Salt making a success of balancing act

SOME recreational cricketers enjoy personally successful careers without ever playing in a titlewinning side. Others change clubs in order to give themselves a better chance of honours.

David Salt is rather different. He has won Liverpool Competition championships with each of Southport and Birkdale’s three senior teams.

The most recent of these triumphs was achieved when Salt skippered the thirds to the league title last summer with matters only settled on a glorious late-summer Sunday when Trafalgar Road was packed with people keen to cheer the team home.

They were a lovely few hours and we are fooling ourselves should we assume that a similar culture exists at every cricket club. There are a few where first-team cricketers cannot name a single member of the seconds.

For Salt, that afternoon might have kindled memories of the highpoint of his career a quarter of a century earlier when he kept wicket in the first team that won the Liverpool Competition under Simon Sutcliffe’s captaincy. Indeed, he had one of the best seats in the house as Abey Kurvilla took 111 wickets, devastating seriously good batting orders in the process.

This latest title was rather different. Although Salt had Ian Sutcliffe, another veteran of the ‘96 campaign, in his side this summer, he was always aware that skippering a third team is about more than a hard-nosed pursuit of victory.

“You don’t want anyone to give up their Sunday to play in a third-team game only to bat at 11 and not get a bowl,” he said.

“Third team cricket should be all about selecting a predominantly junior side and then sprinkling a few seniors in there to steady the ship when required. It’s really hard to win things in cricket and there were times when I had to be ruthless while still giving people an opportunity.”

For no group of players was the opportunity greater in 2021 than the young cricketers who now know what it’s like to win a championship and who are consequently better prepared for the second- and first-team cricket that will surely come their way before long.

“People like Tom Crew, Henry Eccles and Charlie Green made invaluable contributions,” said Salt.

“They’re brilliant cricketers for their age and I hope last year has played a part in their development. The other point to make is that the juniors are really good company and I enjoyed captaining the side.

“Of course it helped that Ian Sutcliffe scored just shy of a thousand runs for us, but just as 1996 wasn’t all about Abey, so last season wasn’t all about Ian.

“The juniors made essential contributions. But Ian helps the other cricketers, not just because he is shrewd and tactically aware but also because other players can see how he goes about his business and how ruthless he is when there’s a match to win.”

And the third team’s title win was even richer for the fact that a trio of young first-team cricketers were also available on Sundays if required.

“Basil Sultan, Jack Stanley and Jack Carney all played for me and contributed in important ways,” said Salt. “It was so useful they made themselves available, even if that meant travelling from Manchester or staying over on a Saturday night.

“At the same time, I think playing thirdteam cricket helped them when they were maybe a bit out of touch in the firsts. It helped them bed into the club and I think it reflects well on S&B that it’s the sort of place where first-team cricketers care so much about the thirds.”