1.Paul Nixon (2007)
One of the most dedicated cricketers you will ever see, Paul Nixon had been a great ambassador for English County. His ability to read the mind of the batsmen as well as the bowlers, which made him one of the greatest cricketing minds ever to play the game.
Paul Nixon managed to make an International debut after playing 18 years of first class cricket in English county. He helped his team Leicestershire win two championships in 1996 and 1998. Later he went to Kent from 2000 and returned to his previous team in 2003.
He was one of the finest players of reverse sweep in the world, arguably the best. When he was playing for England in 2007, Nixon was lucky to be included in the team for the Caribbean World Cup held that year. In a match against Srilanka, he had decided to take on the great Muralitharan and blasted a huge six with his commanding reverse sweep and took the world by surprise.
Unfortunately he played just 19 ODIs with 23 dismissals in international arena. But he has tonnes of first class experience with 355 matches scoring 14498 runs at an average of 34.35 with 21 centuries and 72 half centuries and mind-blowing 956 dismissals. In his 411 List-A matches, Nixon has 520 dismissals which includes 99 stumpings being the highlight of his career.
He had a fantastic time with young Indian cricketers during the Indian Cricket League playing for Delhi Giants, where Paul wasn’t the captain but still he kept himself busy motivating them by encouraging words which was loved by all.
Certainly England was not able to utilize one of the precious resource went undetected. Had he been given the ODI leadership, his side would have achieved lot more feats in Limited over International tournaments.
2.Phil Tufnell (1990-2001)
This man could spin the cricket ball even on the surface of English Channel. Such was the talent of a spinning machine called Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell.
Phil Tufnell came into the English side and had already become an able successor of Derek Underwood, as he had a great time with the ball picking lots of wickets in the longer format with 121 wickets in 42 matches with 5 five wicket hauls. But some of his dressing room issues made him to sit outside the national squad.
Then he continued his stint with Middlesex and went on to play 316 first class matches picking up staggering 1057 with 53 five wicket hauls, which speak about his ability as a cricketer.
His ability to drift the ball in the air and beat the batsman in the flight made him one of the tougher bowlers to play. Phil used to bowl at slow through the air and turn the ball sharply even on the first day wicket. He had an amazing arm ball which would hurry at the batsman at quicker pace and would rock on the front foot, trying to play with an illusion of spin.
After retiring from the first class in the year 2003, Phil Tufnell has been working as a commentator for a private TV channel. Had he played close to 120 tests, Phil definitely would’ve been right up with the spin wizards Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne, in numbers.
3.Darren Maddy (1998-2007)
One of the clean strikers of the cricket ball with a commanding footwork and the capacity to adapt the situation of the game quickly is a complete package of a batsman in modern era, which can be seen only in a few cricketers where one among them is Darren Maddy.
He had the potential to compete with the English top order to establish himself as a quality batsman. But unfortunately, Darren failed to grab the opportunities with both the hands made selectors not to think of him.
When he was rejected by the National selectors, Darren answered them with his performance in the first class level. But we have to agree with the fact that, he was always a better player than his number tells.
He scored 13796 runs in 284 first class matches at an average of 32.23 and 9091 runs in 365 List-A matches. Darren was equally good with his gentle seamers picking up 253 and 233 wickets in first class and List-A matches respectively.
When Twenty20 Cup started in English county in the year 2003, he was an ultimate champion for Leicestershire and was the first batsman to score 1000 runs in the shortest form of the game. Darren Maddy was a brilliant fielder too. In 2003, his catch for which he ran about 35 meters before diving millimetres away from the boundary rope was picked as the ‘Best Catch of the Tournament’.
Later in 2006, he moved to Warwickshire and continued the same run. Darren was honoured by the experts by including him in the Dream team titled “Dream team of Twenty20 Cup”, which was picked to celebrate the Decennial year of Twenty20 Cup.
In 2007 during the WorldT20, he had got an opportunity to represent England. But again he was not in the regular playing 11 and again they didn’t utilize the resource properly. In T20 cricket, Darren Maddy played 97 matches scoring 2534 runs at an average of 30.53 with the strike rate of 131.15 including a century as well.
Darren Maddy is a prime example will be an able ambassador for the title of this article. Had he born in other country, he definitely would’ve played a lot of International matches and created a serious mark in the history books.
4.James Foster (2001-2009)
Hardly would you find a wicketkeeper with such a quick arms and feet moving toward the ball as the James Foster’s. He is one the traditional type of keepers with the designation of ‘Excellent wicketkeeper’ and ‘capable lower order batsman’.
When he made the first class debut for Essex, the England selectors had already got sure that there was a Jack Russell in the making. After playing his first 4 matchers for Essex, Foster was called up for England Lions (England A team) and soon after he was in Zimbabwe and India tour making his ODI and test debut respectively.
In a test in India, Ashley Giles was bowling all six balls outside Sachin Tendulkar’s leg for couple of overs. When it continued for long period of time, we saw Foster standing right outside the leg stump and showed his presence felt.
When batsman moved too much on the crease creating trouble to the bowlers, Foster was ready to come up to the stump even to the bowlers like Graham Napier, James Franklin and sometimes to Darren Gough as well, and started to trouble the batsman’s mind. Whenever the batsman beat the ball, Foster had already clipped bails off in a flash and would turn towards the leg umpire for a polite appeal. He was so confident of his hands, that letting a bye was off his gloves was one the rarest of things one could see on the cricket field.
When two good spinners Middlebrook and Kaneria was in the side, James had exhibited his skills of hands with lightening speed, converting the half chances to successful dismissals. This made him to get a call back to the national side for the WorldT20-2009 and had collected 3 brilliant stumpings, in which none of them were even the half chance for others. Once he had hit consecutive sixers in an over against Durham and showcased his big hitting ability.
Foster had played 240 first class scoring 11805 runs at an average of 37.59 with 21 centuries and 60 fifties 212 being the best score, and also has 681 catches and 55 stumpings to his credit. In List-A matches, he has 282 dismissals which include 223 catches and 59 stumpings. And in T20 cricket, Foster has 59 catches and 42 stumpings in 135 matches scoring 1828 runs at the strike rate of 139.86.
England always looked for balance in their side which was the reason the selectors provided to keep him out of the side. Had they tried to play him regularly in the National side, James Foster would’ve been the best wicketkeeper ever to play the game.
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