Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Handy-work is all down to mum!
Kent wicketkeeper Jordan Cox has revealed the unusual reason behind why he first started wearing the gloves.
Cox starred in the outfield during Kent’s T20 Blast final win at Edgbaston but still admits he’s most comfortable behind the stumps.
The 20-year-old joined the county at the age of 10 and explained why he began donning the gloves around that time.
He said: “I used to field but then I started biting my nails when I played.
“So when I was about 10, my mum told me to stop doing that.
“I started to put the gloves on then because it was the only way to stop me from doing that!”
Asked if he still struggles with nail-biting, he replied: “No, not any more. I just concentrate on the game now.
“But when you are younger, you can get caught away with the fairies a little bit!”
Cox is one of three wicketkeepers in the Kent ranks alongside captain Sam Billings and Ollie Robinson so competition is fierce.
Cox is lightning fast in the outfield and a safe pair of hands in the deep but he wants to keep wicket when circumstances allow.
“It is, obviously, something I want to do but you have to earn the right to do it,” he said.
“I will be doing that as much as possible.”
He produced a sublime piece of fielding to dismiss Somerset captain Lewis Gregory in Kent’s T20 Blast final success.
With the ball looking set to sail over the boundary for six, he leaped in the air and palmed it back to team-mate Matt Milnes who took the catch.
The clip quickly went viral on social media and Cox admitted: “It has blown up quite a lot.
“I was just trying to get the ball back into play and Matt Milnes read the game.
“But it is something, if I tried it again, I probably would not be able to do it. I ran around, just in front of deep backward square leg. Sometimes, you ball-watch but Milnesy felt I had a chance
of doing it (getting the ball to him). It was pretty amazing but he deserves credit as much as I do.”
Cox was born in Margate and has played club cricket for Sandwich but followed in the footsteps of brother Ashleigh in going to Felsted School in Essex.
There, he was coached by former England Test player Jason Gallian and Felsted’s director of sport Charlie Knightley, a former player with Gloucestershire.
Cox also knows Kent batting coach Mike Yardy well, with the pair working together with England’s under-19s before Yardy joined the St Lawrence outfit last year.
Cox explained: “I went to
Felsted School. It is a really good cricketing school which is what I wanted. Obviously, Jason Gallian was the coach there and Charlie Knightley is there as well. They were two unbelievable players.
“It is always good to have different opinions. Mike Yardy has known me since I was 17, as well, and Gallian has known me since I think I was 14.”
Cox shot to prominence last year with an unbeaten 423-run second-wicket stand between him and Jack Leaning which was a club record for any wicket.
Reflecting on that knock Cox, who ended up scoring a careerbest 238 not out, said: “Jack only joined that year. We just kept on batting. Having spent a day-anda-half in the middle together we got to know each other pretty well! I get on really well with Jack now. We play golf together whenever we can.”
Clearly, that was a memorable few days but Cox says winning his first silverware as a senior player at Kent, striking a crucial 58 not out in the T20 Blast final, has already topped it.
He said: “It was very special but it certainly has been topped by what happened on finals day - that’s the best moment in my career now.”