Steven Herzberg

Steven Herzberg (born 25 May 1967) is a former Australian cricketer. Born in Carshalton, Surrey, Herzberg emigrated with his family to Western Australia at an early age, although his first senior match of major cricket was played for Worcestershire in 1990. During the early 1990s, he went on to play two seasons for Western Australia and a single season for Tasmania, as a right-arm off-spinner. Herzberg later spent two further seasons in England, playing the 1995 season with Kent and the 1997 season with Somerset. He finished his career having played 21 first-class matches, taking 47 wickets at an average of 38.57.

Biography

Born in Carshalton, Surrey, Herzberg has lived in Australia since the age of nine.^[1] Despite playing a fairly small number of first-team games in his career, Herzberg nevertheless managed to appear for no fewer than five teams at either first-class or List A level.^[2] His one-day career was particularly uneventful: in five matches, he did not bat and took only one wicket and one catch.^[3]

Herzberg assisted Worcestershire in 1990, but made only one first-team appearance for the county, a Refuge Assurance League game against Gloucestershire at Worcester in July; he bowled five wicketless overs for 28 and neither batted nor took a catch.^[4] He continued at Worcester in 1991, but that season proved even worse, with no first-team appearances at all. He finally made his first-class debut in Australia in 1991–92, when he played in the Sheffield Shield for Western Australia against New South Wales at the SCG, claiming four wickets.^[5]

Herzberg played once for Leicestershire's Second XI in 1992, before returning to Australia that winter to play one more Shield match for Western Australia, against the same opposition as in the previous season. In this game he took only two wickets but made his career best score of 57 not out, sharing in a last-wicket stand of 82 with Jamie Stewart (51), which as of 2007 remains the highest first-class partnership for the tenth wicket for Western Australia against New South Wales.^[6][7]

His next cricket came in the 1993–94 Australian season, when he switched states to make seven first-class and one List A appearances for Tasmania; his 22 first-class wickets represented comfortably the highest season's aggregate of his career.^[8] In 1995, Herzberg returned to England, this time with Kent, on a one-year contract.^[9] On his first-class debut for the county he claimed six wickets and claimed his only five-wicket innings haul, 5–33, in an innings victory over Leicestershire.^[10] However, it was a false dawn, as he only managed three more wickets in total in the other four matches he played for Kent.^[8]

After another gap in his career, in 1997 Herzberg signed for yet another county, Somerset, and took 10 wickets in seven first-class games.^[8] He also made 56 batting at number ten on his Somerset debut, against Surrey at The Oval.^[11] He played three List A matches, but the only one in which he featured on the scoreboard was what turned out to be the final game of his career: playing against Middlesex at Taunton in the AXA Life League in early September, he had opener Paul Weekes caught and bowled. This was both his only wicket and his only catch in his List A career.^[12]

See also

• List of select Jewish cricketers

References

External links

• Player profile: Steven Herzberg from ESPNcricinfo
• Statistical summary from CricketArchive