An Australian-born skiddy seam bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsmen, Steven Crook started his first-class career at Lancashire but had limited chances to show his worth. After a loan move to Northamptonshire at the end of the 2005 season, he made a permanent switch for 2006 where he earned greater chances in the one-day arena. Injury ravaged much of his time at Northants but he found other outlets to express himself as a lead singer of the band Juliet the Sun. The Sun newspaper even credited their track, Time For Heroes, as a reason that England won the Ashes.

Musically feted by England-selling tabloid or not, Crook found satisfaction hard to find. At the end of the 2009 season, he stepped away from professional cricket, but returned after a trial period with Middlesex to earn a two-year contract. He became a regular in the one-day and Twenty20 sides, but less so in the Championship - where he neither merited a top six batting slot nor a place as a frontline bowler - and his desire for more four-day cricket prompted a move back to Northamptonshire at the end of the 2012 campaign.

ESPNcricinfostaff - April 2013