Chris Read

Chris Read Biography

Chris Read is a former English cricketer, born on 10th August 1978 in Paignton Devon. He was a wicket-keeper and right-handed batsman.

Although he could not enjoy much success in the national team, he was a legend in the first-class cricket, representing Nottinghamshire for 20 years. He holds the record of most dismissals for a Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper with 982 accounts.

Background

Read climbed up through the youth team to break into Devon’s first team by the age of 15. Devon’s young player of 1995 was picked by Gloucestershire in 1997.

On England A’s tour of Sri Lanka, Read made his first-class debut in early 1998 and toured Kenya in the same year. In May 1998, Read started his stint with Nottinghamshire against Durham.

Read’s 160 against Warwickshire two-weeks prior to the first test against New Zealand in 1999 fast-tracked him to England side.

Debut

Read had a quiet Test debut against New Zealand at Birmingham in July 1999, scoring one run. However, he cherished his debut behind the stump equaling a world record with eight dismissals.

A year later, Read did not get the opportunity to bat on ODI debut against South Africa in Bloemfontein in June 2000. In the next match, he displayed composure against Proteas bowling chipping with 26 runs.

Read again did not get batting chance in his only T20I game against Pakistan in August 2006 at Bristol.

Rise to Glory

Read was elected the Man of the Match for his brisk 27 runs in 15 balls against West Indies in April 2004 at Georgetown. The role of captaincy elevated Read’s run-thirst as Read fetched 9536 first-class runs at 44.14 since his last test in 2007.

The destructive batsman topped Nottinghamshire's highest run-getters chart scoring 1203 runs at 75.18 which helped them to second the county division one in 2009.

Low Points

Read could not produce even a glimpse of his domestic success in the international cricket and got axed from the national team several times. In his second test, Read ducked a slower ball Yorker assuming the beamer and got bowled by Cairns at Lord’s. Read averaged 18.94 (360 runs) in 15 tests and 17.64 (300 runs) in 36 ODI’s.

Read's Record in Numbers

Read grabbed Paul Collingwood against Durham to scale the cliff of 1000 first-class dismissals, the first English wicket-keeper in 18 years to achieve it.

Captaincy

Read captained Nottinghamshire in all formats from 2008-2013 and since 2014 he only led the team in first-class and 50-over matches. As skipper, he has County Championship, YB40/40 Cup, 50-over Royal London trophy in his cabinet.

Retirement

Read retired from all formats of the game, playing a heroic knock of 124 in his last game against Sussex in the County Championship Division Two at Brighton in September 2017 and promoted his team to the top tier of the domestic circuit.

Post-retirement, he will take up the role of the director of cricket at Uppingham School in Rutland and join Nottinghamshire as a part-time coach.