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Ben McDermott is the latest Aussie to fly over to Southampton to don the Hampshire kit. Club historian Dave Allen looks back at the Australians who have come before McDermott and how they went on the south coast
Words by Dave Allen.
In 2022 we are celebrating 250 years of Hampshire sides playing first-class cricket although our first match as a fully constituted County Cricket Club came in1864 when we lost to Sussex at Southampton’s Antelope Ground. Opening our batting that day in his only match for Hampshire was 19-year-old John Carr Lord who was born (and died) in Tasmania – his only other first-class match was for his home state against Victoria almost nine years later.
Over the ninety years after Carr’s appearance a few overseas players appeared in Hampshire’s ranks, notably South Africans CB Llewellyn and Len Creese although a further 32 of our ‘Englishmen’ were born in British Empire India. including an Admiral, a Major-General and three Knights of the Realm. In the 19th century Australian-born Arthur Jeffrys played briefly for Hampshire and before the First World War three other Australians William Dean, Hugh Orr and William Russell also played occasionally - it is probable that all four were ‘sons of the Empire’.
The recent history of Hampshire’s overseas cricketers has two significant dates: 1955 when West Indian Roy Marshall made his Championship debut and 1968 when South African Barry Richards became the first of the permitted ‘instant’ signings – men who unlike Marshall, were not required to relinquish Test careers to play in England.
For around 30 years following Richards’ arrival the majority of our overseas men were from the Caribbean, although ‘Aussie’ all-rounder Shaun Graf came as a ‘stand-in’ in 1980. Then in 1997 while his compatriots toured England, opening bat Matthew Hayden took the opportunity to remind Aussie selectors what they had missed with a record-breaking season. It paved the way for a succession of some fine Australians to join the county, not least of course the great Shane Warne who came in 2000 and then returned as captain from 2004-2007. During that latter spell Hampshire won their first trophy in 13 years (Lord’s, 2005), they also won promotion from Division Two (2004) and finished runners-up in the Championship (2005) although oddly Warne, absent for the great Ashes series in 2005, never actually lifted a trophy. In that Final, Hampshire’s overseas men were Shane Watson and Andrew Bichel who both posted debut Championship centuries for the county.
After Warne came a considerable list of Australian Hampshire cricketers: Simon Katich was next in two spells, 2003-5 and in the double-winning side of 2012 and he was followed initially by the future Australian captain Michael Clarke (2004). Then came Shane Watson (2004/5), Michael Dighton (2004), Andrew Bichel (2005), Dominic Thorneley (2006), Stuart Clark (2007), Adam Voges (2007), Ian Harvey (2008), Marcus North (for just one Championship day in 2009), Dan Christian (with the T20 Champions of 2010), the tragic batter Philip Hughes (2010), Glenn Maxwell (2012 & 2014), George Bailey (2013-2017), Nathan Rimmington (2014), Jackson Bird (2015), and in last year’s T20, D’Arcy Short. Also in 2021, Cameron Steel born in the USA but raised in Australia played one Championship game, oddly alongside Ian Holland who had the same origins. A few years previously, ‘Dimi’ Mascarenhas, Alan Mullally and Sean Terry were born in England but raised in Australia, whereas our current all-rounder Felix Organ tells the opposite tale.
