In the latest issue of All Out Cricket, Opta were asked to pick their County Championship Team of the Year. When they crunched the numbers and sent their team over, it came as no great surprise to see they’d selected Chris Read as their keeper after another great year behind the timbers for the Notts captain. Jo Harman spoke to Read to find out how his knees are holding up, how keeping standards have changed during his career and who he rates as the best stumper on the county circuit.
Chris, according to Opta you’ve been the Championship keeper of the season, saving almost twice as many byes as your nearest rival*. Are you keeping as well as you’ve ever done?
I’ve had a really interesting season. It’s been one of those years where a lot of chances have come my way and I feel like I’ve taken some really good chances, some of the best stumpings and possibly catches of my career. I look back over the season and there are two or three where I’ve thought, ‘Crikey, they haven’t come along for the last 10 years’. At the same time, I’ve probably missed more chances than I would’ve liked. If you look at the more high-profile ones, like Ben Stokes in the [Royal London One-Day Cup] semi-final standing up to Steve Mullaney, seven or eight times out of 10, or maybe even more, I expect them to stick. On that occasion it didn’t and he went on to make 150. But that’s the nature of wicketkeeping and overall it’s been a pleasing season.
You’re 36 now. Is it tough to maintain those standards?
Through the winter my attitude is that when we start the season I want to be in the best shape possible. I’ll have a bit of a break now but by the end of October or early November I’ll already be looking towards next season. By contrast, during the season rest and recovery is absolutely vital. This year I’ve found it physically a bit tougher than previous years with the difference in structure, playing a T20 game tagged on to the end of a four-day game and then the 50-over competition played in a block with a lot of travel days, I thought physically it was actually a harder season. But I don’t think I missed a game. And that’s great news. I was pleased that I was able to stay fit and get through the season.
Who are some of the best on the county circuit?
Over the last couple of years Tim Ambrose has done a fantastic job at Warwickshire. I think keeping to Jeetan Patel, the work he’s done goes a bit unnoticed. Jeetan’s a big turner of the ball, bowls at a good pace, and Tim keeps very nicely to him. When I’ve played against him over the last couple of years I’ve been very impressed with what he’s done. James Foster’s standards are perennially high and John Simpson down at Middlesex does a very good job behind the stumps.
Sam Billings at Kent is another who’s attracting plenty of attention. What have you made of him?
He’s one who’s getting attention because of the way he bats and we’ll have to watch this space to see how his keeping develops. All credit to Kent for giving him the opportunity because he’s had a fantastic year. This season he might get into that EPP Programme [Ed: Billings has since been picked for the EPP training camp to Sri Lanka this winter] and when he’s working with Bruce French and getting that close attention on a constant basis you’ll see those standards improving out of sight.
And what of Notts’ season in general? A decent effort across the board but with no trophy to show for it…
I think you have to take the competitions separately and in the Championship first and foremost we were obviously beaten to the post by a far better side in Yorkshire. In the game that won them the Championship they outplayed us in all departments. The frustrating thing for me, and it’s something that we couldn’t really control, was the loss of Andre Adams to fitness and the loss of Peter Siddle back to Australia. That’s a current Test player and a guy who has taken more first division wickets than anyone else since 2008, so when you take out two bowlers of that class it does leave you a little bit susceptible. That’s no disrespect to the guys that came in and filled their spots. It gave guys like Jake Ball and Luke Wood a chance to see what first division cricket is all about against some very fine teams. So it’s not all bad but I rue the fact that we couldn’t put out our strongest side for whatever reason when it came to the crunch in the last month of the season.
Pick up a copy of the November issue of All Out Cricket (out October 9) to see Opta’s Championship Team of the Year in full. Subscribe to All Out Cricket here.
* Saved byes = frequency of byes conceded compared to an expected rate based upon the type of bowler and location of delivery