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English cricket club From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland. The club's limited overs team is called the Leicestershire Foxes. Founded in 1879, the club had minor county status until 1894, when it was promoted to first-class status pending its entry into the County Championship in 1895.[1] Since then, Leicestershire have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England.
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| One Day name | Leicestershire Foxes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel | ||||
| Captain | TBC | |||
| Coach | Alfonso Thomas | |||
| Overseas player(s) | Peter Handscomb | |||
| Chief executive | Sean Jarvis | |||
| Team information | ||||
| Founded | 25 February 1879 | |||
| Home ground | Grace Road, Leicester | |||
| Capacity | 6,000 cricket matches / 19,999 concerts | |||
| History | ||||
| First-class debut | MCC in 1895 at Lord's | |||
| Championship wins | 3 | |||
| Pro40 wins | 2 | |||
| FP Trophy wins | 0 | |||
| One-Day Cup wins | 1 | |||
| Twenty20 Cup wins | 3 | |||
| Benson & Hedges Cup wins | 3 | |||
| Official website | LeicestershireCCC | |||
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The club is based at Grace Road in Leicester, known as The Uptonsteel County Ground for sponsorship reasons, and has also played home games at Aylestone Road in Leicester, at Hinckley, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Coalville and most recently Kibworth inside the traditional county boundaries of Leicestershire, and at Oakham, in Rutland.
In limited overs cricket, the kit colours are red with black trim in the Royal London One Day Cup 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.
Leicestershire are in the second division of the County Championship and in the north group of the T20 Blast. Their best performances in recent years have come in one day cricket, winning the T20 Cup three times in eight years between 2004-11, and the One Day Cup in 2023.
+ 1 Bain Hogg Trophy – second XI one-day competition – 1996
Cricket may not have reached Leicestershire until well into the 18th century. A notice in the Leicester Journal dated 17 August 1776 is the earliest known mention of cricket in the county. Soon afterwards, 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 first first-class match for both clubs. 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.[2]
The game when Leicestershire won their first ever County Championship, on 15 September 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.[2]
A runners-up spot in the 1982 County Championship brought some respectability, but the decade's only 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.[2]
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 did not 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.
The advent of Twenty20 cricket saw Leicestershire find a new source of success, winning the domestic T20 competition in 2004, 2006 and 2011. However, in the era of two-division County Championship cricket they have found success more difficult to come by, having not played in the top division since 2003 and been regular "wooden spoon" contenders. In 2013 and 2014 they finished without a single Championship win, the first team to achieve this unwanted feat in back to back seasons since Northamptonshire just before World War II. Recent years have seen an improvement in first-class results, and in 2023 they won their first trophy for 12 years, beating Hampshire at Trent Bridge to lift the One Day Cup.
| No. | Name | Nationality | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batters | ||||||
| 1 | Sol Budinger |  England | 21 August 1999 | Left-handed | Right-arm off break | |
| 17 | Louis Kimber | England | 24 February 1997 | Right-handed | — | |
| 23 | Lewis Hill* | England | 5 October 1990 | Right-handed | — | |
| 26 | Rishi Patel | England | 26 July 1998 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | |
| All-rounders | ||||||
| 8 | Ben Mike | England | 24 August 1998 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| 16 | Rehan Ahmed ‡ | England | 13 August 2004 | Right-handed | Right-arm leg break | England central contract |
| 22 | Ian Holland ‡ |  United States | 3 October 1990 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | UK Passport |
| 80 | Liam Trevaskis | England | 18 April 1999 | Left-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | |
| Wicket-keepers | ||||||
| 7 | Ben Cox | England | 2 February 1992 | Right-handed | – | |
| 28 | Harry Swindells | England | 21 February 1999 | Right-handed | — | |
| 54 | Peter Handscomb ‡ |  Australia | 26 April 1991 | Right-handed | — | Overseas player |
| Bowlers | ||||||
| 18 | Matt Salisbury | England | 18 April 1993 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| 19 | Sam Wood | England | 11 September 2004 | Left-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| 20 | Josh Hull ‡ | England | 20 August 2004 | Left-handed | Left-arm fast-medium | England development contract |
| 31 | Chris Wright* | England | 14 July 1985 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| 43 | Alex Green | England | 24 February 2007 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| 49 | Roman Walker |  Wales | 6 August 2000 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
| 88 | Tom Scriven | England | 18 November 1998 | Right-handed | Right-arm fast-medium | |
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England |
Australia Bangladesh India New Zealand Pakistan |
South Africa West Indies
Zimbabwe
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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 medals 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 set up move on to the LCCC academy, where they will play matches against academies from other counties.
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