Kit Harris pays tribute to county cricket’s longest-serving overseas players.
County cricket has been graced by a multitude of overseas players, especially since 1968, when qualification criteria were simplified. Nine have played more than 500 games for their counties – and became local heroes.
Younis Ahmed (Pakistan) 725 matches
Surrey 1965–78, Worcestershire 1979–83, Glamorgan 1984–86
After nine first-class matches in Pakistan – the first when he was just 14 – Younis arrived in London in May 1965, aged 17, for a trial with Surrey. He was from good cricketing stock: his brother, Saeed, had already played Tests. Surrey put him in their Second Eleven, and gave him his county debut against the touring South Africans: he made 21 and 66. In 1967, he became eligible, by two-year residency, for the Championship (plane-to-pitch overseas players were not permitted until the following year), and in 1969, he passed 1,000 runs for the first of 13 seasons. By the last, in 1985, Younis – an aggressive batter, but a hot-headed character with a habit of making unwise decisions – was at his third county. Perhaps his greatest performance came in 1973, when scores of 155 not out and 72 earned Surrey a narrow win against a Warwickshire attack which included Bob Willis at his fastest. In 1979, for Worcestershire against Nottinghamshire, he faced down Richard Hadlee during unbeaten knocks of 221 and 39, which set up another tense victory. Younis played only four Tests, two in 1969, and – despite supposedly being banned for life after going on a tour of South Africa in 1973 – two more in 1987, by which time he had finished his UK domestic career, at Glamorgan. His final county tally was 31,249 runs – but he turned out for Lord’s Taverners into the 21st century, and on one occasion played alongside Alastair Cook.
J. N. Shepherd (West Indies) 694 matches
Kent 1965–81, Gloucestershire 1982–89
Accompanying Younis Ahmed on that 1973 tour to South Africa was John Shepherd, a Barbadian fast bowler who ended up with 1,467 county wickets. He might not have had a career in England at all but for a chance encounter at the Kensington Oval in February 1965, when he played for Barbados against Trevor Bailey’s International Cavaliers. Among the visitors were Les Ames and Colin Cowdrey from Kent, who invited Shepherd to join them at Canterbury. He spent two seasons in the Second Eleven, before qualifying to make his full debut in the Championship in 1967. Two years later, he was called up for West Indies’ tour of England, and took five wickets in his debut Test innings, starting with Geoffrey Boycott. Shepherd headed the tourists’ bowling averages that summer, with 12 wickets at 22, but only played two more Tests, in early 1971. The chance of further international recognition evaporated when he went on the first of several tours to South Africa in the 1970s. He was one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year for his all-round achievements in England in 1978; four years later, he moved to Gloucestershire. Not until 1988 did he miss a season of county cricket. During the 1990s, he coached at Eastbourne College, and he still sits on the Kent committee.
B. F. Davison (Rhodesia) 626 matches
Leicestershire 1969–83, Gloucestershire 1985
Unlike Younis and Shepherd, Bulawayo-born Brian Davison did not have to serve a qualification period before making his county debut. From 1968, each county was permitted to employ one overseas player, in addition to any who had already qualified by residence. Surrey stuck with Younis alone, but Kent brought in Pakistan batsman Asif Iqbal (he made no centuries that first year, while Shepherd made three). Northamptonshire had fielded Mushtaq Mohammad, another Pakistani, since 1964, so they were allowed to bring in South Africa’s Hylton Ackerman. In 1969, the pair amassed more than 2,500 runs, but by the spring, another African had caught Northamptonshire’s eye: Brian Davison, who had been playing for Rhodesia in the Currie Cup; they enticed him to come to England for a few Second Eleven games. But with Mushtaq and Ackerman staying put in 1970, Davison grabbed his chance at Leicestershire – and remained there until 1983. He ended up with 26,897 county runs, and 53 first-class centuries. Davison never played an international match, though, unless you count either Rest of the World v West Indies at Edgbaston in 1986, or a game – somewhat incongruously – for Old England against Old Australia at Adelaide two years later. It was his last match: he emigrated to Australia and became an antiques dealer. In a 2020 BBC poll, Davison was voted Leicestershire’s greatest overseas player.
A. I. Kallicharran (West Indies) 575 matches
Warwickshire 1971–1990
Alvin Kallicharran was already a regular for Guyana when he signed for Warwickshire in 1971. He had even scored a half-century for a West Indies board team against the touring Indians. That first season at Edgbaston, he had to settle for the Second Eleven, since fellow West Indians Rohan Kanhai and Lance Gibbs were fixtures in the senior side. In 1972, the rules changed: counties could now field two overseas players, plusanyone who had been playing in England for five years. Gibbs had been at Warwickshire since 1967, so Kallicharran found a way in. His first full season yielded 1,153 first-class runs; he would reach 1,000 six more times before the decade was out. In the 1980s, the double-hundreds started coming, with three in 1982 helping make him one of Wisden’s Five. His benefit, in 1983, raised the equivalent of perhaps £114,000 today. The following year, he hit 206 in a one-day game against Oxfordshire, the first double in English limited-overs cricket. There would not be another until Vince Wells in 1996. All told, Kallicharran scored 26,981 runs for Warwickshire, with 64 centuries.
C. E. B. Rice (South Africa) 557 matches
Nottinghamshire 1975–87
Clive Rice was four years into a career with Transvaal, playing in South Africa’s Currie Cup, when he spent the summer of 1973 as Ramsbottom’s professional in the Lancashire League. He acclimatised quickly, scoring 62 in his first match, and taking seven wickets in each of his third, fourth and fifth. Appearances for the county Second Eleven followed and, in 1974, he hawked his talents around the circuit. On trial for Nottinghamshire, he claimed seven for 45, so they signed him for the following season. Rice stayed 13 years, accumulating 25,719 and 767 wickets across the formats. In 1981, as captain, he led Nottinghamshire to their first Championship for more than five decades, for which he was chosen as one of the Five. Derek Randall, who played under Rice for many seasons, said he would have “run through a brick wall” for him. Rice never played a Test, but did captain South Africa in 1991-92, in their first proper international series after readmission; he died in 2015.
K. S. McEwan (South Africa) 556 matches
Essex 1974–85
When 19-year-old Ken McEwan arrived in England in 1972, recommended by Tony Greig for a stint with Sussex Second Eleven, he had not yet made his professional debut in South Africa. But he promptly turned heads: his first game, on a ragging surface at Hove, brought him 52 and 49, the top score in each innings. He broke into the Eastern Province side that winter and, in July 1973, made 91 and 114 not out against a Hampshire Second Eleven including West Indian quick Andy Roberts, who took 11 wickets. It was evidently not enough to convince Sussex, since it was Essex – after a one-match trial – who signed him for 1974. By then, he was keeping wicket and batting down the order in South Africa, but Keith Fletcher put him at No. 4 and relieved him of the gloves. His first senior hundred came against Middlesex in the Championship; there would be 89 more, 64 of them for Essex. McEwan stayed at Chelmsford for 12 years, racking up 26,439 runs. In 1977, he made eight first-class centuries – five in successive innings – and was one of Wisden’s Five Cricketers of the Year. He was voted Essex’s greatest overseas player in the BBC poll, but his professional career coincided with South Africa’s international exile, and he never played for his country.
C. G. Greenidge (West Indies) 549 matches
Hampshire 1967–87
Gordon Greenidge was already in England when the 1968 overseas player rule came into effect: he had been to school in Reading, turning out for Berkshire Bantams, Southampton Wednesday, and Hampshire Seconds alongside fellow Barbadian John Holder. The county signed South Africa’s Barry Richards for the season, and Holder was the first of the West Indian pair to earn a Hampshire call-up. Greenidge had to wait until 1970, by which time he was yet to make a hundred. But by the end of the season, he had formed a decent opening partnership with Richards – they added 201 against Leicestershire – and he finally reached three figures against Oxford University in 1971. He passed 1,000 first-class runs that summer, and did so every year throughout the rest of the decade.. Greenidge’s bumper season was 1986, when he piled up 2,035, including eight centuries. And during most of his county career, he was also playing for West Indies, having made 93 and 107 on Test debut in Bangalore in November 1974. He hit 1,952 first-class runs in England in 1976, all for the West Indian tourists, and was one of Wisden’s Five. Greenidge made no Hampshire appearances in 1984 or 1988, when West Indies toured England, and in 1989 the county moved on. He finished with 29,641 runs for Hampshire, including 69 hundreds.
G. M. Turner (New Zealand) 531 matches
Worcestershire 1967–82
Glenn Turner didn’t miss a County season for 15 years. He was 17 when he made his first-class debut, for Otago, in 1964-65. But he was still to score a hundred when he joined Worcestershire in 1967, after trials with four other counties. A couple of centuries came for the Second Eleven, and he joined as the overseas player the following year. On August 18, 1968, Turner scored an unbeaten 106, against Middlesex at New Road. He would go on to score 103 hundreds, plus 14 in one-day cricket. His first hugely productive year came in 1970, when he hit 2,379 first-class runs, including ten hundreds, which made him one of the Five. He topped 2,000 again in 1973 (when he reached 1,000 before the end of May) and also 1981; in 1982 he averaged 90, partly thanks to an unbeaten triple-hundred against Warwickshire. That was Turner’s final season in England – in county cricket, at any rate. He came back for the 1983 World Cup, at the end of which he retired, aged 37. He had made 72 first-class centuries for Worcestershire, one every seven innings, the most memorable of which came at Swansea in 1977, when he carried his bat for 141 in a total of 169. He also played 41 Tests for New Zealand, scoring 2,991 runs at 44.
I. V. A. Richards (West Indies) 519 matches
Somerset 1973–86, Glamorgan 1990–93
He first appeared on a scorecard, aged 19, in the 1971 Hesketh Bell Shield, a Leeward Islands tournament, playing for Antigua. In his second game, Richards made 53 and 105 against Montserrat. The following year, he hit 82 against the touring New Zealanders. Encouraged by his strong start, Richards made a trip to London, for a trial in front of Surrey scout Arthur McIntyre – who wrote him off. Back in Antigua in 1972-73, he was spotted in Antigua by Len Creed, the Somerset vice-chairman, who signed him for Lansdown CC, in Bath. There he met Ian Botham, in a Somerset Under-25 game, on June 12, 1973: Richards scored a duck, Botham 91, but Richards picked up five for 25 with his off-breaks. The two became the county’s favourite players, tearing up the record books and reeling in trophy after trophy. From 1974 to 1986, Richards passed 1,000 runs every season except 1984. His feats of 1976, when West Indies toured England, made him one of Wisden’s Five, and he was later named one of the Five Cricketers of the Century (as well as topping the BBC poll for the best-ever overseas player). A 1982 benefit earned him the equivalent of around £200,000 today. His 322 against Warwickshire – made in a single day – was one of his nine centuries of 1985, and a club record. After Richards had amassed 22,047 runs for Somerset, they sacked him; captain Peter Roebuck decided (wrongly, as it turned out) the team were better off without him. In November 1988, on tour with West Indies in Australia, he made his 100th first-class hundred – one of only four non-English cricketers to achieve the feat, along with Don Bradman, Zaheer Abbas and Turner. Then, in 1990, Richards made a county comeback, for Glamorgan. His final innings in professional cricket was an unbeaten 46 which helped secure the Sunday League, but he continued playing for Lashings, alongside Greenidge and Kallicharran, into the new century.
Two honourable mentions go to foreigners who came to the UK, and became naturalised British citizens. Both became eligible to play for England – and so were not overseas players – though neither did.
K. M. Curran (Zimbabwe) 604 matches
Gloucestershire 1985–90, Northamptonshire 1991–99
All-rounder Kevin Curran had been in the Zimbabwe team for three years when he signed for Rawtenstall CC to prepare for the 1983 World Cup in England. He took a bundle of wickets, and was signed by Gloucestershire for 1985. There he stayed until 1991, when he moved to Northampton, where his sons Sam and Ben were born. When Zimbabwe were granted Test status in 1992, Curran realised that playing international cricket – so becoming an overseas player – might jeopardise his county future; he stayed with Northamptonshire until 1999.
R. G. A. Headley (West Indies) 564 matches
Worcestershire 1958–74, Derbyshire 1975–76
Having moved to England from Jamaica at the age of 11, Ron Headley qualified to play for England in 1960. By that time, he had made his Championship debut for Worcestershire – and his first centuries soon followed. He amassed 2,040 runs in 1961, and he passed 1,000 in every subsequent season bar 1962. But an England call never came and, in 1973, he played for West Indies.
Kit Harris is Assistant Editor of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.