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Leicestershire County Cricket Club

(Redirected from Leicestershire Foxes)

Leicestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Leicestershire. It has also been representative of the county of Rutland. The club's limited overs team is called the Leicestershire Foxes. Founded in 1879, the club had minor county status until 1894, when it was promoted to first-class status pending its entry into the County Championship in 1895.[1] Since then, Leicestershire have played in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England.

Leicestershire County Cricket Club
One Day nameLeicestershire Foxes
Personnel
CaptainIan Holland
Ben Green (T20)
CoachAlfonso Thomas
Overseas player(s)Nick Kelly
Ajaz Patel
Jake Weatherald
Ashton Turner (T20)
Chief executiveEmma White
Team information
Founded1879; 147 years ago (1879)
Home groundGrace Road, Leicester
Capacity6,000 cricket matches / 19,999 concerts
History
First-class debutMCC
in 1895
at Lord's
Championship wins3
Pro40 wins2
FP Trophy wins0
One-Day Cup wins1
Twenty20 Cup wins3
Benson & Hedges Cup wins3
Official websiteLeicestershireCCC

First-class

One-day

T20

Grace Road cricket ground, Leicester
The Pavilion End
The Bennett End

The club is based at Grace Road in Leicester, known as The Uptonsteel County Ground for sponsorship reasons, and has also played home games at Aylestone Road in Leicester, at Hinckley, Loughborough, Melton Mowbray, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Coalville and most recently Kibworth inside the traditional county boundaries of Leicestershire, and at Oakham, in Rutland.

In limited overs cricket, the kit colours are red shirt with green trousers in the One Day Cup and green shirt and green trousers in the T20 Blast. The shirt sponsors in the 2024 season were UptonSteel.

Leicestershire are in the first division of the County Championship and in the north group of the T20 Blast. Recent best performances in one day cricket include winning the T20 Cup three times in eight years between 2004–11, and the One Day Cup in 2023. In first class cricket, Leicestershire won the 2025 second division title in the County Championship.

Honours

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First XI honours

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Runners-up (2) – 1982, 1994
Runners-up: 1972, 2001
Runners-up: 1992, 2001
Runners-up: 1974, 1998

Second XI honours

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Runners-up: 1961, 1975

+ 1 Bain Hogg Trophy – second XI one-day competition – 1996

History

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Earliest cricket

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Cricket may not have reached Leicestershire until well into the 18th century. A notice in the Leicester Journal dated 17 August 1776 is the earliest known mention of cricket in the county. Soon afterwards, a Leicestershire and Rutland Cricket Club was taking part in important matches, mainly against Nottingham Cricket Club and Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). This club was prominent from 1781 until the beginning of the 19th century.

19th century

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Little more is heard of Leicestershire cricket until the formation of the present club on 25 March 1879.

Essex CCC versus Leicestershire CCC at Leyton on 14, 15 & 16 May 1894 was the first first-class match for both clubs. In 1895, the County Championship was restructured into a 14-team competition with the introduction of Essex, Leicestershire and Warwickshire CCC.

Early and mid-20th century

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Leicestershire's first 70 years were largely spent in lower table mediocrity, with few notable exceptions. In 1953, the motivation of secretary-captain Charles Palmer lifted the side fleetingly to third place, but most of the rest of the 1950s was spent propping up the table, or thereabouts.

Start of improvement: The late 1950s and the 1960s

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Change came in the late 1950s with the recruitment of the charismatic Willie Watson at the end of a distinguished career with England and Yorkshire. Watson's run gathering sparked the home-grown Maurice Hallam into becoming one of England's best opening batsmen. In bowling, Leicestershire had an erratically successful group of seamers in Terry Spencer, Brian Boshier, John Cotton and Jack van Geloven, plus the spin of John Savage.

Another change was in the captaincy: Tony Lock, the former England and Surrey spinner who had galvanised Western Australia.

The 1970s and the first golden era

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Ray Illingworth, again from Yorkshire, instilled self-belief to the extent that the county took its first ever trophy in 1972, the Benson & Hedges Cup with Chris Balderstone man of the match. This was start of the first golden era as the first of five trophies in five years and included Leicestershire's first ever County Championship title in 1975. A couple of runners up spots were also thrown in.[2]

The game when Leicestershire won their first ever County Championship, on 15 September 1975, marked something of a personal triumph for Chris Balderstone. Batting on 51 not out against Derbyshire at Chesterfield, after close of play he changed into his football kit to play for Doncaster Rovers in an evening match 30 miles away (a 1–1 draw with Brentford). Thus he is the only player to have played League Football and first-class cricket on the same day. He then returned to Chesterfield to complete a century the following morning and take three wickets to wrap up the title. To add to that season's success for Leicestershire was a second Benson & Hedges victory.[2]

The 1980s

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A runners-up spot in the 1982 County Championship brought some respectability, but the decade's only silverware was in the 1985 Benson & Hedges Cup with Balderstone still on board making him the most successful trophy winner in the club's history with six.[2]

Success in the late 1990s

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Leicestershire won the county championship in 1996, and again in 1998. This was an amazing achievement considering the resources of the club compared to other county teams. This Leicestershire side, led by Jack Birkenshaw and James Whitaker, used team spirit and togetherness to get the best out of a group of players who were either discarded from other counties or brought through the Leicestershire ranks.

This team did not have many stars, but Aftab Habib, Darren Maddy, Vince Wells, Jimmy Ormond, Alan Mullally and Chris Lewis all had chances for England. West Indian all-rounder Phil Simmons was also named as one of Wisden's Cricketers of the year in 1997 while playing for the club.

2000 and beyond: Twenty20 success and four-day struggles

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The advent of Twenty20 cricket saw Leicestershire find a new source of success, winning the domestic T20 competition in 2004, 2006 and 2011. However, in the era of two-division County Championship cricket during the 2000s, they were perenially unsuccessful. Leicestershire spent 22 consecutive years in the second division between 2004 and 2025, winning regular "wooden spoons"; and in 2013 and 2014 they finished without a single Championship win, the first team to achieve this unwanted feat in back to back seasons since Northamptonshire just before World War II. In 2023 they won their first trophy for 12 years, beating Hampshire at Trent Bridge to win the One Day Cup.[3] In 2025, Leicestershire won Division Two for the first time, finally gaining promotion back into the top tier of the competition for 2026.[4]

Grounds

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Current

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Previous

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Players

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Current squad

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  • No. denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt.
  • ‡ denotes players with international caps.
  •  *  denotes a player who has been awarded a county cap.
No. Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Notes
Batters
11Sol Budinger England21 August 1999 (age 26)Left-handedRight-arm off break
23Lewis Hill* England5 October 1990 (age 35)Right-handed—
26Rishi Patel* England26 July 1998 (age 27)Right-handedRight-arm leg break
28Stephen Eskinazi England28 March 1994 (age 32)Right-handed—
55Nick Kelly ‡ New Zealand25 July 1993 (age 32)Left-handedSlow left-arm orthodoxOverseas player
66Jake Weatherald ‡ Australia4 November 1994 (age 31)Left-handedRight-arm leg breakOverseas player
All-rounders
6Ben Green England28 September 1997 (age 28)Right-handedRight-arm mediumCaptain (T20)
8Ben Mike England24 August 1998 (age 27)Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
22Ian Holland ‡ United States3 October 1990 (age 35)Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumClub captain;
UK Passport
53Rehan Ahmed* ‡ England13 August 2004 (age 21)Right-handedRight-arm leg breakEngland central contract
70Ashton Turner ‡ Australia25 January 1993 (age 33)Right-handedRight-arm off breakOverseas player (T20 only)
80Liam Trevaskis England18 April 1999 (age 27)Left-handedSlow left-arm orthodox
Wicket-keepers
7Ben Cox England2 February 1992 (age 34)Right-handed–
12Jonny Tattersall England15 December 1994 (age 31)Right-handedRight-arm leg break
Bowlers
19Sam Wood England11 September 2004 (age 21)Left-handedRight-arm fast-medium
20Josh Hull ‡ England20 August 2004 (age 21)Left-handedLeft-arm fast-mediumEngland development contract
21Ajaz Patel ‡ New Zealand21 October 1988 (age 37)Left-handedSlow left-arm orthodoxOverseas player
30Yadvinder Singh India18 January 1996 (age 30)Right-handedRight-arm fast-mediumDomestic player
38Josh Davey ‡ Scotland3 August 1990 (age 35)Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
43Alex Green England24 February 2007 (age 19)Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
88Tom Scriven England18 November 1998 (age 27)Right-handedRight-arm fast-medium
Source:[5] Updated: 28 March 2026

Former captains

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International players

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Members of the 2007 squad warming up

Records

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Most first-team winners medals for Leicestershire

  • J. C. Balderstone – 6

Batting

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  • Highest team total: 756-4d v. Sussex, Hove, 2022
  • Highest home team total: 638-8d v. Worcestershire, Grace Road, 1996
  • Lowest team total: 25 v. Kent, Leicester, 1912
  • Highest total against: 761-6d by Essex, Chelmsford, 1990
  • Lowest total against: 24 by Glamorgan, Leicester, 1971
  • Highest individual score: 309* by HD Ackerman v. Glamorgan, Sophia Gardens, 2006.
  • Highest home individual score: 262 by Brad Hodge v. Durham, Grace Road, 2004
  • Highest partnership: 477* by C. N. Ackermann and P. W. A. Mulder v. Sussex, Hove, 2022

Best partnership for each wicket (county championship)

  • 1st – 390 B. Dudleston and J. F. Steele v. Derbyshire, Leicester, 1979
  • 2nd – 320 Hassan Azad and N. J. Dexter v. Gloucestershire, Leicester, 2019
  • 3rd – 316* W. Watson and A. Wharton v. Somerset, Taunton, 1961
  • 4th – 290* P. Willey and T. J. Boon v. Warwickshire, Leicester, 1984
  • 5th – 477* C. N. Ackermann and P. W. A. Mulder v. Sussex, Hove, 2022
  • 6th – 284 P. V. Simmons and P. A. Nixon v. Durham, Chester-le-Street, 1996
  • 7th – 219* J. D. R. Benson and P. Whitticase v. Hampshire, Bournemouth, 1991
  • 8th – 239 L. P. J. Kimber and O. B. Cox v. Sussex, Hove, 2024
  • 9th – 160 R. T. Crawford and W. W. Odell v. Worcestershire, Leicester, 1902
  • 10th – 228 R. Illingworth and K. Higgs v. Northamptonshire, Leicester, 1977

Bowling

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Fielding

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  • Most dismissals in an innings: 7 by Neil Burns v. Somerset, Grace Road, 2001
  • Most dismissals in a match: 10 by Percy Corrall v. Sussex, Hove, 1936

Sub Academy

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The Leicestershire Sub Academy is designed for young cricketers who have potential to play at the highest level. It is also called the EPP (Emerging Player Programme). Many players who are involved in this set up move on to the LCCC academy, where they will play matches against academies from other counties.

References

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  1. ↑ A Guide to First-Class Cricket Matches Played in the British Isles. Nottingham. 1982. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. 1 2 3 "Queen of the South FC - Official website". Qosfc.com. Archived from the original on 7 April 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  3. ↑ "One-Day Cup final: Leicestershire beat Hampshire for first List A triumph in 38 years". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  4. ↑ "Leics win Div Two title after washout against Kent". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 September 2025.
  5. ↑ "First Team". Leicestershire CCC. Retrieved 28 March 2026.
  6. ↑ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 4 May 2013.
  7. ↑ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.com. Retrieved 4 May 2013.

Further reading

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