Rubbing shoulders with giants

When Shane Warne retired from international cricket in 2007 with 1001 wickets, his reputation as the game's greatest bowler was confirmed. But in 1992 that same cocky Victorian was not deemed good enough to deserve a second season at Accrington CC. At 20 Warne had played a summer with the Lancashire League side as an overseas player - one of several cricketing giants who have spent time picking up cheap runs and wickets in English club cricket.

Warne was picked up only at late notice when the club's first-choice overseas player was injured. Accrington's Peter Barratt remembers how it took Warne only two days to fax back the contract he was offered before turning up a few weeks later with his cricket gear and a reputation for giving it a bit of a rip.

"He was a good friend for the five months he was with us," recalls Barratt. "Yes, he misbehaved and he was a bit over the top sometimes but he wasn't bad at all. He was 20 years old and wanted to be one of the boys. He had to be told a couple of times that the club professional had to keep himself fit. Whenever he was in any difficulties he'd always call me up. That included things like boils on his bum or car breakdowns."

Despite taking 79 wickets that season and attracting the interest of Australian selectors, Warne could not keep his place at Thorneyholme Road. "He was popular with spectators but the committee decided that he didn't get enough runs," recalls Barratt disbelievingly.

At Lansdown CC in Bath the members would have been only too happy to have their overseas player of 1973 come back for a second term. But the old-timers at Combe Park are happy enough to be able to tell stories about the one year they played alongside their own legend - Viv Richards.

He was a 21-year-old West Indian prodigy when his love affair with the West Country began. Len Creed, then chairman of Lansdown and a Somerset committee member, had spotted him while on holiday in Antigua a few months earlier and Richards had jumped at his offer of a season in England.

While he was at Lansdown Richards lodged with the third-team captain, Alan Bees - a thoroughly mediocre cricketer who became a very close friend. It was Bees who introduced his new mate to jazz and cider, and in return the big Antiguan spent a season thrashing length deliveries through midwicket.

"There was nothing the opposition could do about it," says Martin Veal, who played with the West Indian that summer. "He had the most amazing eyesight, fabulous balance and wonderful, wonderful timing. Everybody knew he was going to be awesome because of his eyesight but he also had that trademark swagger when he walked out to the wicket. And he had a lovely laugh. There was such joy while he was with us. This was his home - Lansdown."

Seven years later in 1980 Bees decided to reacquaint himself with his friend during Richards's first Test at Lord's. Not fully accustomed with protocol at the home of cricket, Bees sauntered up to the pavilion and asked in his West Country accent: "Ere, can I come and see my mate Viv?"

Unimpressed, the members refused to allow him in but after some persuasion agreed to take a note to the visitors' dressing room. Minutes later Richards strolled down the stairs, put his arm round his mate's shoulder, escorted him through the Long Room and took him up to the dressing room. The friendship persevered and every year until Alan died Richards, who was knighted in 1999, would send a Christmas card to the Bees family.

Up the M5 clubs in the Birmingham League have a strong tradition of employing high-quality overseas players but in 1999 the members at Smethwick could not believe their luck when they briefly enlisted the services of Wasim Akram, still captaining Pakistan at the time, and the world's leading one-day international wicket-taker. Having decided not to extend his 10-year stint at Lancashire, Akram's deal with Smethwick involved, according to the club chairman at the time, several local businessmen, a car, a house and a "substantial sum of money".

Fortunately for Smethwick's opponents, a combination of the deal falling through and a job offer from the BBC put an end to the allrounder's brief sojourn at the club but not before he had broken bones and scored a quick-fire century against Old Hill CC that those who were there say was one of the best batting displays they have ever seen.

"He was an absolute gentleman but, believe you me, he was flipping fast," says the club secretary, Gordon McKenzie. "He didn't take that long a run-up and he never held back. He was the quickest thing I've ever seen at Broomfield.

"One poor batsman got one that rose off just short of a length and broke his jaw. If it had been anyone else's short ball the lad could have got out the way but Wasim was that quick that it just hit him."

After Akram left, the respite for Birmingham League batsmen was only brief. Three years later Allan Donald turned up to play for Knowle and Dorridge a few weeks after retiring from Tests with 330 wickets and a reputation as one of the game's fiercest competitors. Anyone expecting "White Lightning" to take things easy on a Saturday afternoon was to be disappointed.

"As soon as he walked across that line on to the pitch he wanted to win. It didn't matter whether he was playing for South Africa, Warwickshire or Knowle and Dorridge. It was a game of cricket and he didn't like to lose it," recalls K&D's Ian Maddocks.

"There were one or two batsmen who thought they were better than they actually were and decided to have a little chat with him. That didn't go down very well and, if you were stood at slip, you took a couple of paces backwards because you knew what was coming."

Donald's season at K&D was curtailed by injury but like Akram, Richards and Warne he greatly enjoyed his time out of the international spotlight. No player, however, has maintained his association with a club as keenly as Richmond CC's illustrious adopted son - a lad named Adam Gilchrist, sent over in 1989 aged 17 with a note from his dad explaining that he had been looking in quite good touch.

"What stood out about him was his willingness to tuck in and score big hundreds," says Chris Goldie, captain of the 1st XI in a summer during which Gilchrist scored more than 2,700 runs in all competitions. "I said that season that I thought he could go all the way. It sounds prophetic but it was just obvious that he was going to become an international opening batter."

More than 20 years later and having reached the pinnacle of international cricket, Gilchrist came back to Richmond's Old Deer Park in June to play a Middlesex-Glamorgan Twenty20. He hammered 51 on the pitch where he first started breaking English hearts as a club cricketer and then strolled into the bar as if he had never been away.

"It's a mark of the lad that he volunteered himself to play at Richmond," Goldie says. "I think it was an emotional time for him, going back and playing on a ground that he has very fond memories of."

Two decades previously, despite studying by correspondence while living in the pavilion at nearby Twickenham CC, the young Gilchrist was every bit the model first-team professional - though he was a technically minded accumulator rather than the batting tornado he became. His dedication has continued and he now helps run a scholarship that gives a young Australian a chance to spend a season with the West London club. Each player comes with a similar recommendation from Gilchrist's dad, Stan.

Warne may have been more fun off the field, Richards more laid back, Akram and Donald more vicious on the pitch but in Adam Gilchrist Richmond CC got particularly lucky. "He's a genuine Richmond man and a special guy," says Goldie. "We're all very proud of him."