Pandemic leaves Sam doubters wrong after
Could Hampshire batsman Northeast end up as one of his generation’s
Sam Northeast admits it will be mentally tough not being able to prove anyone wrong in the coming weeks.
The Hampshire batsman was left out of the bumper 55-man training squad announced by the ECB last week ahead of England’s return to international cricket next month.
The squad contained all the regular names, including Hampshire’s current three England internationals in James Vince, Liam Dawson and Mason Crane.
There were also 14 uncapped players, but Northeast wasn’t one of them.
He admits he found that tough to accept, after finishing the 2019 campaign as the third highest runscorer in the Championship’s top flight and going on an England Lions tour of Australia earlier this year.
With the prospect of little – if any – first class cricket this summer in which to impress, and the fact he celebrates his 31st birthday later this year, Northeast is facing the fact he could end up as one of the best uncapped batsmen of his generation.
Talking about his ECB training squad omission, Northeast told the ‘Two Hacks One Pro’ podcast on which he regularly appears: ‘It was an interesting week, I guess, because I started it by watching highlights of Hampshire vs Somerset in the (2019 Royal London Cup) final – I have no idea why I put myself through it, it was torture! – and then not being involved in the squad is pretty disappointing.
‘It is probably more disappointing because of the situation we are in at the moment and the wanting to get back to training and then on top of that knowing that county cricket won’t be back until August as well, with no plans for us to get back to training any time soon.
‘It is tough as you always want to be in any England squad but, in this scenario, it probably meant more than others.
‘There are loads of county cricketers out there who are in the same boat, who are itching to get back to cricket, so hopefully we get some good news on the county front.’
‘Coming off the Lions it was great to play but I probably didn’t score as many runs as I would have liked.
‘The big problem at the moment is that you can’t answer any England calls by making runs, you can’t go out there and prove people wrong or get into an England squad by doing something.
‘All they can do is go back to your winter and what you did then.
‘Always in sport if you get left out of a squad you can come back and say ‘right, these are my numbers, I’m going to prove everyone wrong’ but you can’t do that at the moment and we might not get any four-day cricket for the whole of the summer.
‘You are then waiting a long time to get yourself into a squad and that is a difficult thing as a sportsman – you always want to get out there and prove yourself.
‘That will be the toughest thing for me mentally, not being able to go out there and score some runs and prove people wrong.’ Northeast started last summer – his second in Hampshire colours – with an eye-catching set of scores. After hitting 118 against Oxford MCCU, he struck 169 in
Hampshire’s opening Championship game against Essex.
He compiled an unbeaten 105 against former county Kent, also in April, and the following month hit 133 against Notts at Newclose on the Isle of Wight.
He ended the season with 969 Championship runs from 22 innings.
Only two batsmen scored more in the top flight – his former Harrow School colleague Gary Ballance (975, but from one more innings) and Dominic Sibley (1,324).
Selected for the Lions tour of Australia, Northeast began the red-ball tour with an unbeaten 46 against a Cricket Australia XI in Hobart.
In the next game, a first class Test against Australia A at the MCG, he managed only a single and had to watch Sibley and Dan Lawrence add 219 for the fourth wicket.
Northeast bounced back to amass 77 not out in the final tour match against a NSW XI.
Of the England XI in that game, he is one of only three
The big problem at the moment ... you can’t go out there and prove people wrong
Hampshire batsman Sam Northeast 24 first class hundreds compiled by Sam Northeast