Kasprowicz and Croft take the bowling honours
Michael Kasprowicz finished the 2003 season as the most successful bowler in Division Two of the County Championship, and with 77 wickets to his name, he was also the second highest wicket-taker in the country, with only Mushtaq Ahmed of Sussex
Andrew Hignell
21-Sep-2003
Michael Kasprowicz finished the 2003 season as the most successful bowler in Division Two
of the County Championship, and with 77 wickets to his name, he was also the second highest
wicket-taker in the country, with only Mushtaq Ahmed of Sussex taking more wickets.
O M R W Mushtaq Ahmed 836.3 163 2539 103 MS Kasprowicz 572.3 140 1629 77 J Lewis 551.2 142 1800 74 Kabir Ali 415.2 72 1552 67 M Hayward 427.3 83 1533 67 SP Kirby 463 80 1769 67 JF Brown 647 188 1565 66 NAM McLean 551.3 115 1872 65 RDB Croft 731.5 192 1928 65
During the final five weeks of the season, between August 13th and September 19th, `Kasper` took
37 wickets in 193.1 overs, with each wicket costing just 13.9 runs apiece. This sequence
included his two 9 wicket hauls against Durham - 9/36 at Cardiff and 9/45 at Chester-le-Street.
He has now taken 35 wickets in the last three matches against the North-Eastern county, having
taken 11/105 last year at the Riverside ground. This year he took 11/77 at Cardiff and then
13/110 at the Durham ground, with his 35 wickets against Durham costing just 8 runs apiece.
Kasprowicz`s haul of 77 wickets is the most by an overseas bowler for Glamorgan, passing
Waqar Younis` 68 wickets in the Championship-winning year of 1997, and they are also the
most in a first-class season for Glamorgan since 1993, when Steve Watkin took 86 wickets.
Kasprowicz was one of three Glamorgan bowlers to take over 50 wickets in 2003. Alex Wharf
claimed 52 whilst Robert Croft finished with 65 wickets to also finish in the top ten
wicket-takers in the country in 2003.
Of the English-qualified spinners, only Jason Brown of Northamptonshire with 66 wickets
took more wickets than Croft, but Brown only went past the Glamorgan bowler in the final
game of the season as he took 5 wickets against Worcestershire on a wicket at Wantage Road
that was subsequently docked eight points after being deemed `poor` by an ECB pitch panel.
With 739 runs to his name, Croft also scored more runs than any of the other leading bowlers,
and in addition to a fine all-round season, Croft bowled 731.5 overs - more than any other
English-qualified bowler in the whole of the country.