adil rashid and former worcestershire loan player alex hales have attracted plenty of head-lines recently over their decision to focus solely on white ball cricket with yorkshire and nottinghamshire respectively.
but as andrew thomas, author of pears 150, points out ‘it’s nothing new’ and highlights a similar scenario involving a famous worcestershire and international player more than 40 years ago in west indian batsman ron headley.
andrew writes: “worcestershire ccc’s experienced opening batsman, ron headley, had won his third county championship pennant with the club in 1974.
“he then asked worcestershire if he could play only one-day cricket in 1975.
“but the then committee refused and ron received a special registration to play for derbyshire ccc.
“he scored 727 runs in the three one-day competitions and helped derbyshire to reach the gillette cup semi-finals.”
andrew also uses the example of ron headley to highlight how the make-up of the domestic game has changed.
he writes: “back in 1961, before county one-day cricket, ron headley played 69 first class innings (67 for worcestershire and two for a commonwealth xi at hastings) between 29 april and september 8.
“ron played on all but 29 of those 132 days. today, in contrast, few batsmen reach 30 first class innings in a domestic season.”
pears 150 is still available from the new supporters’ association shop on matchdays priced £28 or you can leave a note addressed to andrew at New Road in the club offices and he will contact you.
