Sheffield Cricket Lovers' Society Year Book 2022

of support from spectators resulting in a failure to meet the cost of putting on the matches. However, in recent years a few International one day xtures have been staged there e man of the match in Chester-le-Street was Richard Johnson of Middlesex who at the last moment deputised for an injured Matthew Hoggard. Johnson, playing in his rst Test match, went one better than Anderson in the previous match by taking six rst innings wickets for 33 runs. e South Africans duly arrived in July for the main ve match series and, in the third Test, Richard Kirtley of Sussex made his debut and bagged 6-34 in the South African second innings. is completed the trio of medium pace bowlers taking ve wickets or more in an innings in their very rst Test, something unlikely to ever happen again. But who knows with cricket where the most unexpected outcomes can occur... 112 players had represented Zimbabwe in Test cricket up to the end of 2019. Of these just Andy Flower has been named as a Wisden Cricketer of the Year. However, many famous Zimbabweans have gone on to play test cricket for other countries where their lives and those of their families would be in safe hands. Graham Hick and Gary Ballance are two who immediately come to mind and both were Wisden Cricketers of the Year, in 1987 and 2005 respectively. Whilst Zimbabwe have not toured England since 2003, due to their huge domestic problems, it is gratifying that they are now starting to come onto the Test scene. ey shared a two match rubber with Bangladesh in 2018-19, and a year later hosted another two match series with Sri Lanka who won one and drew the other. Hopefully we will see them in this country again soon. Andy Flower