Ben built for success at Northants
AS A builder, Ben Sanderson would have worked on several extensions, but it has taken several years of painstaking graft to earn one for himself at Northamptonshire.
So impressive has the pace bowler been, he was awarded a three-year contract renewal at Wantage Road three weeks ago – mere months after signing his first professional contract since his release by Yorkshire in 2011.
For every Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow at Yorkshire, there is a Sanderson, with the-then 22-yearold not only falling out of the system but out of love with the game five years ago.
He combined playing club cricket for Rotherham Town with working for his father, Roy, in the family business before giving professional cricket one final push at Shropshire.
While he was a revelation at Minor Counties level – taking a five-for on debut in 2013 – two years passed before one of his numerous trials stuck and he returned to first-class cricket with Northants. The result? Just the 55 wickets at an average of 21 in Division Two of the County Championship this year, a haul that staggers Sanderson every time he thinks about it.
“If you’d have offered me 30 wickets before the start of the year I would have snapped your hand off,” admitted Sanderson.
“I think it was just confidence. I remember Martin (Saggers) was umpiring one game and he said that he felt I’d put a yard of pace back on from where I was.
“I knew I was always good enough to play, it was just whether I wanted to go for it. I did a little bit of coaching, but I worked fulltime for my dad as an interior builder, which was close to my cricket club, and he was more than happy to give me a job.
“It was quite lucky as he was fine to let me off work when I was playing – and it was quite a physical job so it kept me fit, too.
“I then joined Shropshire and started to enjoy it again, and I decided I wanted to give it another crack.
“I also played for Worcestershire and Glamorgan for a couple of games, and it took a while but Northants signed me up.”
Sanderson rounded off the season with figures of 8-73 against Gloucestershire, but for someone who is ostensibly a red-ball specialist, he is showing signs that he can be a wizard with the white ball, too.
With fellow Minor Counties pick-up Richard Gleeson having suffered a cruel injury just before t20 Finals Day, Sanderson stepped up and snared three wickets in the finale with Durham – including the scalp of Ben Stokes.
But pressure, he admits, no longer affects him as much as it did during his younger days.
“It was quite overwhelming working up through the Yorkshire system sometimes. I was thinking ‘how do I get into a team like that, are they even going to give me a chance?’” he added.
“All those experiences did help me last year, as I was just thinking that this time I need to enjoy it and the wickets will take care of themselves.
“We work well together at Northants. It’s a small squad but that can help take the pressure off because you know you’re going to be playing in every game and there’s not really anyone behind you. You know you’ve got a job to do and can concentrate completely on that.”