| Leicestershire County Cricket Club | |||
| One-day name: | Leicestershire Foxes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Second XI: | Leicestershire 2nd XI | ||
| Coach: | Phil Whitticase | ||
| Captain: | Matthew Hoggard | ||
| 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: | 3 | ||
| Official website: | LeicestershireCCC | ||
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national 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 red with black trim in the Clydesdale Bank 40 and black with red trim in the t20. 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 the County Championship and in group c of 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 three times in eight years.
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+ 1 Bain Hogg Trophy - 2nd 11 one day competition - 1996
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.
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.
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.
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.
Another change was in the captaincy: Tony Lock, the former England and Surrey spinner who had galvanised Western Australia.
Ray Illingworth, again from Yorkshire, instilled self-belief to the extent that the county took its first ever trophy in 1972, the Benson & Hedges Cup with Chris Balderstone man of the match. This was start of the first golden era as the first of five trophies in five years and included Leicestershire's first ever County Championship title in 1975. A couple of runners up spots were also thrown in.[1]
The game when Leicestershire won their first ever County Championship, on September 15 1975, marked something of a personal triumph for Chris Balderstone. Batting on 51 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, after close of play he changed into his football kit to play for Doncaster Rovers in an evening match 30 miles away (a 1-1 draw with Brentford). Thus he is the only player to have played League Football and first class cricket on the same day. He then returned to Chesterfield to complete a century the following morning and take three wickets to wrap up the title. To add to that season's success for Leicestershire was a second Benson & Hedges victory.[1]
A runners up spot in the 1982 County Championship brought some respectability, but the decade's only first class silverware was in the 1985 Benson & Hedges Cup with Balderstone still on board making him the most successful trophy winner in the club's history with six.[1]
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.
Players with international caps are listed in bold.
| No. | Name | Nat | Batting Style | Bowling Style | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batsmen | |||||
| 11 | Matthew Boyce | LHB | RM | ||
| 8 | Jacques Du Toit | RHB | RFM | ||
| 5 | Josh Cobb | RHB | LS | England U-19 | |
| 1 | Will Jefferson | RHB | England Lions | ||
| 14 | Greg Smith | RHB | SLA | England U-19 | |
| 57 | Shiv Thakor | RHB | RM | England U-19 | |
| 25 | Will Jones | LHB | |||
| All-rounders | |||||
| 35 | Wayne White | RHB | RFM | ||
| 12 | Abdul Razzaq | RHB | RFM | Pakistan cricket team ODI, T20 internationals | |
| Wicket-keepers | |||||
| 33 | Ned Eckersley | RHB | |||
| 84 | Paul Dixey | RHB | England U-19 | ||
| Bowlers | |||||
| 17 | Nathan Buck | RHB | RFM | England Lions, England U-19 | |
| 15 | Claude Henderson | RHB | SLA | South Africa, spin bowling coach | |
| 77 | Matthew Hoggard (c) | RHB | RFM | England | |
| 21 | Nadeem Malik | RHB | RFM | ||
| 22 | Jigar Naik | RHB | OS | ||
| 16 | Alex Wyatt | RHB | RFM | ||
| 42 | Rob Taylor | LHB | LMF | ||
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England |
Australia India New Zealand Pakistan |
South Africa West Indies |
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Most first-class runs for Leicestershire
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Most first-class wickets for Leicestershire
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Most first team winners medal for Leicestershire
Best Partnership for each wicket (county championship)
The Leicestershire Sub Academy is designed for young cricketers who have potential to play at the highest level. It is also called the EPP (Emerging Player Programme). Many players who are involved in this setup move on to the LCCC academy, where they will play matches against academies from other counties.
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