Leicestershire revolution founded on combination of youth and experience

NICK FRIEND: Ben Mike and Chris Wright are at opposite ends of their careers, but both are fundamental in what the county is looking to achieve in a new era

Leicestershire are building something: the last 12 months have seen a raft of new contracts, a rebrand, a return to their original colours and, latterly, a winter of intriguing, well-considered signings.

Australian batsman Josh Inglis is the latest of those, picked up for the T20 Blast alongside Afghan seamer Naveen-ul-Haq. Wiaan Mulder was the initial choice as the county’s main overseas player, but when he was forced to withdraw citing international commitments, Marcus Harris was quickly announced as an alternative.

All told, it paints the picture of a club seemingly in control of its journey, growing with a clear plan under head coach Paul Nixon and chief executive Sean Jarvis, now a year into his post.

“There’s definitely a lot of hope that we can take Leicestershire forward and do some good things,” says Ben Mike, a 22-year-old seamer of significant promise and one of many to have penned an extension in recent times. “As a whole, it feels like we’re being backed to the moon.”

“I’d say the performances on the field have added to that,” suggests Chris Wright: Leicestershire were just a single delivery from reaching Finals Day in October and pulled off one of the most complete victories in the Bob Willis Trophy by beating Lancashire with just eight balls remaining on the last evening.

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Wright, the former Middlesex, Essex and Warwickshire bowler, is the oldest member of the playing staff following the release of Mark Cosgrove. In itself, that represents a significant personal feat, given the uncertainty that surrounded the future of his own professional career a decade ago as his contract wore down at Chelmsford.

“When I got released, I couldn’t have imagined this,” he admits. “I was worried about looking after my family. I wasn’t thinking about still playing at the age of 35. I’m totally grateful. It was an interesting period: I’d had one child with a second on the way, so to be out of work wasn’t a particularly nice prospect.”

Now, as a senior statesman at Grace Road, talking his younger teammates through the challenges of the game is a major source of satisfaction.

“It’s one of the things with these guys at Leicester,” he explains. “They’re so young that they’ve got 10 or 15 years ahead of them. It’s quite amazing to think of where they will be then compared to where they are now.

“What we’ve got now is the nice balance of having some senior players and some young players, but actually there are a lot of guys who are kind of getting to that age between 21 and 25 where they’ve done their apprenticeship. They know what the professional game is like now, and they’re almost primed to go into that successful period of their careers.”

^{Chris Wright is Leicestershire's oldest player and a key figure among an otherwise youthful bowling attack}

Among that group is Mike, a hugely impressive young man and highly thought of with both bat and ball, who admits that Leicestershire’s recent history of producing young talent – only to then lose it to other counties – has been a topic of conversation in the dressing room. James Taylor and Stuart Broad are often cited in that category, while seamer Tom Taylor left for Northamptonshire last summer.

“It’s talked about a bit amongst us,” he says. “We’re all good mates and we always talk about how we need to keep us young guys together. It’s not necessarily about nurturing us because I think a lot of us know where we are, but it’s almost like if we can stay together for however many years, then we can do some great things. We’ll reap the rewards in the future, definitely.”

Mike only joined Leicestershire ahead of his final school year, having come through the youth setup at Nottinghamshire – the county of his father – before a double stress fracture ruled him out of almost two consecutive seasons: his recovery was slowed by a difficult rehabilitation process through the NHS.

When he came out the other side, however, a connection between Loughborough Grammar School and Loughborough Town Cricket Club afforded him a pathway into the league system, before the presence of former Warwickshire wicketkeeper Keith Piper as a coach at Leicestershire presented a link from the past.

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He had played against Mike’s father, Greg, who spent eight years at Trent Bridge as an allrounder during the 1990s, and so the wheels were set in motion for what has followed since: a fledgling career still spanning just 33 games at this stage across all formats, but with admirers across the domestic game. He claimed nine wickets on his County Championship debut and added a maiden fifty during a short loan spell with Warwickshire.

“I like Ben a lot,” adds Wright. “He’s got a lot of natural attributes: he’s physically very good, he’s got a lovely away-swinger as a stock ball, which I think is really important, he can surprise teams with his pace. He’s got the makings of a super-successful player – and that’s not even talking about his batting or fielding. He’s super-talented.”

Mike’s sporting gene came from both parents, while his cricketing lineage descends back to his paternal grandad, Clinton, who was born in St Kitts and moved to England as a teenager, before becoming a youth worker and playing a major part in the foundation of West Indies Cavaliers Cricket Club in Nottingham, now known as Cavaliers and Carrington following a merger. “He is big around Nottinghamshire in the cricket community and in the BAME community,” his grandson explains.

“Everyone knows him as Mr Mike. It’s quite nice having him and seeing his influence. Cricket has always been in the family on that side. My dad coached me from four years old. I always went to his games and played in the nets with other kids.”

^{Ben Mike in conversation with captain Colin Ackermann}

Fate meant that Mike Jr has never properly turned out for the club; he grew up playing for Radcliffe on Trent – nearer his mother’s home where he lived after his parents split up – and it was always said that “whenever I grew up and became a teenager and a man, I would play for West Indies Cavaliers”.

But following his move to Leicestershire, the logistics didn’t quite make sense, though he appeared as twelfth man one year during a run to National Cup glory.

He holds a continued pride in that relationship, though, with people “who have known me since I was a toddler”. The lack of diversity across the domestic game has been well documented in the recent past: Mike was one of only nine black cricketers to compete on the county circuit in 2019, down from 33 in 1995, the penultimate year of his father’s spell with Nottinghamshire.

In light of a player survey conducted by the Professional Cricketers’ Association in 2020 which revealed that 38 per cent of BAME pro cricketers had experienced discrimination, an anti-racism education programme has been developed and is being delivered to all professional players across the English game.

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“The PCA have been really good with it,” says Mike. “It’s nice that people who aren’t of that background can understand that it might not have happened to them and they might not have been racially abused, but it’s for the next person to understand that these things could be going through my mind or these things could be a limiting factor or these things could affect you mentally.

“It’s nice just to have that education because there have been times where I’ve had a bit of prejudice, and it’s nice to make people understand a bit more. Especially for the future coming up at Leicestershire, we always talk about how we’re such a diverse county, it would be nice to have that representation and to have no barriers of entry to any person that wants to play cricket.”

Mike recalls: “When I played cricket in Australia, there have been a few comments. Driving on the M1 actually, some guy wound his window down and yelled some abuse at me because I wasn’t letting him pass or whatever. And then, just little things – I believe I’m a strong character with a strong mind, so not things that are going to affect me, but for the next person you never know what’s going on behind the scenes.

“Something like that could tip the scales in a way that could make them not want to play cricket anymore or make them think that they don’t belong. It’s definitely not right.”

He believes, then, that the introduction of these courses represents important, tangible progress.

“Definitely,” he says. “Michael Carberry has talked about how it filters down from the top, and I think that is the view of a lot of BAME cricketers. I guess relief is quite a good word, that there has been that representation and talking point. Now things are getting put into action.

“Obviously, it needs to stay that way and think about the inclusion of everybody. Ultimately, we all love cricket, don’t we? And we all want cricket to keep thriving, so as many people playing cricket as possible will be good for the game.

“I look up to Chris Jordan a lot and Jofra Archer. What they’re doing is amazing. They’ve come from very different backgrounds. What they’re doing is my ultimate ambition: I want to play for England. Hopefully, I can be a role model to whoever is watching.”

In the meantime, his father remains a major source of wisdom and inspiration: during his own professional career, he was a hard-hitting batsman and a seamer of genuine pace, possibly more aligned with the T20 world that would arrive an era too late for his generation.

Mike says: “He tells me all the things that he did wrong and what he would have changed. He wants me to put those things right and not make the same mistakes. With the bat, he probably didn’t value his wicket or – because of his role – he didn’t believe that he could be scoring big runs.

^{Mike's father, Greg, played for Nottinghamshire}

“Bowling-wise – and actually fitness-wise – he has always said that he didn’t bowl enough. He had a few injuries, but he says that he prioritised fitness over his cricket in a way. So, he definitely is helping me in the things he’s telling me. And my attitude – just being hard-working.”

His action, honed by his dad, has hardly changed since he started out. And perhaps the pace he now possesses was always destined to come, given Greg’s characteristics during his heyday.

Until the stress fracture as a teenager and his subsequent growth spurt, Mike was far from the athlete he is today – his diminutive stature allowed him to play as a scrumhalf in school rugby. “That’s how small I was,” he laughs. As a result, he was little more than a medium-pacer, while batting in the lower middle order.

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But those early complexities are behind him now. He is ambitious and, unlike many in his position, is refreshingly happy to lay his cards on the table ahead of the upcoming campaign.

“Last season, although it was only five weeks, I took decent strides in establishing myself,” he says. “This year, I want it to be a big year for me. I think it’s time, even though I am young, that I start to lead Leicestershire in a way in my performances. My dad has always said that if you perform well, then the team will perform well, especially being an allrounder.

“I think it’s important for me to break out from the idea that I’m a young bowler just finding his way. I want to be relied on, bowling-wise and batting-wise. I want to score my first century – that’s definitely an ambition. In white-ball cricket as well. Ultimately, I have got my eyes set on England Lions in the next two years hopefully, so obviously with those aspirations, I have to have a good year really.”

^{Mike is highly rated for his ability with both bat and ball}

At the other end of his journey through the game, Wright remains a figurehead for a youthful seam attack, along with left-armer Dieter Klein, 32, and former Lancashire seamer Tom Smith, seven months younger than Wright and now Nixon’s assistant coach. The secret to his longevity?

“You get all kinds of cliches, but I really have enjoyed my career a lot,” Wright reflects. “I think that’s important – I’m still in love with the game and I enjoy playing, which is a really nice feeling. That has stood me in good stead.

“If you’re faced with adversity, from a simple point of view, I don’t know what much more you can do than keep working really hard. It’s certainly easier as a bowler: you can display that in a physical way. You can make sure that you steam in and give it your all ball after ball. If you could give advice to some of these young lads, I’d keep it ultra-simple: make sure you enjoy training, give your best and I think that will look after you.”

Ben Mike, you sense, is well on his way.

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