his strong point so, maybe reading the writing on the wall, he has opted for a career in business at the age of 29.

Mark Davies has suffered so many injuries in his career that he should qualify as a surgeon or chiropractor. Nevertheless, in between spells in a back brace or the treatment room, he enjoyed fifteen years in county cricket for his native Durham and, finally, Kent. His bowling in the mid-2000s earned him places in the England Performance team and, in 2009, the Test squad but the likes of Anderson and Sidebottom kept him out of the team. A shoulder injury prevented him bowling a ball in 2014 so retirement at 34 was a formality. His first-class career wicket tally of 315 wickets at an extraordinary average of 22.42 shows what a class act he was. At Durham he was constantly in the shadow of Onions, Plunkett and Harmison, each faster bowlers but inferior in terms of that average.

David Sales is another county stalwart who frequently threatened but failed to earn an England cap. Nineteen seasons with Northamptonshire ended with some unremarkable performances in the T20 Blast and 6 and 0 in his final Championship match, in which Lees and Lyth put on 375 for Yorkshire's first wicket. Back in 1996 it had all looked so promising. I recall him becoming, at 18, the youngest player to score a Championship double-century then three years later, striking 303 not out against Essex but he was maddeningly inconsistent. In the end, calf and ankle injuries brought about an early retirement at 36, making Northamptonshire's wretched summer even sadder.

2014 has also experienced the last sight of Steve Kirby steaming in and unleashing all sorts of ungentlemanly language at batsmen. Oh, and did I mention that he was a very good bowler, too? He fitted the stereotype of a feisty redhead (bit like me, but taller and infinitely better at cricket!), and made his name at Yorkshire, where he took 47 wickets at under 21 in his debut season. Like Sales and Davies, he was on the fringes of full Eng;and recognition but was frozen out by Flintoff, Hioggard and co at their peak. In 2005 he moved to Gloucestershire before, to my surprise, joining my Somerset in 2011. I felt he was too old to swell the ranks of an already-creaking attack, but he nonetheless slogged his guts out with the new ball as the county blooded various teenagers as his support act alongside ALfonso Thomas. Sadly, a longstanding shoulder injury meant he played only 2nd XI cricket in June until a recurrence led him to accept the inevitable. At 36 he can still offer much as a coach, both for bowlers and as someone who hated losing and being hit for a boundary, and who gave everything to the cause.

In these days of tough finances, the season's conclusion has prompted counties to release players who just a few summers ago seemed indispensible. Geraint Jones (Kent), Gareth Berg (Middlesex), Andrew Hall and James Middlebrook (Northants,so often features of my Fantasy Eleven!) and even Yorkshire's young spinner Azeem Rafiq face un uncertain winter. Saj Mahmood's switch to Essex clearly failed to revive his flagging career and the Chelmsford set-up has also given up on getting tyro Tymal Mills to successfully combine raw pace with any kind of direction. There may be opportunities for each but I suspect that Gareth Breese, the man who so joyfully took Durham to their Royal London Cup triumph last month, may well call it a day soon. Cricket is not all about the Pietersens, Tendulkars and Steyns; we should not forget the talented cricketers who earn their crust and entertain the fans outside the media spotlight for years on end.

Table-Turning County Finale

The ups and downs were confirmed before the last day of the county season but there was still time for the successful sides being taken down a peg.

Champions Durham lost more games than fourth place Warwickshire but they triumphed because they had an attack capable of bowling opposition out twice, winning an impressive ten out of sixteen matches. They failed to make it eleven despite amassing almost 500 in their second innings when Keaton Jennings and Michael Richardson each made three figures. On the last day, Sussex had a target of 295 in under seventy overs, but Luke Wells, Chris Nash and Ed Joyce got the better of Onions, Rushworth, Stokes et al to take the sixteen extra points and insodoing third place in the table. Joyce has been one of the top scorers all season in first-class cricket and should be remembered for that rather than his dismissal by another Irishman-turned-Englishman Boyd Rankin in the Dublin ODI!

Lancashire had swept most before them in Division Two but their unbeaten record was upset by struggling Kent. Despite the welter of runs, an exciting climax was forged at Canterbury, and it was the old guard who provided the steel. Robert Key struck his fifth Championship century of the summer, Ashwell Prince scored a hundred in each innings but an unbeaten 205 not out in 218 balls from 37 year-old Darren Stevens secured only Kent's third win of the season.

They just about held on to seventh place in spite of rivals Glamorgan's victory over Gloucesteshire. Murray Goodwin has confounded this critic by rediscovering his form in 2013, and he passed fifty for the eleventh time to take the Welsh side over the finishing line. However, Jim Allenby's 85 runs and 7-47 bowling analysis were the real match-winners. In a year of impressive all-round performances (think Patel and Willey), the Aussie has been possibly the pick of the bunch, and Glamorgan's near-miss in the YB40 also owed much to him. If only the whole side could put it all together more consistently in four-day cricket, they could win promotion next year.

Durham have demonstrated you can win the biggest title in domestic cricket without an overseas star, but Perth-born Allenby, another Aussie with a UK passport Michael Hogan and Zimbabwean Goodwin have largely carried the squad in the Championship. More runs from the openers and wickets from Cosker and Wagg are needed.

Anyway, I'll focus the next blog on the most memorable performers and performances of the county season. So many to choose from!

Afridi, Nash and Goodwin back in business

Shahid Afridi has for a long time been one of the most irrepressible characters in world cricket. However, as his form began to fade beneath the shadow of his reputation, it became inevitable that the Pakistan selectors would wield the knife. Perhaps surprisingly, he never established a lasting career in Test cricket but with over 7,000 runs and 350 wickets in ODIs, his place in history was complete. If his nation had performed well in the Champions Trophy, maybe his international retirement would have been confirmed at the age of 33.

However, that didn't happen and he was recalled to the team for the West Indies tour. Wow, did he grab that opportunity! In Guyana, he began with a typical 'boom-boom' innings of 76 in 55 balls. That could have won him the Man of the Match award on its own, but he wasn't finished there. The home batsmen completely capitulated to his looping leg-breaks and googlies, and Afridi finished with 7-12 in nine overs! It's an ODI innings aggregate beaten only by Chaminda Vaas' 8-19 against Zimbabwe (including the Flower brothers) twelve years ago. Maybe there's plenty more cricket to come from the 'star man'!

Shahid Afridi gives another Zimbabwean, Murray Goodwin, seven whole years. The vastly experienced batsman, whose brief Test career had ended prior to that humiliation at the hands of Vaas, is now seeing out his time at Glamorgan. Despite his shedful of runs made for Sussex over the years, to be honest I didn't expect that much from him in 2013. However, after 86 and 56 not out against Hampshire last week, he trumped that with 194 at Old Trafford yesterday. He has a whopping 36,000 runs under his belt in all forms of the sport so, like Afridi, there would appear to be life in this old dog yet.

Brendan Nash is another man in the latter stages of his cricketing career. An interesting player, particularly because he is one of the rare white men to have represented the West Indies in recent years. Born in Australia with a Jamaican father, he blazed a trail in Oz before transferrig to his father's island. There he played his way into a Test batting line-up featuring Gayle, Chanderpaul and Sarwan and was far from disgraced. Indeed, he became vice-captain in 2011 but after a poor series in India, he was jettisoned, but is now wnjoying a new lease of life with Kent.

Last week, his 199 was instrumental in winning a match which should not have been Kent'sn after Gloucestershire racked up 562-5 declared in their first innings. What made that performance especially extraordinary was that the heat at Cheltenham forced him to retire ill. On 199! Could he not have kept going for just another single?! Fortunately, Charlie Shreck kept the innings moving and Kent won by two wickets late in the afternoon. To Nash's credit, he didn't rest up for a week and, with temperatures again in the high 20s, he notched another century. His 126 played second fiddle to Rob Key's 180 but at least Nash seems to have galvanised the worst team in the Championship so that their season may have turned for the better. Just goes to show you can never write off a star performer. Shahid Afridi and Murray Goodwin will echo that.

Player of the Week: Murray Goodwin and Jonathan Trott

Four individual performances caught my eye last week - and all from players born in Southern Africa. Somerset compiled one of the highest scores in county Twenty20 history against Middlesex, thanks to thunderous half-centuries by Craig Kieswetter and Roelof van der Merwe. The former has missed a number of matches for Somerset and England Lions through injury but in his first day back he belted 59 from 22 balls. Imagine what he might achieve when he gets his eye in! Van der Merwe's 51 came from only 21 deliveries, including five sixes. This was no lucky break, either, because two days earlier, he took 89 off 51 balls against Kent, making even Marcus Trescothick look pedestrian.

Last week, Jonathan Trott hit another double-century for England, yet got slagged off for being slow. I'm no fan of the policy of selecting South Africans for England but if they're good enough and qualified, then I can't really argue, and the Warwickshire batsman is clearly good enough. In fewer than two years as an England international, he has played 19 Tests and 25 ODIs, averaging a magnificent 67 and 56, respectively. Not even Tendulkar can match that. He's currently equal third in the ICC World rankings for Tests and seventh for ODIs, not bad for a player castigated for being slow. The thing is, he isn't particularly slow at all, just gives the impression of obduracy when in fact he is keeping the scoreboard ticking along without the need to slog boundaries. In short, the ideal Test batsman to have around as foil for more flamboyant strokeplayers like Pietersen. I'd rather have someone who can score 50 in 60 balls than 20 in 10, unless match circumstances dictate otherwise. Indeed, in his last five games at the World Cup, his lowest score was 47. ANyway, the 203 he made at Cardiff makes him one of my Players of the Week.

The other is 38 years old, an age when retirement must weigh heavy on the mind. No, I'm not talking about Sachin Tenduulkar. After all, the Little Master didn't score an unbeaten 274 last week; Murray Goodwin did. Goodwin has been a consistent runmaker for Sussex throughout the past decade, with more hefty aggregates at Western Australia. Born in what is now Zimbabwe, he learnt his craft in Oz but got his international chance in the land of his birth. His Test debut came in a heavy defeat to Muralitharan/Sri Lanka and his 19th and last at Trent Bridge two years later, in which he struck 148 not out in a game England could have lost but for the weather. He played more than 70 ODIs but with less success, but he was a gifted back-foot player and nimble fielder in a side which also boasted Andy Flower, the nation's best ever batsman.

Because his family failed to settle in Africa, he retired from internationals in favour of county and state cricket, and has been a great servant to the game since then. He is no stranger to massive scores, with triples to his name as well as this week's 274. His 20,000 first-class runs feature 65 centuries, and add to the total another 12,000 one-day and T20 runs. OK, so his first ever T20 innings lasted only one ball, courtesy of a Wasim Akram LBW, but he remains an effervescent evergreen on the South Coast and deserves the joint Mikes Spin on Cricket accolade for the first week in June.