As the county looks to welcome Ben McDermott and Billy Stanlake this summer, Heritage Officer David Griffin takes a look at the Australian cricketers who preceded them at Derbyshire.
Billy Stanlake will become the 17th Australian-born cricketer to play for Derbyshire while Ben McDermott, who arrives later in the year to exclusively play white ball cricket, will be the 18th.
McDermott is the son of Craig, the Australian fast bowler who took 291 Test wickets and another 203 in One Day Internationals. McDermott senior played for the touring Australians at Derby in 1985.
Their predecessors from Australia include ten international cricketers, with some eminent names among them.
Rod McCurdy was actually the first Australian to play for Derbyshire – not including Frederick Spofforth, of whom more later – when he was selected to play against the touring Indian side at Derby in 1979.
He opened the bowling, and his first ball was a beamer to Sunil Gavaskar which never bounced even after it passed the batsman, carrying on the full into wicket-keeper Alan McLellan’s gloves. He took one wicket in the Indians’ first innings and never played for the county again although he did represent Australia subsequently in One Day International cricket.
Matthew Cassar was the next Australian to take his place in the Derbyshire side – in 1994 – following a lengthy qualification period which allowed him to play as an England-qualified cricketer.
Cassar proved to be an outstanding club cricketer with Ilkeston Rutland while completing his qualification, and at times suggested he could be a genuine county all-rounder although other than in 1998, he never really commanded a regular place in the Derbyshire side.
He was followed by one of several Australian cricketing greats who would grace the county over the following two decades. Dean Jones arrived with a massive reputation as a wonderful Test and limited overs batsmen, and, after taking over the captaincy from Kim Barnett, led Derbyshire to second place in the County Championship in 1996, their highest placing in the table since the 1936 championship win, and only the third time in the club’s history that they had been placed in the top two.
And if anyone thought that his best was behind him, he proved them wrong by scoring ten centuries – four in first class cricket and 6 in limited overs matches – an individual record for the county.
His running between the wickets was of a standard rarely seen in the English game and in the field – where he was exemplary – he led by example.
1997 saw the side fail to reach the heights of the previous summer, and midway through the season, Jones returned to Australia following bust-ups on and off the field. Nonetheless, many members and supporters will never forget that wonderful summer of 1996 when Derbyshire were genuine contenders for the title under his leadership.
After Jones’ departure, Australia batsmen came thick and fast; Michael Slater, Michael Di Venuto, Chris Rogers, and Simon Katich all represented the county between 1998 and 2007.
Slater never reached the heights expected of him based on his wonderful batting for Australia, but Di Venuto, Rogers and Katich all delivered handsomely and produced some wonderful examples of batmanship, racking up thousands of runs between them.
Di Venuto scored 7,256 first class runs at an average just under 50 with 19 hundreds, while Rogers scored 4,616 at 59.94 and 15 hundreds. Both left-handers were often the only genuine batsman of class in the Derbyshire side but their records bear comparison with their outstanding predecessors in the overseas role.
Katich, another left-hander, in his only season, made 1,284 runs in 2007 at an average of 75.52. Never in Derbyshire’s history has a batsman scoring 1,000 first class runs in a season returned a higher average. He scored three hundreds and 8 fifties.
Marcus North (two separate spells), Stuart Law and Travis Birt all produced some splendid performances with the bat, as did all-rounder Jonathan Moss, most notably a match-winning 147 not out against Durham at Chester-le-Street. North scored a hundred on his debut against Somerset at Taunton in 2006 as did Ian Harvey a year later.
Harvey, a wonderfully gifted all-rounder only played in two first class matches for the county, and uniquely for Derbyshire, scored a century in each game, concluding his brief first class career with Derbyshire with a batting average of 144.5.
The remaining Australian-born cricketers are off-spinner Andy Gray, fast bowler Paul Havell, batsman Michael Dighton, and fast bowler Nathan Rimmington who played exclusively in T20 games for Derbyshire in 2015.
One additional Australian, the famous fast bowler, Fred Spofforth, known as ‘The Demon’ and regarded as Australia’s greatest 19th century quick bowler, also played for Derbyshire but the county did not have first class status at the time.
Both newcomers come with a good reputation; Stanlake is a 6 feet 8 inches tall quick bowler, while wicket-keeper McDermott is an outstanding striker of a cricket ball.
With as good a top four as Derbyshire have had for many years, Matt Critchley developing into an outstanding young all-rounder, and a host of other experienced and young cricketers, if Stanlake and McDermott bring their ‘A’ game to Derby, 2021 could be a highly entertaining summer.
Together, We Are All Derbyshire. Club Membership for the 2021 season is on sale now, priced at just £199. Members to have priority entry and all Memberships backed by our new guarantees.
