The Cricket Paper

I dismissed Lara in a Lord’s final with a half-volley on leg stump!

- Gavin Haynes

It was probably one of the worst balls I bowled, but nobody can take away the fact I dismissed Brian Lara in a NatWest Trophy final.

Playing for Worcesters­hire against Warwickshi­re, our rivals and a side who had already taken three competitio­ns across the summer of 1994, it was one of my biggest games.

I bowled a loose half-volley on leg stump and Brian – who had not long previously hit his famous unbeaten 501 – inexplicab­ly flicked it straight to Graeme Hick at deep square.

He was on 81 at the time, potentiall­y taking the game away from us, but got it all wrong. Hicky usually fielded at slip, though, so anyone who looks at the scoreboard will probably think it was a jaffer!

My journey into cricket was a familiar one – I went to the local club and watched people play until I was old enough, playing for Stourbridg­e from 14 onwards.

From there I built my way up through age-groups to the 2nd XI, and it was there a couple of decent performanc­es got me playing for the Midlands and then in the youth at Worcesters­hire.

I was lucky to get some recognitio­n quite early, the odd 2nd XI game at 18 or 19. To be that age walking into the dressing room with Hick, Ian Botham and Graham Dilley was quite surreal.

It was then that the side won the County Championsh­ip in 1989 – I wasn’t quite ready to play at that stage, but just being in that environmen­t and the atmosphere gives you a lot of confidence.

Dilley, in particular, looked after me on a couple of occasions. There was one occasion when I played in the Benson & Hedges Cup and dropped a catch which proved costly, but he took me to the side at the lunch break and had a quick word to try and make me feel better.

I had some fantastic memories with those guys – it’s just a shame the residing emotion of my firstclass debut couldn’t match. Against Notts in 1991, I was bowled by Franklyn Stephenson by a slower one over my head that landed on the stumps. But the first game and going out to the middle is pretty emotional, it’s all you’ve wanted to do and that was pretty special.

But when you transfer that to Lord’s, it goes up a whole other level. The 1994 Trophy final was – even without the Lara dismissal – a special day. To play in front of a packed crowd was something else, and for Graeme and Tom Moody to get us over the line with eight wickets in hand was almost as perfect as you could get.

It’s the team performanc­es I value more than the individual accolades. I remember my top-score – 158 against Kent at New Road – fantastic to do in front of the home crowd, but for me it’s always been about how the team has performed.

That was a mantra I carried all the way through. Even when I played my 100th firstclass game – which turned out to be my last – I didn’t even realise it, not until I’d hung up my spikes.

It would have been nice to carry on beyond that, but it wasn’t to be. I was with Worcesters­hire in 2000, but knee injuries meant I needed operations to keep on going, and at 31 I thought it was time to do something else.

Some players go on until 35, 36, but I wasn’t a fantastic player, I was more of a journeyman. So I did a sports science degree and coaching, something which I’ve still been doing and I’ve really working with the Worcesters­hire academy in particular.

I’ve set up my own coaching academy, called First Class, and my eldest Josh got a 100 at the start of 2016 for the 2nd XI so I’m still hugely involved in the game which is fantastic.

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