County curios
Sam Morshead picks out some quirky
goings-on among the 18 counties
but had not checked Loten’s bat ahead
of the game.”FERGIE’S STRONG ENTRY
Callum Ferguson enjoyed an
extraordinary, record-breaking debut
for Worcestershire Rapids in the Royal
London One-Day Cup.
The Australia batsman, drafted in as a
temporary replacement for Travis Head,
smashed a remarkable 192 from 143 balls,
with fi ve sixes and 21 fours, as his county
chased down Leicestershire’s 376 for 4
with 16 deliveries to spare.
His individual score is now
Worcestershire’s highest ever in List A
cricket, surpassing the 180 made by his
compatriot Tom Moody against Surrey in
1994, while the Rapids’ total of 380 for 4
is their highest total ever in List A cricket
against fi rst-class opposition.
Not a bad way to introduce yourself
to the fans!
“I was just really grateful to get the
opportunity to play here. To play
domestic cricket over here was
something I was really excited
to get the chance to do,”
Ferguson said.
“To be able to get o on
the right foot and make
some runs is really exciting.
It is certainly better than
nought on debut.
“I had a few nerves
coming into the game
and was really pleased
to be able to make an
impact and hopefully
we can keep the ball
rolling in the next
few games.”DIZZY’S DOUBLE
Jason Gillespie signed his fi rst message
to Sussex’s players ‘Dizzy 201*’, their
allrounder Luke Wells has revealed.
Gillespie, who took over at Hove at
the start of this season, is unsurprisingly
proud of the Test double-century he
managed playing for Australia against
Bangladesh in 2005/06.
And 12 years on from that feat at
Chittagong it turns out he is still
reminding people in the game of
his achievement.
Wells told the story in The Cricketer’s
online county diary.
“On his fi rst ever message on our
WhatsApp group, he signed o with
‘Dizzy 201*’,” Wells recounted.
“I assumed that’s how he signed o on
all emails and messages but apparently he
was doing it to see if anyone would have a
bite at him. No one was brave enough.”WRIGHT ON TARGET
There was an unfortunate incident in the
Sussex car park recently involving Danny
Briggs and Luke Wright’s Mercedes.
Former England allrounder Wright
returned to his parked 4x4 outside the
County Ground at Hove to discover the
passenger’s door dented and scraped.
And via social media he was quick to
identify a culprit.
“When you fi nd out Danny Briggs has
smashed into your car,” Wright wrote.
“Thanks big lad!”GAVIN AND... UZZIE
Usman Khawaja was lured to South
Wales, in part, by TV show Gavin
and Stacey.
The Australia batsman has joined the
county for the Vitality Blast and a handful
of County Championship fi xtures and
he has revealed he is a big fan of the
BBC’s romantic comedy starring Joanna
Page and Matthew Horne, after being
introduced to it by his wife.
“Rachel got me into it,” Khawaja told
BBC Sport. “She loved the show and told
me about it and that James Corden is in it,
so I said ‘OK, I’ll watch it.’ So I watched it
and fell in love with it.
“There are all these places I hear about
on the show and I haven’t been to Cardi
before, so you might see me on some of
the tours or something!”LOTEN’S BAT CAUSES PROBLEMS
Yorkshire’s 2nd XI have fallen foul of the
newly-introduced in-game bat-checks.
The side were deducted one point
in the 2nd XI Trophy competition,
with a further suspended penalty of
half the available match points in any
competition, after batsman Tom Loten’s
blade was found to have contravened
Law 5 requirements relating to bat sizes
during a game against Durham.
An ECB cricket discipline commission
heard that the bat in question had failed
to pass the in-play examination by the
umpires. An ECB statement said no
fi nancial penalties would be imposed.
“A suspended penalty will be
applied if any Yorkshire
player is in breach of this
law in any competition
within 12 months
from the date of the
hearing in addition to
any sanction imposed for the
proven subsequent o ence,”
the statement read.
“The panel, which was chaired by
Tim O’Gorman with Mark Milliken
Smith QC and Mike Smith, noted that
breaches of this law are very serious
o ences and this had been made clear
to all fi rst-class counties since the
instigation of the Law.
“Yorkshire’s guilty pleas were taken
into account and it was deemed that
Yorkshire had made e orts to ensure
their players complied with the law STU FORSTER/ GETTY IMAGESTweet
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