3:57pm Tuesday 5th January 2010
By Michael Reeves
THE decade has gone and so have most of the star names at Worcestershire.
No longer can you see the likes of Graeme Hick, Glenn McGrath, Zaheer Khan, Simon Jones, Chaminda Vaas, Chris Gayle et al gracing the hallowed New Road turf.
Over the years the County have been able to attract some of the most exciting names in the game.
But, following the invention of Twenty20 cricket in 2003 and floods now beginning to occur during a playing season at Worcestershire’s HQ, it could be sometime before the star names return.
The Indian Premier League and a packed international calendar have seen the prices for top overseas players rocket, while the devastating floods of 2007 left the County needing to recoup more than £1 million in losses.
But it has not just been Worcestershire who have struggled to bring in the biggest names in the sport to the domestic circuit.
The increase in player wages and the loss of revenue at New Road has meant the club ended the decade giving youth a chance.
However, it is not just the squad that has changed over the past 10 years — the domestic structure has too.
At the turn of the millennium, the County Championship was split into two divisions and, after spending the first four seasons in the bottom tier, Worcestershire spent the remainder of the decade perfecting the art of yo-yoing.
There were of course some sterling performances over the last 10 years that saw them crowned Division Two champions in 2003.
Back-to-back Lord’s finals in the C&G Trophy in 2003 and 2004 seem a life-time away now and even the 2007 NatWest Pro40 title win is in the long and distant past.
But the decade at New Road also saw the end of an era.
Graeme Ashley Hick called time on his glittering career at the end of the 2008 campaign.
The Zimbabwean-born England star will go down in the history of Worcestershire as one of their greatest-ever players — some may even argue the greatest.
It was the humility and humbleness of Hick that endeared him to so many at the County.
Of course, breaking nearly every record going during his 25 years with the club certainly helped too.
It wasn’t long before Hick’s retirement that he, Tom Graveney and Glenn Turner were all honoured for scoring 100 first-class hundreds.
Hick’s 100th Worcestershire 100 came in the summer of 2006 against Northamptonshire. The now 43-year-old struck 27 first-class centuries during the decade, including his unbeaten 315 at Durham in 2002, but that only comes a distant second to his greatest score of 405 not out 14 years earlier.
While Hick will always be remembered for his batting, it was four years prior to his retirement that his more-than-useful off-breaks came to an end.
But it wasn’t just Hick who hung up his boots during the last 10 years, many other county stalwarts called time on their careers too.
Richard Illingworth said goodbye in 2000 and the spinner is now impressing the umpiring circuit, while Stuart Lampitt followed the year after and is now with the Worcestershire Cricket Board.
All-rounder David Leatherdale retired in 2005 and remains with the club as their commercial director, while Steve Rhodes’ illustrious playing career ended the previous year.
The former England wicketkeeper took over from Tom Moody as the County’s director of cricket in 2005 and is hoping this new decade can begin a whole lot better than the last one ended.
The County have also had four captains in the past 10 years with Hick taking charge between 2000 and 2002, Ben Smith replacing him in 2003 before resigning in the middle of a match in August 2004.
Rhodes stepped into the breach until the end of that campaign before current incumbent Vikram Solanki took up the reins.
The appearance of New Road has also changed during the past decade.
The old pavilion came down last winter and was replaced by the Graeme Hick Pavilion, while the Basil D’Oliveira Stand was opened in 2004.
The powers-that-be at New Road are hoping a hotel will go up in the next decade to help under-pin the club’s finances.
Whatever the future may hold for the County over the next 10 years, the past decade will be remembered for two things — floods and the farewell to a legend.
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