Christopher David Whelan (born 8 May 1986 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

) is an English

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium bowler, who has represented

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

and

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

. He came through the ranks at Sefton Park CC, taking a 1st XI hat-trick at

Lytham Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 42,954 ...

aged 16, and scored a record 177

not out In cricket, a batter is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batter is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at t ...

for his school, St Margaret's, in an under-15 final. Whelan played for Middlesex's second team in 2003, but made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut on 2 September 2004, when he appeared against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in a

totesport League The NatWest Pro40 League was a one-day cricket league for first-class cricket counties in England and Wales. It was inaugurated in 1999, but was essentially the old Sunday League retitled to reflect large numbers of matches being played on days o ...

game at

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

. In a crushing 135-run defeat, Whelan's success was very limited: he returned an

analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (38 ...

of 7–0–40–0 and scored 6 at the bottom of the order (by which time Middlesex's cause had long since been lost). Early in 2005, Whelan was named by the ''

Liverpool Echo The ''Liverpool Echo'' is a newspaper published by Trinity Mirror North West & North Wales – a subsidiary company of Reach plc and is based in St Paul's Square, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is published Monday to Sunday, and is Liverp ...

'' as Merseyside Young Sports Personality of the Year. He was quoted by the newspaper as saying that he had been encouraged by

John Emburey John Ernest Emburey (born 20 August 1952) is a former English first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Western Province, Berkshire and England. According to cricket writer Colin Bateman, Emburey's participation in two S ...

. In early May, he made his first-class debut in a

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

match against

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

, and took three wickets. His first victim was

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

international

Sean Ervine Sean Michael Ervine (born 6 December 1982) is a Zimbabwean former cricketer. Ervine played as an all-rounder who batted left-handed and bowled right-arm medium pace. Ervine was born at Harare in Zimbabwe and played for his country in the 2003 ...

, whose wicket he claimed in both innings. He also turned out against Cambridge UCCE at the start of June, but made no other first-team appearances that season. In 2006 Whelan made a solitary List A appearance, this coming against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

. The following summer he managed three List A games and one first-class outing against Oxford UCCE, though he never managed more than two wickets in an innings. After the 2007 season, he left Middlesex and moved to Worcestershire. He told the ''Liverpool Echo'' in 2008 that he had become "stale" at Middlesex, and that he had thought the county "a very political place with a lot of favourites around the dressing room." Whelan enjoyed an immediate run in the Worcestershire first team in first-class and

one-day cricket Limited overs cricket, also known as one-day cricket or white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed in one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty ...

. Although he again could not claim more than two wickets in any innings, on his return to the second team for the local derby with

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

seconds, he produced an outstanding performance. Whelan took 6–79 in the first innings, then followed that up with 6–22 (for match figures of 12–101) to help dismiss Warwickshire for a mere 77 and set up a 53-run Worcestershire victory. Whelan then returned to first-team action, and in June returned his best List A figures of 4–78 against the

New Zealanders New Zealanders ( mi, Tāngata Aotearoa), colloquially known as Kiwis (), are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common history, culture, and language (New Zealand English). People of various ethnicities and national origins are citiz ...

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

Notes

External links

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Christopher Whelan
from CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Whelan, Chris 1986 births Living people English cricketers Middlesex cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Cricketers from Liverpool Shropshire cricketers