English Domestic Season 2025

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Yep, that's the one! I was trying to remind myself who the fraud was in terms of his name and found it reasonably quickly although it says that his fraudulent signing was at Worcestershire. He had been on various counties books supposedly and found ways of increasing his profile. Police investigate exposed Shankar - ESPN

Didn’t they watch him play at all before signing?

Not as if he was a complete nobody like that bowler boosted by Ian Pont

 

[Chin Music]

Didn’t they watch him play at all before signing?

Not as if he was a complete nobody like that bowler boosted by Ian Pont

who knows? I do recall the situation in football from the mid to late 90s where a bloke who claimed to be George Weah's cousin managed to blag himself a game as a sub for Southampton before being quickly subbed off.

 

[Third_Man]

I presume he must be a better player than Adrian Shankar? Remember him anyone?

I once saw Adrian Shankar score a hundred for Lancs seconds. Not many people can say that, or would beleive it.

 

[Blenkinsop]

Might do a better job than some of the current Lancs 1st XI tbf.

 

[Third_Man]

Yep, that's the one! I was trying to remind myself who the fraud was in terms of his name and found it reasonably quickly although it says that his fraudulent signing was at Worcestershire. He had been on various counties books supposedly and found ways of increasing his profile. Police investigate exposed Shankar - ESPN

He was also signed up by Lancashire on a full two-year contract. https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/4551330/lancashire-sign-shankar

The only difference between the two was that Lancashire put him straight into the second team whereas Worcestershire put him straight into the first team. Luckily for Lancs he never played a first team game before his release.
I remember an email reply I received from their website manager at the time in which he categorically stated shankar's age was 23 not 26. Along the lines of "Your argument [that he must be 26] is interesting but even though I have not seen his passport myself, I know someone who has and he is 23." Needless to say he was wrong, the passport was amended.

I think everyone was in a position that it was easier to accept his lies and so protect their own lack of diligence.

 

[Chin Music]

He was also signed up by Lancashire on a full two-year contract. https://www.skysports.com/cricket/news/4551330/lancashire-sign-shankar

The only difference between the two was that Lancashire put him straight into the second team whereas Worcestershire put him straight into the first team. Luckily for Lancs he never played a first team game before his release.
I remember an email reply I received from their website manager at the time in which he categorically stated shankar's age was 23 not 26. Along the lines of "Your argument [that he must be 26] is interesting but even though I have not seen his passport myself, I know someone who has and he is 23." Needless to say he was wrong, the passport was amended.

I think everyone was in a position that it was easier to accept his lies and so protect their own lack of diligence.

Thanks for that. I had vaguely heard the name back in the day but just assumed he was a jobbing pro and no, I hadn't seen him play and then all the Worcs stuff came out. It caused a few laughs with the more knowledgeable county fans at that time.

 

[chris.hinton]

I presume he must be a better player than Adrian Shankar? Remember him anyone?

Thanks. I've almost forgot about him

 

[chris.hinton]

I remember when Worcester signed him, I looked at his stats and i just thought Worcester saw something in him and were going to give them a chance

This was a good article about it https://www.vice.com/en/article/the...-way-to-a-professional-career-us-translation/

 

[Chin Music]

I remember when Worcester signed him, I looked at his stats and i just thought Worcester saw something in him and were going to give them a chance

This was a good article about it https://www.vice.com/en/article/the...-way-to-a-professional-career-us-translation/

Thanks for that. My memory wasn't so clear but I remembered the basics ok. It was talked about at the time on the old forum I was a member of and used to do admin for. One of the folks on there called Kim, who sadly passed away just over a decade ago (I think) was all over that story and that's why I kind of thought about it. This guy at Surrey 2s must have been a decent player as a kid, but I would be surprised if he could possibly make it now, if he's already 26 yo. Must be a reasonable club player. Edit: Savin Perera appears to have been a pretty good Minor Counties player at the very least from what I could find with a quick search. I think he's a coach for kids too.

 

[Third_Man]

Thanks for that. My memory wasn't so clear but I remembered the basics ok. It was talked about at the time on the old forum I was a member of and used to do admin for. One of the folks on there called Kim, who sadly passed away just over a decade ago (I think) was all over that story and that's why I kind of thought about it. This guy at Surrey 2s must have been a decent player as a kid, but I would be surprised if he could possibly make it now, if he's already 26 yo. Must be a reasonable club player. Edit: Savin Perera appears to have been a pretty good Minor Counties player at the very least from what I could find with a quick search. I think he's a coach for kids too.

Savin Perera does have a good record at Minor County level. For Berkshire even, currently the most successful side at that level (something like 10 times Championship or Trophy winners in the last 10 years) - they don't select bad players. Perera scored 3 hundreds in 9 championship games for them.

It is unfortunate that after my post about Savin we went straight onto Adrian Shankar. They aren't really comparable. I've seen them both play.

https://cricketarchive.com/Lancashire/Scorecards/276/276189.html being about the only time Shankar would have been happy to keep to the truth. Seen Perera play aginst Cumbria.
But when, last year, Perera scores 150* in his first second eleven championship for Lancashire 2s https://cricketarchive.com/Lancashire/Scorecards/1322/1322229.html it probably says more about the lack of respect these days of 2nd XI cricket than it does about the player.

Are counties often just filling up their 2nd XI teamsheets with more or less anyone who is willing to travel? Giving heart-hearted "trials" to tick boxes, even maybe to prove that they are not ignoring SACA? There have been a number of occasions when combined teams have been fielded eg. Hampshire 2s v Lancs & Kent 2s in April 2024.

 

[Chin Music]

Savin Perera does have a good record at Minor County level. For Berkshire even, currently the most successful side at that level (something like 10 times Championship or Trophy winners in the last 10 years) - they don't select bad players. Perera scored 3 hundreds in 9 championship games for them.

It is unfortunate that after my post about Savin we went straight onto Adrian Shankar. They aren't really comparable. I've seen them both play.

https://cricketarchive.com/Lancashire/Scorecards/276/276189.html being about the only time Shankar would have been happy to keep to the truth. Seen Perera play aginst Cumbria.
But when, last year, Perera scores 150* in his first second eleven championship for Lancashire 2s https://cricketarchive.com/Lancashire/Scorecards/1322/1322229.html it probably says more about the lack of respect these days of 2nd XI cricket than it does about the player.

Are counties often just filling up their 2nd XI teamsheets with more or less anyone who is willing to travel? Giving heart-hearted "trials" to tick boxes, even maybe to prove that they are not ignoring SACA? There have been a number of occasions when combined teams have been fielded eg. Hampshire 2s v Lancs & Kent 2s in April 2024.

Sorry about that, it was my fault! Perera is clearly a decent player.

 

[Third_Man]

Sorry about that, it was my fault! Perera is clearly a decent player.

wasn't meaning to apportion blame, didn't look back to see who posted. It was an interesting discussion and reminisce on Shankar.
After that 150 for Lancs and the fragile weak batting at the club at the moment, I thought Perera would finally make it. But I was wrong. Why look at him, unless you are short on the day, if you think you don't need the extra batsman?

 

[FBU]

Jordan Cox called up to England Men’s Lions Squad

essexcricket.org.uk

.

 

[chris.hinton]

England Lions Squad vs India

James Rew (Captain) - Somerset
Farhan Ahmed - Nottinghamshire
Rehan Ahmed - Leicestershire
Sonny Baker - Hampshire
Jordan Cox - Essex
Rocky Flintoff - Lancashire
Emilio Gay - Durham
Tom Haines - Sussex
George Hill - Yorkshire
Josh Hull - Leicestershire
Eddie Jack - Hampshire
Ben McKinney - Durham
Dan Mousley - Warwickshire
Ajeet Singh Dale - Gloucestershire
Chris Woakes - Warwickshire

 

[chris.hinton]

County Championship Tables (6 Matches gone)

Division 1

Nottinghamshire 96
Surrey 93
Warwickshire 82
Durham 80
Hampshire 79
Sussex 75
Somerset 73
Essex 64
================
Yorkshire 56
Worcestershire 43

Division 2

Leicestershire 115
Derbyshire 85
=================
Glamorgan 75
Gloucestershire 75
Middlesex 68
Kent 63
Lancashire 63
Northamptonshire 59

 

[chris.hinton]

County Championship (23-26th May)

Division 1

Worcestershire vs Warwickshire
Yorkshire vs Nottinghamshire
Surrey vs Essex
Durham vs Somerset
Hampshire vs Sussex

Division 2

Glamorgan vs Middlesex
Northamptonshire vs Gloucestershire
Leicestershire vs Lancashire
Derbyshire vs Kent

 

[chris.hinton]

Teams

Warwickshire vs Worcestershire

Warwickshire (Playing XI): Robert Yates, Alex Davies(w/c), Tom Latham, Sam Hain, Ed Barnard, Zen Malik, Chris Woakes, Beau Webster, Kai Smith, Ethan Bamber, Chris Rushworth

Worcestershire (Playing XI): Gareth Roderick(w), Jake Libby, Henry Nicholls, Kashif Ali, Rob Jones, Brett DOliveira(c), Ethan Brookes, Matthew Waite, Tom Taylor, Ben Allison, Jacob Duffy

Hampshire vs Sussex

Sussex (Playing XI): Tom Haines, Oliver Carter, Tom Alsop, James Coles, Tom Clark, John Simpson(w/c), Fynn Hudson-Prentice, Jack Carson, Nathan McAndrew, Aristides Karvelas, Henry Crocombe

Hampshire (Playing XI): Mark Stoneman, Fletcha Middleton, Nick Gubbins, Tom Prest, Ben Brown(w/c), Liam Dawson, Toby Albert, James Fuller, Kyle Abbott, Brad Wheal, John Turner

Essex vs Surrey

Surrey (Playing XI): Rory Burns(c), Dominic Sibley, Kurtis Patterson, Sam Curran, Ben Foakes(w), Jason Roy, Jordan Clark, Jamie Overton, Nathan Smith, Tom Lawes, Daniel Worrall

Essex (Playing XI): Dean Elgar, Paul Walter, Charlie Allison, Tom Westley(c), Matthew Critchley, Michael-Kyle Pepper(w), Noah Thain, Simon Harmer, Shane Snater, Kasun Rajitha, Jamie Porter

Durham vs Somerset

Somerset (Playing XI): Lewis Gregory(c), Josh Davey, Tom Lammonby, James Rew(w), Tom Abell, Archie Vaughan, Craig Overton, Andrew Umeed, Migael Pretorius, Matt Henry, Jack Leach

Durham (Playing XI): Alex Lees(c), Ben McKinney, Emilio Gay, David Bedingham, Oliver Robinson(w), Colin Ackermann, Graham Clark, Ben Raine, Mitchell Killeen, Codi Yusuf, James Minto

Nottinghamshire vs Yorkshire

Yorkshire (Playing XI): Adam Lyth, Finlay Bean, Dawid Malan, James Wharton, George Hill, Harry Duke(w), Matthew Revis, Dominic Bess(c), Jordan Thompson, Ben Coad, Jack White

Nottinghamshire (Playing XI): Haseeb Hameed(c), Ben Slater, Freddie McCann, Joe Clarke, Jack Haynes, Kyle Verreynne(w), Lyndon James, Liam Patterson-White, Brett Hutton, Dillon Pennington, Mohammad Abbas


Division Two

Glamorgan vs Middlesex

Glamorgan (Playing XI): Zain-ul-Hassan, Asa Tribe, Marnus Labuschagne, Sam Northeast(c), Kiran Carlson, Thomas Bevan, Chris Cooke(w), Timm van der Gugten, Andy Gorvin, James Harris, Matthew Kuhnemann

Middlesex (Playing XI): Sam Robson, Max Holden, Luke Hollman, Leus du Plooy, Ryan Higgins, Ben Geddes, Jack Davies(w), Zafar Gohar, Toby Roland-Jones(c), Naavya Sharma, Dane Paterson

Lancashire vs Leicestershire

Lancashire (Playing XI): Luke Wells, Keaton Jennings, Josh Bohannon, Marcus Harris(c), Matthew Hurst(w), George Bell, George Balderson, Tom Hartley, Tom Bailey, Anderson Phillip, Will Williams

Leicestershire (Playing XI): Rishi Patel, Soloman Budinger, Rehan Ahmed, Lewis Hill, Peter Handscomb(c), Ian Holland, Ben Cox(w), Logan van Beek, Ben Green, Tom Scriven, Josh Hull

Northamptonshire vs Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire (Playing XI): Cameron Bancroft(c), Ben Charlesworth, Oliver Price, Miles Hammond, Cameron Green, James Bracey(w), Graeme van Buuren, Tom Price, Zaman Akhter, Matt Taylor, Archie Bailey

Northamptonshire (Playing XI): Ricardo Vasconcelos, Luke Procter(c), Gus Miller, James Sales, Aadi Sharma, Saif Zaib, George Bartlett, Lewis McManus(w), Calvin Harrison, Liam Guthrie, Harry Conway

Derbyshire vs Kent

Kent (Playing XI): Ben Compton, Joe Denly, Daniel Bell-Drummond(c), Tawanda Muyeye, Jack Leaning, Chris Benjamin, Harry Finch(w), Grant Stewart, Jake Ball, Matthew Parkinson, Nathan Gilchrist

Derbyshire (Playing XI): David Lloyd, Caleb Jewell, Harry Came, Wayne Madsen(c), Brooke Guest(w), Anuj Dal, Luis Reece, Martin Andersson, Zak Chappell, Jack Morley, Patrick Brown

 

[kevinw]

Think Surrey could have done with another seamer.

 

[chris.hinton]

A tough day so Worcester so far. 154-2 Warwickshire are

Hain & Letham have put on a very good partnership

 

[chris.hinton]

Wahey.... A great comeback from Worcester

182-5....Come on lads