Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2015

34 Sheffield Cricket Lovers’ Society twitter: @scloverssociety By ROGER GOADY As a committed supporter of Test and County Cricket, and a long term member of Sheffield Cricket Lovers, David Drabble asked me if I would write an article about my home County, Leicestershire, who are undergoing difficult times at present. I was the Honorary Treasurer of Leicestershire CCC from October 1989 to September 2003 and also Chairman of the Club from 1997 to March 2001 although I was also acting Chairman for the latter half of 1996 because of illness of my predecessor, John Josephs. I was very fortunate to be in office during one of the most successful periods in the history of our County Club when we won the Championship twice, and came runners-up once in a five year period. The second team were also highly successful winning the Bain Hogg Trophy in 1993, 1995 and 1996 whilst being beaten in the final of the same competition in 1994 by none other than Yorkshire. At that time Leicestershire’s second eleven were captained by a shrewd Yorkshireman, Phil Robinson, who was nicknamed ‘The Brigadier’ by his colleagues. Leicestershire are the smallest county in terms of size and population in the first-class game and over the years have become dependent on producing their own talent through a youth system in which the late Colin Root played a major part. Whilst the format has changed over the years as a result of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) taking control of the game at both first class and recreational level the base from which Leicestershire have produced their home grown talent has remained solid and although there have been some cyclical gaps the number of local youngsters who have made the grade in the professional game has been of a consistently high level. At that time the Club tried to complement their youth policy with the recruitment of emerging talent from outside the county or from the MCC ground staff, together with a shrewd choice of an overseas player (normally an all-rounder). Phil Simmons was the overseas player in both of the winning Championship teams and his presence and performance played a major part in the success. During the nineties Phil DeFreitas, Chris Lewis, Aftab Habib, Darren Maddy, Alan Mullally and Jimmy Ormond all played Test Matches for England whilst, subsequently, both Paul Nixon and Vince Wells played One-Day Internationals. It is arguable that both Ben Smith (who was 12 th man for England on more than one occasion) and Darren Stevens were unlucky in not gaining international recognition in one form or another. At that time two young teenagers, Stuart Broad and Luke Wright were coming through the County’s Age Group system and they went on to be successful in both County and International cricket. In the Championship successes the two men at the helm on the playing side were both vintage Yorkshiremen, shrewd manager Jack Birkenshaw and captain James Whitaker. Leicestershire’s three winning Championships in their history 1975,1996 and 1998 benefited from Yorkshire passing on their cricketing competitiveness and ability with Raymond Illingworth the architect on the field of their first ever success in this competition. At the beginning of the 1997 season we had appointed a former Leicestershire man, David Collier, to be the Club’s new Chief Executive and he proved to be exceptional in this position. David had, in his early business career, been employed by both Essex and Gloucestershire but had moved into the commercial world where he had gained An Overview Of Leicestershire Cricket David Collier