Donald: It’s a good year tohavehad a bad injury
fun watching the draft and having your name not come up,’ the proud Welshman (named after one of the most famous people ever to come from Wales, Aneurin Bevan, the man who set up the NHS) lamented.
‘It’s the new shiny toy, the premium competition, and you want to be involved in playing against the best players in the world.
‘I was desperate to sneak in the last couple of spots and was crossing my fingers and hoping that I could have made it back to Cardiff for some Welsh representation there but, unfortunately, it didn’t pan out.’
Donald would have been the only Welshman in the Cardiff-based franchise had he been snapped up to play alongside the likes of Steve Smith, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton and ex-Hampshire and England spinner Danny Briggs.
Perhaps his modest T20 record only five half-centuries in 49 innings at 20.15 - counted against him.
It was four years ago this week that Aneurin Donald announced himself as one to watch.
Then just 19, he equalled the fastest double century in first class cricket history while playing for Glamorgan against Derbyshire in Division 2 of the Championship at Colwyn Bay.
Donald made an astonishing
234 off just 136 balls - with his double century coming off just 123 deliveries.
That saw him equal the record that Indian batsman Ravi Shastri had set in 1985 while playing for Bombay in a Ranji Trophy zonal match against Baroda.
Dropped twice early on, Donald went on to lash 15 sixes and 26 fours.
He brought his 50 up from 38 balls and needed 42 more deliveries to reach what was his maiden Championship century.
Donald then stepped up his onslaught, requiring just 24 more balls to reach 150 and only 17 (including five sixes and three fours) to bring up his double ton.
He reached his 100, 150 and 200 with sixes.
By the time Donald had struck his 15th and final six, a passing car had been dented outside the ground - as had five others in the members enclosure.
As well as equalling a world record, Donald also became Glamorgan’s youngest double centurion five years younger than the previous incumbent John Hopkins.
Donald has only made one more Championship hundred since, his 173 for Hampshire against Warwickshire last summer.
The Southern League have been forced into a late rejigging of their League Cup groups.
Basingstoke & North Hants have withdrawn just a week before the competition begins.
Their place in the Premier Division/Division 1 East group has been taken by Sparsholt.
The other clubs in that group are Havant, Burridge, Portsmouth, Hampshire Academy, Rowledge, Alton and St Cross 2nds.
The nine-week competition of 40-over games starts this coming Saturday.