Madsen joins 15,000 runs club

Wayne Madsen is currently Derbyshire’s longest-serving player having started his career with the club in July 2009. Since then, he has produced a batting record which stands comparison with the very best players in the club’s history.

Heritage Officer and Statistician, David Griffin, looks at Madsen’s latest record-breaking achievement.

Wayne Madsen began breaking records from the moment his career with Derbyshire began. On his debut appearance against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham in July 2009, Madsen scored 170 not out, the highest-ever score made on debut for the county.

Since then, he has scored a further 28 first-class hundreds as well as six in List A cricket. His current total of 35 centuries has only been bettered by two players – Kim Barnett, with 66, and John Morris, with 39.

Over the course of his Derbyshire career, Madsen has scored heavily in all formats of the game; he is the 23rd player to register 10,000 first-class runs; just the tenth to pass the 3,000-run mark in List A cricket, and leads the way in Twenty20 cricket with 2,342 runs, three times as many as the nearest current player, Billy Godleman, who has 782.

However, 2019 has already seen a glut of runs for Madsen, with two centuries in first class matches – including an unbeaten double hundred against Gloucestershire at Bristol, plus two more in the Royal London One Day Cup.

These runs have taken him past 15,000 runs in all formats for the county, becoming just the ninth Derbyshire cricketer to achieve the feat. However, his run-scoring has been so prolific in recent weeks, that he’s already overtaken the batsmen in eighth and ninth place – Alan Hill and Arnold Hamer – and now sits in seventh place on the list.

Madsen has now played 340 games for the county – 22^nd on the all-time list, and assuming he stays fit, could potentially play a further 28 games – at least – for Derbyshire this summer. At that rate – and with three more years on his current contract – he could be within reach of the 500-game mark, a figure only ever achieved by five players – Barnett (813), Bob Taylor (812), Derek Morgan (567), Harry Elliott (520) and Edwin Smith (505).

All of which leads to the consideration of just how many more runs Madsen could make and which former players is he likely to overtake.

Given that he scores an average of 1,500 runs per season across all three forms of the game, it’s feasible that scoring another 1,000 in 2019, plus 4,500 over the ensuing three seasons and Madsen will reach the rarefied heights of 20,000-plus runs before his present contracts ends.

That would take him past Stan Worthington and Leslie Townsend, two members of the 1936 Championship-winning side, and both England Test batsmen.

Next comes that peerless all-rounder, Derek Morgan, who, in addition to his 18,202 runs, also took a remarkable 1,216 wickets and held 574 catches.

John Morris, another England Test batsmen currently sits third on the list, but his 18,521 runs should be within Madsen’s reach.

That’s only leaves the two batsmen with more than 20,000 runs for the county. Both England Test batsmen and two of Derbyshire’s most successful cricketers – Denis Smith, a 1936 Championship winner, and Kim Barnett, with three winners medals for Derbyshire to his name.

Smith’s aggregate of 20,516 should certainly come under threat, which just leaves Barnett’s aggregate of 36,212.

Madsen’s overall average stands at 34.6, while Barnett averaged 35.1 – but for Madsen to pass Barnett, assuming he maintained his current average, he would need to play another 597 innings; in other words, as many again, and more, as he’s already played for Derbyshire.

It’s likely, therefore, that Barnett’s tally will stand for some time.

Where Madsen leads the way in the 15,000-run club, is the regularity with which he scores hundreds – specifically in the first-class game where his century-making rate of one every 9.24 innings is ahead of the man in second place – John Morris – who scored a first-class hundred every 10.87 innings.

Indeed, of the ten batsmen to have scored 20 or more first-class hundreds for Derbyshire, only Peter Kirsten, with a rate of a hundred every 9.05 innings can improve on Madsen.

Wayne Madsen should pass the 16,000-run tally this summer as he continues his rise up Derbyshire’s run-scoring charts and with Billy Godleman currently standing on 7,324 runs, it may be some time before another player joins the elite 15,000-run club. What is certain, is that anyone getting close to these numbers will have to play very well, for a long time.

The list of Derbyshire batsmen who have scored 15,000 runs in all formats of the game:

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