Darren Stevens (cricketer)

Darren Stevens
Stevens batting against Lancashire while Luke Sutton watches on.
Personal information
Full name Darren Ian Stevens
Born (1976-04-30) 30 April 1976
Leicester, England
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Batting Right-handed
Bowling Right-arm medium
Role All-rounder
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1997–2004 Leicestershire
2005–present Kent (squad no. 3)
2010 Mid West Rhinos
2010/11 Otago
2012–2013 Dhaka Gladiators
2015 Comilla Victorians
Career statistics
Competition FC LA T20
Matches 290 311 208
Runs scored 15,036 7,571 3,970
Batting average 35.21 29.69 26.82
100s/50s 33/76 7/46 0/17
Top score 208 147 90
Balls bowled 25,193 6,227 2,224
Wickets 463 157 114
Bowling average 26.09 31.74 25.65
5 wickets in innings 21 3 0
10 wickets in match 1 0 0
Best bowling 8/75 6/25 4/14
Catches/stumpings 194/– 127/– 65/–
Source: CricInfo, 26 September 2018

Darren Ian Stevens (born 30 April 1976) is an English cricketer. An all-rounder, he bats right handed and bowls right-arm medium-pace.[1] Since his debut in first-class cricket he has played County Cricket for Leicestershire and Kent, as well as featuring for the England Lions and winning the Bangladesh Premier League with both Dhaka Gladiators and Comilla Victorians.

Though his career began slowly with only four County Championship appearances between 1997 and 1999, Stevens made his mark with a century against Sussex which attracted the attention of former England batsman Colin Cowdrey. With the departure of several leading batsmen, Stevens secured a regular county place with Leicestershire and was taken on development tours of Australia in 2003. After moving to Kent in 2004 he began with a prolific season - 1,277 runs in first-class cricket - and improved his bowling. By 2012 he was a prolific scorer in the Championship and in Twenty20 competitions. He has gone on to pass 13,000 runs and 300 wickets in the first-class game. As well as playing in the Bangladesh Premier League, he has played for Mid West Rhinos in Zimbabwe and Otago in New Zealand.

Career

Born in Leicester, Stevens made his debut for his home county of Leicestershire in 1997. He was initially an opening batsman[2] and his first century came in his fourth match, two years later against Sussex.[3] This innings earned him a seal of approval (as well as a painting) from Colin Cowdrey.[1][4] He remained, however, on the fringes of the side with Aftab Habib and Ben Smith being preferred in the Leicestershire middle-order. After a strong season in 2002, when he scored 850 runs at an average of 32.69, he was called up to England's Academy squad in Australia[5] and was included in their 30-man squad for the 2003 Cricket World Cup.[6]

After two average seasons for Leicestershire, Stevens was released by his home county at the end of the 2004 season, along with Damian Brandy and George Walker.[7] He then joined Kent for the 2005 season.[8] He made a very good start to his Kent career, scoring over 1,000 runs in a season for the first time in his career.[1] 2006 proved to be disappointing by comparison, yet he still averaged 39. His performances in the Pro40 League, however, brought Kent to the verge of promotion.

In 2007 Stevens helped the Kent Spitfires win the Twenty20 Cup, scoring an unbeaten 30 including the winning runs, against Gloucestershire at Edgbaston.[9] However a week later he injured a groin muscle whilst top-scoring in Kent's victory over Durham[10] and did not bowl for the rest of the season. He played for Mid West Rhinos in the 2009–10 Stanbic Bank 20 Series in Zimbabwe and for Otago in New Zealand during the 2010–11 season.[11][12][13]

Stevens played for Dhaka Gladiators during the first two Bangladesh Premier League seasons in 2012 and 2013. On both occasions the team won the title.[14] In August 2013, Stevens was charged by the ICC for failing to report two corrupt approaches in connection to games in the BPL.[15][16][17] The charges were connected to allegations of match fixing within the Gladiators organisation which saw a total of nine people charged by the ICC.[18] In the last game of the 2013 season, Stevens hit 205 not out and believed that the knock could be his last ever innings.[19] In February 2014, Stevens was found not guilty by the tribunal.[14][15][18]

In September 2015 Kent announced that Stevens would be awarded a benefit year in 2016.[20][21] During the 2015 off-season he returned to Bangladesh to play in the third instalment of the Bangladesh Premier League, playing for Comilla Victorians.[14] He and Victorians captain Mashrafe Mortaza were the only players to have taken part in the first three BPL seasons.[22] The team won the 2015 Bangladesh Premier League title with Stevens playing in the final, meaning that he was part of the winning franchise in three BPL titles.[22][23][24][25]

His highest first-class innings is 208, which he achieved while playing for Kent against Glamorgan in 2005.[4] His best bowling figures are 8 for 75, against Leicestershire in 2017.[26] He won Kent's Player of the Year award in 2005, 2010 and 2013.[4][27][28][29]

Career Best Performances

as of 15 September 2017

Batting Bowling
Score Fixture Venue Season Score Fixture Venue Season
FC 208 Kent v Glamorgan Canterbury 2005 8/75 Kent v Leicestershire Canterbury 2017
LA 147 Kent v Glamorgan Swansea 2017 5/32 Kent Spitfires v Scotland Edinburgh 2005
T20 90 Kent Spitfires v Surrey The Oval 2015 4/14 Kent Spitfires v Essex Eagles Chelmsford 2007

References

  1. 1 2 3 Cricinfo. "Darren Stevens player profile". Retrieved 8 November 2007.
  2. ↑ Lieu J (2017) County cricket’s ultimate survivor: a celebration of Darren Stevens, on 20th anniversary of his first-class debut, Daily Telegraph, 2017-04-19. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
  3. ↑ CricketArchive. "Sussex v Leicestershire in 1999". Retrieved 8 November 2007.
  4. 1 2 3 The Cricketer's Who's Who. Green Umbrella Publishing. 2007. pp. 598–599. ISBN 978-1-905828-26-5.
  5. ↑ Cricinfo (10 September 2002). "Stevens named in final Academy squad". Retrieved 8 November 2007.
  6. ↑ Cricinfo (7 December 2002). "England name initial 30-man World Cup squad". Retrieved 8 November 2007.
  7. ↑ "County release trio". BBC Sport. 21 September 2004. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  8. ↑ Cricinfo (3 November 2004). "Darren Stevens signs for Kent". Retrieved 8 November 2007.
  9. ↑ Cricinfo (4 August 2007). "Kent take Twenty20 in thrilling final". Retrieved 12 November 2007.
  10. ↑ BBC Sport (12 August 2007). "Stevens haul earns Kent victory". BBC News. Retrieved 12 November 2007.
  11. ↑ Cricket: Otago sign two English imports for Twenty20 Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine., Otago Daily Times, 2010-09-09. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  12. ↑ Cricket: New Otago import cuts to the chase. Otago Daily Times, 2010-09-27. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  13. ↑ Cricket: T20's big-hitters and fast-slingers to watch, New Zealand Herald, 2010-12-03. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  14. 1 2 3 Darren Stevens: Kent all-rounder defends Bangladesh return, BBC sport website, 2015-11-15. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
  15. 1 2 Kent's Darren Stevens cleared of involvement in Bangladesh corruption, The Guardian, 2014-02-26. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
  16. ↑ Darren Stevens: Kent all-rounder charged by ICC, BBC sport website, 2013-08-14. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  17. ↑ Darren Stevens: my two years of hell in anti-corruption spotlight, The Guardian, 2015-03-03. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  18. 1 2 Darren Stevens: Anti-corruption tribunal clears Kent all-rounder, BBC sport website, 2014-02-14. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
  19. ↑ Darren Stevens: Kent all-rounder proud after double century, BBC sport website, 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2013-11-18.
  20. ↑ Kent hand Stevens benefit year, England and Wales Cricket Board, 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  21. ↑ Darren Stevens earns benefit year at Kent, Canterbury Times, 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  22. 1 2 Stevens happy with timely franchise payments, ESPN cricinfo, 2015-12-16. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  23. ↑ Kapali 39* seals Comilla's tense title win, ESPN cricinfo, 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
  24. ↑ Darren Stevens wins third BPL T20 title with Comilla Victorians, Kent County Cricket Club, 2015-12-15. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
  25. ↑ Comilla Victorians v Barisal Bulls Dhaka Tribune, 2015-12-16. Retrieved 2015-12-16.
  26. ↑ http://www.skysports.com/live-scores/cricket/kent-v-surrey/12377
  27. ↑ Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2006. Kent County Cricket Club. 2006.
  28. ↑ BBC Sport (15 September 2010). "Darren Stevens' pride at being named Kent's top player". BBC News. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  29. ↑ Darren Stevens reflects on the 2013 season, Kent County Cricket Club, 2013-10-11. Retrieved 2015-12-15.
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