Chris Read
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| Chris Read | ||||
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 England |
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| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batting style | Right-hand bat | |||
| Bowling style | - | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Tests | ODIs | |||
| Matches | 15 | 36 | ||
| Runs scored | 360 | 300 | ||
| Batting average | 18.94 | 17.64 | ||
| 100s/50s | 0/1 | 0/0 | ||
| Top score | 55 | 30* | ||
| Overs | - | - | ||
| Wickets | - | - | ||
| Bowling average | - | - | ||
| 5 wickets in innings | - | - | ||
| 10 wickets in match | - | n/a | ||
| Best bowling | - | - | ||
| Catches/stumpings | 48/6 | 40/2 | ||
Christopher Mark Wells Read (born 10 August 1978 in Paignton, Devon) is an English cricketer, a wicket-keeper. Despite being continually ranked as one of the most successful keepers in English cricket with an average of over 30, and having greater success with the bat than many of the competing keepers, Read has enjoyed only patchy periods of selection for the national team, but continues to play well in domestic cricket.
Contents |
[edit] Career
[edit] Debuts
Read played for Devon in a NatWest Trophy match at the age of 16, and in 1997 made a single AXA Life League appearance for Gloucestershire, claiming an NBC Denis Compton Award that year. After an England A tour to Kenya and Sri Lanka in the winter - making his first-class debut in Nairobi - Read was picked up by Nottinghamshire for the 1998 season. By June he had established himself in the side and he claimed 42 dismissals that summer as well as making 401 runs.
He toured Zimbabwe and South Africa with the A team the following winter, and in 1999 his maiden first-class century, a well-timed 160 against Warwickshire, brought him selection for the first Test against New Zealand at Edgbaston. Still not 21, Read made a good impression: although he failed with the bat, he claimed eight dismissals, six in the second innings alone. He was retained for Lord's, but suffered a very public embarrassment when he was bowled for zero, ducking what he thought was a beamer from Chris Cairns but was in fact a well-disguised slower ball. 37 in the second innings was followed by another duck at Old Trafford, and he was ignominiously dropped, though he did play in the 1999/2000 One Day International series in South Africa.
[edit] County years
Several years in the international wilderness followed, Read being overlooked in favour of first Paul Nixon and then James Foster as keeper-in-waiting in preparation for the retirement of Alec Stewart despite being the better ranked Wicket keeper. Some say that this was due to Chris' long running dispute with Duncan Fletcher. Left to concentrate on his county cricket career, Read claimed 68 dismissals in 2002 and worked at his batting, that year averaging nearly 35 with another hundred coming against Northamptonshire. He made a one-day century against the same opponents early in 2003 and with Stewart's retirement was finally recalled by England that year, playing in all ten ODIs.
[edit] Return for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the West Indies
Read was first-choice keeper for the 2003/04 tours and played in eight of the nine Tests that winter, against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and West Indies. His work behind the stumps was outstanding, but nevertheless he was replaced (amidst considerable controversy) by Geraint Jones, a better batsman but less accomplished keeper, for the final Test against West Indies in April 2004 - the game in which Brian Lara made his world-record score of 400 not out. Read was retained for the one-day squad however, and in his first knock since being dropped from the Test side was a man of the match winning 27 from only 15 balls as England struggled to chase 156 in a rain-affected 30 overs a side match in Guyana.
[edit] Return to county cricket
Back in England for the 2004 season, Jones was again preferred for all internationals, leaving a disconsolate Read to try to make the selectors realize their error. He did all he could, having by far his best season with the bat for Nottinghamshire: he scored 807 first-class runs including two centuries, and averaged over 50. The selectors stuck with Jones, however, and by the summer of 2005 Read was not even second-choice keeper for England in ODIs, Matt Prior being preferred in the squad because of his perceived flexibility in the newly-introduced position of tactical substitute. Confirmation of Read's fall from grace came with the announcement of the winter tour parties to Pakistan: Read was in neither, being given only the small consolation of a place in the ECB National Academy squad.
This however would prove to be a blessing in disguise for Read, as due to modern international tour scheduling he would have been little more than a drinks waiter. Instead he was able to further press home his claims for a recall by scoring 254 runs at an average of 66.25 in the West Indies, before he had to prematurely return home to attend to a family emergency. In the 2006 English season, Read opened the season in good form with the bat, at one point averaging over 50 in both forms of the game, and scored an unbeaten 150 for England 'A' against the touring Pakistan side. With Geraint Jones suffering a run of poor innings in Tests in 2006, despite his improved keeping, there were further press suggestions that Read should receive a recall to the England side.
[edit] Brief return to the Ashes
Geraint Jones broke a finger in the second Test match against Pakistan in 2006 and the next day Read scored a rapid 72 against Northamptonshire in a Natwest Pro 40 League game. On July 31 Read was recalled to the England squad as a replacement for Jones. Chairman of Selectors David Graveney stressed that this was down to Jones' poor form with the bat rather than his injury. Read took advantage of the opportunity with 38 in the first innings of the 3rd Test against Pakistan, and secured his first Test half-century in the second innings with 55 (with much of the runs scored while partnering tailenders), as well as a sharp performance (four catches and a stumping) behind the wickets. Despite displacing Geraint Jones, Read was passed over for a 12 month central contract for 2007, although his rival was not awarded one either.
Prior to the first Test in the 2006-2007 England Ashes tour of Australia, Read was dropped in favour of Geraint Jones. England coach Duncan Fletcher said that Jones would be "a better prospect for batting at number seven". [1] Notts Director of Cricket, Mick Newell, responded to Fletcher's decision by calling his selection "bizarre" [2].
Read was selected to play for two tour matches for England between the Second and Third Tests. In the first, against Australia Chairman's XI, Read was dismissed for a duck. In the two-day match against Western Australia, Read scored 59 not out while Jones, playing as a batsman, went for a first ball duck[1]. Jones retained his place for the third Test but failed to score in either innings, leading to Read being selected for the fourth Test. He took 6 catches in the first innings, becoming only the 3rd player in Test history to take 6 dismissals in an innings twice[2]. Read repeated that performance with another 6 dismissals in the first innings of the 5th Test in Sydney. He is now the only keeper in Test history to achieve the feat in successive Tests.
Read was passed over for selection for the One Day series against Australia and New Zealand in 2007, with Paul Nixon taking over the wicketkeeper position.
[edit] 2007 and 2008 county seasons
In September 2007, Read took over as the captain of Nottinghamshire.[3] In October, he signed a new contract with the county, keeping him with Nottinghamshire until the end of the 2010 season.[3] On November 4, 2007 Chris ran the New York City Marathon the raise money for Bowel Cancer research in honour of his first cricket coach, Trevor Ward, who died of the disease. Read finished 4358th out of over 90,000 runners, placing him in the top 5%
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Jones to return as Ashes keeper" BBC News 12th November 2006
- ^ "Jones choice bizarre - Notts boss" BBC News, 13th November 2006
- ^ CricInfo Article retrieved May 10, 2008
