John Crawley's

Profile

About Creepy

It all started back in the very hot summer of 1976. My father, Frank, had cut down an old bat that both my brothers had used and planed the bottom rear side to enhance the pick-up. I always consider myself extremely fortunate to have grown up in the surrounds of a very loving family and, while there may have been little love lost in competition between three brothers, that environment was critical to shaping the person and cricketer I became.

To think that now, 32 years on, I would have had the opportunity to represent my country 50 times, to have been on eight senior England tours, see the world in style and play in six lords final at domestic level, beggars belief sometimes. What is guaranteed is that, had that been offered to me as a five-year old boy, the offer would have been accepted without any hesitation whatsoever. As important to me, if not more, is to be sitting here now writing this, with a wonderful, truly magical, family of my own. All I can possibly do is try to emulate the kind of opportunities that I was afforded in my formative stages.

I was very lucky to grow up with two older brothers. Being the youngest meant a necessary desire to compete with older and wiser heads and fostered an enjoyment of games and competition from a very early age. Some of my first memories are of playing sport with my brothers – cricket and soccer predominantly – in the confines of our beautiful house in Appleton. Such was our obvious enjoyment that my father spent many a working hour setting up facilities to help us enjoy and progress. So much so that he set up a full scale cricket net in a corner of the drive which was laid in concrete and an old rubber conveyor belt sat atop – this was magnificent, especially when wet, as the ball positively fizzed through. An old ball was also suspended on a string in the garage for fun and practice – it should have been just for grooving shots etc but, sorry dad! the temptation was too much for me to resist smashing it into the roof timbers and the occasional light! Soccer was no different – a fantastic pitch with goals and neither was golf- a full scale putting green with 6 holes cut out and manicured by my father on an almost daily basis. I am eternally grateful for all that my parents and family did for me – the endless cab services to grounds in the summer and winter (endless is no understatement since one summer, before the ECB controls were put in place, I played cricket on every single day of a summer holiday and that was just me – there were two other brothers involved in games too!)

There is no way I could have got to where am without the help of so many people and I have dedicated a separate thank you section later. However to my family, and especially my late mother Jean – who acted as referee, motivator, consoler and magician- I thank you and salute you.

Again, I was very lucky to be involved in a great school (MGS) and great clubs along the way. All the people at Warrington and Farnworth cricket clubs and Cambridge University Cricket Club helped my game and development as a person an enormous amount and this is all before entering the world of professional sport.

I have always felt very lucky to be talented enough to play sport for a living. It has reinforced the values that were instilled from those games at home from an early age. It teaches you commitment, enjoyment and respect (these still remain as our 3 primary team values at Hampshire) and, moreover, it teaches you that the team comes first no matter what the situation with an individual – you are just a simple cog in a much bigger and more complicated machine.

I have to say that it hasn’t been a smooth ride all the way. I had a truly magnificent 11 years at Lancashire and made many great friends along the way – players, management and supporters – and it is always very humbling when I go back there and receive the fantastic ovation walking out to bat. However what unfolded in the 12th year was truly one of the low points of my career. My wife was pregnant with our first child and crazy lack of commonsense meant that legal wrangles that started in September were allowed to run into the last week of March 2002. As I say, there is a dedicated section for thankyous later but, at this stage, I must thank firstly Robin Smith for putting me in touch with Hampshire, secondly to my father for his unwavering support throughout the whole issue and, most of all, to Rod Bransgrove for his unbelievable loyalty and support throughout the whole affair. Many lesser men would have backed out when the going got tough but Rod just got tougher and saw the thing through for which I am eternally grateful. I simply would have retired from cricket if I had to continue at Lancashire and I would have really regretted and missed being involved with this great club.

I have been very fortunate to have been involved with Hampshire and really believe it is the greatest club in England. The set up and facilities are fantastic, the fans as loyal and supportive as anywhere in the world and the staff have been as helpful and hard-working as I have ever witnessed. What Nigel Gray has been able to achieve with the settling pitch has been the mark of a genius.

Along the way I have also been very lucky to play with and against some of the true greats of the game – Wasim and Murali at Lancashire and, now, Shane Warne at Hampshire. Just playing with these guys is a privilege but all three of them, especially Shane, are truly remarkable not just in their skills on the field but what they impart as knowledge and confidence to their team-mates. It really has been an honour and the great thing about cricket is that it breeds good, honest people who have to be level headed and self-examining to succeed and thrive in a truly tough environment. It is a testament to the calibre of cricketers that, in 19 years of playing professionally, I can count on one hand the number of players that I would choose not to socialise with and have lost count of the number of great blokes that I would share a beer or ten with!

Many people say that I have been unlucky not to play more for England but I have not a single regret from a cricketing point of view – I had many chances with England and just couldn’t quite perform consistently well enough against some of the very fine attacks of the nineties to really nail a regular place in the side. My only real regret is that my late mother was not around to see the hundred I made at Lords in her memory in 2002 and, more importantly, the birth and development of my two wonderful children, George and Ellie. The memories are still there but one thing you cannot do is turn back time.

A good part of this year will be spent helping the Hampshire branch of The Multiple Sclerosis Society- a horrific disease that afflicted my mother for a long period before her early death in 2001. I hope we can raise good funds for this worthwhile charity at the specified events. Also some of the proceeds will go towards the PCA benevolent fund that helps cricketers past and present if they fall on tough times.

There is one main trophy that the teams that I have been involved have just missed out on and this is the County Championship. So, let’s hope that 2008 can be a great year of fun, success and enjoyment for Hampshire and let’s bring that Championship home!!

Yours,

Creepy

Top of the page | Website Thank Yous

Batting and Fielding Average

Category	M	I	NO	Runs	HS	Ave	100	50	SRate	Ct	St
Test Career Batting and Fielding (1994-2002/03)
England	37	61	9	1800	156*	34.61	4	9	39.22	29	-
First Class Career Batting and Fielding (1990-2007)
Overall	334	554	56	23637	311*	47.46	53	129	-	211	1
One-Day International Career Batting and Fielding (1994/95-1998/99)
England	13	12	1	235	73	21.36	0	2	57.59	1	1
One-Day Career Batting and Fielding (1991-2007)
Overall	300	286	23	8457	114	32.15	7	54	-	94	4
Twenty20 Career Batting and Fielding (2003-2004)
Overall	10	10	1	107	23	11.88	0	0	73.28	3	-
Youth Test Career Batting and Fielding (1989-1991)
England Young Cricketers	13	24	3	1058	130	50.38	3	5	-	11	-
Youth One-Day International Career Batting and Fielding (1989/90-1991)
England Young Cricketers	9	9	0	292	89	32.44	0	2	-	1	-

Bowling Average

Category	Balls	Mdns	Runs	Wkts	BB	Ave	5wl	10wM	SRate	Econ
First-Class Career Bowling (1991-2007)
Overall	215	1	283	2	1-7	141.50	0	0	107.50	7.89
One-Day Career Bowling (1997)
Overall	6	0	4	0	0-4	-	-	-	-	4.00
Youth Test Career Bowling (1990/91)
England Young Cricketers	24	0	31	0	0-31	-	-	-	-	7.75

Top of the page | Website Thank yous