| Leicestershire County Cricket Club | |||
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| One-day Name: | Leicestershire Foxes | ||
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| Second XI: | Leicestershire 2nd XI | ||
| Coach: |  Tim Boon |
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| Captain: | Matthew Hoggard |
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| Overseas Player(s): |  Iain O'Brien |
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| Founded: | 1879 | ||
| Home Ground: | Grace Road | ||
| Capacity: | 12,000 | ||
| First-class debut: | MCC | ||
| in 1895 | |||
| at Lord's | |||
| Championship wins: | 3 | ||
| Pro40 wins: | 2 | ||
| FP Trophy wins: | 0 | ||
| Twenty20 Cup wins: | 2 | ||
| Official Website: | LeicestershireCCC | ||
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland.
Its limited overs team is called the Leicestershire Foxes. Their kit colours are green with yellow trim. The shirt sponsors are Oval Insurance Broking with Highcross Leicester (shopping centre) on the top reverse side of the shirt.
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.
Leicestershire are in the second divisions of both the County Championship and 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 two times in three years.
Contents |
Honours
- County Championship (3) - 1975, 1996, 1998
- Sunday/National League (2) - 1974, 1977
- Twenty20 Cup (2) - 2004, 2006,
- Benson & Hedges Cup (3) - 1972, 1975, 1985
Second XI honours
- Second XI Championship (1) - 1983; shared (0) -
- Minor Counties Championship (1) - 1931; shared (0) -
+ 1 Bain Hogg Trophy - 2nd 11 one day competition - 1996
Earliest cricket
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.
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.
A change in fortunes: The 60s and 70s
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.
However, the change that finally brought success was in the captaincy: first Tony Lock, the former England and Surrey spinner who had galvanised Western Australia, took the team to the unprecedented position of runners-up in the Championship; then his successor, Ray Illingworth, again from Yorkshire, instilled self-belief to the extent that the county took its first title in 1975.
Success in the late 90s
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 didn't 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.
Recent decline of the club
In the ten years since the second title, Leicestershire have slipped away dramatically from the top end of county cricket. In 2003 the side were relegated from both the county championship and the limited over league. There has been no serious challenge to enter either top division since and in 2009 the club finished bottom of the county championship for the first time since xxx.
The decline can probably be attributed to three things. First of all it should be understood that they massively overachieved in the 90s. Leicestershire were fortunate to have so many players in their peak at the same time and once these players left it was always inevitable that it would be difficult to maintain the quality of cricket on show. A lot of players left within a couple of seasons of one another: some went for money; some went to further their international careers; and others retired from the sport. The replacements, especially in the seam bowler department, have struggled to match their predecessors.
Secondly, the fall from grace has also coincided with the growing importance of money in the game. Leicestershire have struggled to compete with the bigger teams, especially those who host test matches. Stuart Broad, Brad Hodge and Luke Wright have all left the club for other counties offering more money, while it has also been difficult to attract high quality players to the club. The Chairman Neil Davidson has called for a more equal share with revenue generated from international cricket but his calls have fallen on death’s ears.
Thirdly, the management of the club can not escape criticism. Their recruitment policy has been very questionable. The club has used the Kolpak ruling to bring in several South African players who were past their prime and there have been few successful overseas players at the club since Brad Hodge.
There has been no strong leadership on the field which is due in part to the management’s alienation of the club captains. The past six seasons have seen six captains picked and four of these captains were dropped from the side. HD Ackerman also resigned the captaincy after a difficult single season in charge.
There has been significant success through the Twenty20 Cup in recent years; however, some see that as little consolation when the team is doing poorly in the main competition. The foxes have failed to get out of the group stages of the T20 for the past three seasons as other teams have started to take it more seriously.
The Future of the club
It appears as if the people who run the club have finally realised that the county is in a downward spiral and have recently made some moves to try and counter this. There are active quotas and initiatives to ensure that Leicestershire give young players as much as a chance as possible. There has also been a limit introduced by the club on how many non-English qualified players they field.
Players such as Joshua Cobb and James Taylor have excelled under the chances they’ve been given and Leicestershire have several players currently involved with England age cricket. If Leicestershire manage to keep hold of these players and build a strong spine, then their fortunes will undoubtedly change for the better.
Grounds
Current
- Grace Road, Leicester (1877 - Present)
- Oakham School, Oakham (2000 - Present)
Previous
- Bath Grounds, Ashby-de-la-Zouch (1912 - 1964)
- Fox and Goose Ground, Coalville (1913 - 1914)
- Town Ground, Coalville (1950)
- Snibston Colliery Ground, Coalville (1957 - 1982)
- Ashby Road, Hinckley (1911 - 1937)
- Coventry Road, Hinckley (1951 - 1964)
- Leicester Road, Hinckley (1981 - 1991)
- Aylestone Road, Leicester (1901 - 1962)
- Brush Ground, Loughborough (1953 - 1965)
- College Ground, Loughborough (1928 - 1929)
- Park Road, Loughborough (1913 - 1970)
- Egerton Park, Melton Mowbray (1946 - 1948)
Players and Officials
Leicestershire Squad
Players with international caps are listed in bold.
| Name | Nat | Batting Style | Bowling Style | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batsmen | |||||
| James Benning | |
RHB | RM | ||
| Matthew Boyce | |
LHB | RM | ||
| Jacques Du Toit |  |
RHB | RFM | ||
| Josh Cobb | |
RHB | LS | England U-19 player | |
| Will Jefferson | |
RHB | |||
| Greg Smith | |
RHB | SLA | ||
| James Taylor | |
RHB | LS | England U-19 player | |
| Shiv Thakor | |
RHB | RM | ||
| Wicket-keepers | |||||
| Tom New | |
RHB | RM | ||
| Paul Nixon | |
LHB | LM | ||
| Joel Pope | |
RHB | RM | ||
| Bowlers | |||||
| Nathan Buck | |
RHB | RFM | England U-19 player | |
| Sam Cliff | |
RHB | RFM | ||
| Harry Gurney | |
RHB | LFM | ||
| AJ Harris | |
RHB | RFM | ||
| Claude Henderson | |
RHB | SLA | British residence, spin bowling coach | |
| Matthew Hoggard | |
RHB | RFM | ||
| Nadeem Malik | |
RHB | RFM | ||
| Jigar Naik | |
RHB | OS | ||
| Wayne White | |
RHB | RFM | ||
| Alex Wyatt | |
RHB | RFM | ||
Notable Players
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England |
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Australia India |
Pakistan South Africa West Indies Zimbabwe |
Records
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Most first-class runs for Leicestershire
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Most first-class wickets for Leicestershire
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Batting
- Highest team total: 701-4d vs Worcestershire at New Road, Worcester in 1906.
- Highest home team total: 638-8d vs Worcestershire at Grace Road in 1996.
- Lowest team total: 25 vs Kent at Leicester in 1912
- Highest Total Against: 761-6d by Essex Chelmsford 1990
- Lowest Total Against: 24 by Glamorgan Leicester 1971
- Most runs: 30143 by George Berry
- Highest individual score: 309* by HD Ackerman vs Glamorgan at Sophia Gardens in 2006.
- Highest home individual score: 262 by Brad Hodge vs Durham at Grace Road in 2004.
- Highest Partnership: 436* by Darren Maddy & Brad Hodge vs Loughborough UCCE at Grace Road in 2003.
Best Partnership for each wicket (county championship)
- 1st - 390 B.Dudleston & J.F.Steele v Derbyshire Leicester 1979
- 2nd - 289* J.C.Balderstone & D.I.Gower v Essex Leicester 1981
- 3rd - 316* W.Watson & A.Wharton v Somerset Taunton 1961
- 4th - 290* P.Willey & T.J.Boon v Warwickshire Leicester 1984
- 5th - 322 B.F.Smith & P.V.Simmons v Nottinghamshire Worksop 1998
- 6th - 284 P.V.Simmons & P.A.Nixon v Durham Chester-le-Street 1996
- 7th - 219* J.D.R.Benson & P.Whitticase v Hampshire Bournemouth 1991
- 8th - 195 JWA Taylor & JKH Naik v Derbyshire Leicester 2009
- 9th - 160 R.T.Crawford & W.W.Odell v Worcestershire Leicester 1902
- 10th - 228 R.Illingworth & 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.
Leicestershire Facts and Feats
- Leicestershire Foxes are the only Twenty20 side to win the competition more than once.
- When Leicestershire dismissed Northamptonshire CCC for 211 in August 1967 all ten wickets fell to catches - by ten different fielders. The only man not to take a catch, Jack Birkenshaw, took three wickets.
- Sam Coe made 252* in four hours without giving a chance against Northamptonshire at Leicester in 1914, a Leicester record which stood for over 70 years. He was an ancestor of fast bowler Les Taylor and is notable for being the first man ever dismissed by a Bernard Bosanquet googly.
References
External sources
- Leicestershire County Cricket Club - Official Site
- Leicestershire Foxes Supporter's Site
- CricInfo Page
- Cricket Archive Page
- BBC Sport Page
Further reading
- H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962
- Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999
- Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970
- Roy Webber, The Playfair Book of Cricket Records, Playfair Books, 1951
- Playfair Cricket Annual – various editions
- Wisden Cricketers Almanack – various editions
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