Gary Joseph Pratt (born 22 December 1981) is an English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er and

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

, best known for running out the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

cricket captain

Ricky Ponting Ricky Thomas Ponting (born 19 December 1974) is an Australian cricket coach, commentator, and former cricketer. Ponting was captain of the Australian national team during its "golden era", between 2004 and 2011 in Test cricket and 2002 and 20 ...

during the

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

2–1 win in the

2005 Ashes series The 2005 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 21 July 2005, England and Australia played five Tests, with the Ashes held by Australia as the most recent victors. ...

. Pratt is primarily a left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

but also bowls right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which sp ...

s. Pratt performed well in his early career, picking up the NBC Denis Compton Award in 1999 as the most promising young player at

Durham County Cricket Club Durham County Cricket Club (rebranded as Durham Cricket in February 2019) is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Durham. Founded in 1882, D ...

, and scored a century for England Under 19s. He stayed on at Durham, scoring more than 1000 first-class runs in 2003. Pratt has failed to match that form since. He did not play a single first-class game in 2005 (although he famously appeared as a substitute fielder for England) and in August 2006, Durham announced that they had decided not to renew Pratt's contract. He has since appeared for Crook Town F.C. in a

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fixture against

Brandon United F.C. Brandon United Football Club is a football club based in Brandon, County Durham, England. They are currently members of the and play at the Welfare Ground. History The club was established in 1968 as the works team of a waste paper company, an ...

He signed for

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th c ...

minor county cricket club for the 2007 cricket season.

Statistics and records

Pratt's best year as a first-class cricketer was undoubtedly 2003, when he scored 1,055 runs. His highest score in first-class cricket is 150, achieved while batting for Durham against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It ...

at the

Riverside Ground The Riverside Ground, known for sponsorship reasons as the Seat Unique Riverside, is a cricket venue in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, England. It is home to Durham County Cricket Club, and has also hosted several international matches. H ...

in 2003. His highest one-day score is 101 *, achieved for Durham versus

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lor ...

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

in 2003.

Ponting run out

Pratt is most famous for his

run out Run out is a method of dismissal in cricket, governed by Law 38 of the Laws of Cricket. A run out usually occurs when the batsmen are attempting to run between the wickets, and the fielding team succeed in getting the ball to one wicket be ...

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captain

Trent Bridge Trent Bridge Cricket Ground is a cricket ground mostly used for Test, One-Day International and county cricket located in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, just across the River Trent from the city of Nottingham. Trent Bridge is also ...

in the

., England & Wales Cricket Board Brought on to field as a substitute, Pratt was fielding at cover when

Damien Martyn Damien Richard Martyn (born 21 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer, who played Tests and ODIs. He played for the national team sporadically in 1992–1994 before becoming a regular ODI player from 1999 to 20 ...

tapped the ball in his direction and attempted a quick single. Pratt duly threw down the stumps at the striker's end with Ponting considerably short of his ground. This moment is remembered as one of the most important turning points during the series, with Ponting looking well set for a big score at the time. The dismissal prompted an angry outburst from the batsman, who was seen shouting up at the

balcony towards Duncan Fletcher, unhappy at England's frequent use of substitute fielders during the series. Ironically, although England may have used substitute fielders to rest bowlers between spells, this appearance by Pratt was not among them: he was replacing Simon Jones, who had been taken to hospital with an ankle injury; it was to be Jones' last test. The run out earned him a place on the open top bus parade following the series victory. Since the incident, Pratt has acquired a small following of grateful English fans. He had the dubious honour of having the

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

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Cricket AM ''Cricket AM'' was a Saturday-morning cricket-based television programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on Sky Sports 1. It began broadcasting in May 2006, and is largely based on its successful football-related counterpart ''Soccer AM'', as a ...

named the 'Gary Pratt Pavilion'. England fan organisation the

Barmy Army The Barmy Army is a company that provides tickets and arranges touring parties for some of its members to follow the English cricket team in the UK and overseas. The Barmy Army was at first an informal group, but was later turned into a company li ...

planned to fly Pratt out to Australia for the

2006–07 Ashes series The 2006–07 cricket series between Australia and England for The Ashes was played in Australia from 23 November 2006 to 5 January 2007. Australia won the series and regained the Ashes that had been lost to England in the 2005 series. The five ...

as a good-luck charm, but failed to find sponsorship for his plane fare. Pratt felt that the event that thrust him into the cricketing limelight was also the one that quickened his dramatic fall from grace, ignoring his skill with the bat: "I was just known for fielding afterwards, and I didn't really want that." he was working at a cricketing equipment shop and skippers Cumberland, where he has scored ten Championship hundreds.

References

External links

*
England's supersub brought back down to earth

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Gary 1981 births Durham cricketers English cricketers English footballers Living people Sportspeople from Bishop Auckland Cricketers from County Durham Cumberland cricketers Crook Town A.F.C. players Durham Cricket Board cricketers NBC Denis Compton Award recipients Durham cricket captains Cumberland cricket captains Association football forwards Association football midfielders