CRICKET captains – like business people – come in all shapes, sizes and temperaments and from a wide variety of backgrounds.
This fascinating diversity was a key factor in Northamptonshire County Cricket Club’s decision to celebrate its past skippers with a special Captains Wall at Wantage Road.
A total of 43 cricketers have been officially appointed to the role since the club’s formation in 1878. All but three now have their photo adorning a wall in the Spencer Pavilion – the County Ground’s latest ‘destination’, being launched during the opening Championship match of the season against Middlesex.
Performing the honours were club president Lord Naseby, current captain Alex Wakely and one of his predecessors, the 1975 skipper Roy Virgin.
Some of the names and faces on the wall will be familiar to most Northamptonshire supporters. The likes of Geoff Cook, Allan Lamb, David Sales and Stephen Peters – not to mention Wakers – have been well-known on the sporting scene in this county and beyond.
Aficionados of an earlier vintage may also recall the elegant Dennis Brookes, consistent run-accumulator Raman Subba Row (who later pioneered the marketing of cricket), master wicketkeeper Keith Andrew, supreme tactician Jim Watts and the brilliant Pakistan star Mushtaq Mohammad.
They all belonged to the professional era when most first-class cricketers played the game for a living.
But until 1962 – and the abolition of the distinction between Gentlemen and Players – many counties clung to the notion that amateurs made the best leaders of men. Brookes, appointed in 1954, was the first Northamptonshire pro to make the job his own.
Those early skippers were an interesting bunch.
Jim Kingston, a Northampton solicitor and one of eight brothers to represent the county, blazed the trail between 1878 and 1887. The 5th Earl of Rosslyn was ‘invited’ to take charge in 1891 but after three matches decided that horse racing was more fun. He later gambled himself into bankruptcy and went on the stage to earn a living.
Eddie Crosse – captain in 1907 – was a member of the family that joined forced with the Blackwells to manufacture tinned soup and baked beans. And Sydney Gordon Smith from Trinidad, skipper immediately before the First World, was Northamptonshire’s first overseas player.
The club is keen to locate images of the remaining three captains – Charles Radcliffe Thursby (1888), Thomas Henry Gascoigne Welch (1889) and Edward Scriven (1893). If you can help, please get in touch!
Contact Northamptonshire County Cricket Club on 01604 514455.