Lancs’ Parry in it for the long haul
UNTIL this season began you were more likely to see a great bustard in the wild than Stephen Parry playing in a County Championship match.
After making his first-class debut for Lancashire in 2007, Parry made eight appearances for the county in four-day matches over the following nine years. While he became an automatic choice for the one-day side, he always seemed to lose out to Gary Keedy or Simon Kerrigan when it came to longer-form cricket.
Then, at the start of this season, Parry was chosen by Lancashire’s new head coach Glen Chapple for the match against Cambridge MCCU and he has remained in the XI for the first three championship matches.
He took a total of nine wickets in the games against Essex and Surrey and then bowled a mere eight overs against Somerset, although his career-best 44 played a valuable role in Lancashire’s memorable fightback.
They are not, perhaps, the sort of statistics that cause cricket-lovers in other counties to choke on their eggs benedict but for Parry they represent a genuine breakthrough into a form of the game he has always wanted to experience at length.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “I’m normally not involved with Lancs at this time of year until the one-day stuff kicks in, so it’s nice to play and contribute. In the past I’ve played one game and then waited something like three years for the next and I think I can have loads of fun with it if I play.
“I enjoy it and it will improve my bowling. I’ve never had a run in the team, so I’m obviously really excited. I feel like a new player but on the other hand, someone has to miss out and that’s Simon Kerrigan, who is a good mate of mine.”
Nobody knows better than Parry how Kerrigan might be feeling. For whole seasons he has been the one patiently waiting for an opportunity and now it is Kerrigan who is playing in the second team and turning out in club cricket on a Saturday. Perhaps it is little surprise that Parry hopes it might be possible for Lancashire to find regular places for both their slow left-armers this season, as they did at the Oval a couple of weeks ago
“When Kegs [Kerrigan] and I played together against Surrey we were really good and that’s exciting both for us and for the club.We have two different styles. I’m a bit more of a subcontinental spinner in that I use a lot of side-spin while Kegs uses overspin. The big thing for me is that I have to be super accurate and give no runs away. If I can bowl nice and tight, it might give Kegs the licence to be more attacking.”
As things are, Parry is very contented with life. But he admits there have been times over the past ten years when he wondered whether he would have to leave Lancashire in order to realise his ambitions in the four-day game. The problem with that, however, is that it is probably difficult to play cricket in one place if your heart is elsewhere.
“I love this club to bits,” he said. “Lancashire is always the place for me but I’ve always had this burning desire to give four-day cricket a go and I didn’t want to end my career with the regret that I hadn’t really played it. I have thought about it and tried to go on loan but it hasn’t worked out. Ashley Giles let me look at other clubs in his first year. Then we won the T20 and he told me I wasn’t going anywhere.”
This season, for the first time in his life, Parry can savour Lancashire’s fixture list in the hope that he will be involved in most of the games. But there is one match above all in which he would like to play: the Royal London Cup Final at Lord’s on July 1.
“My dad asked me the other day whether I’d prefer another a Lord’s Final or a T20 Finals Day and I said I’d snap your hand off for either but if I had to pick one, I’d go for a Lord’s Final. Growing up I went to them all and I was there when Glen got 6-18 against Essex in 1996.
“I treasured those memories when I started playing junior cricket for Lancs. So to play in one myself would be amazing and a great day for the club. And I think there’s a strong desire to do well in the 50over competition this year. It was really refreshing hearing Glen and Mark Chilton saying we were going to give it a real crack. We’re going to give it a go and it’s so exciting.”