Steven John Croft (born 11 October 1984) 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 who has played for

Lancashire County Cricket Club Lancashire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Lancashire in English cricket. The club has held first-class status since it was founded in 1864. Lancashire's home is Old Trafford Cricket Ground, although the team also play ...

since 2005. He bats right-handed and can bowl both

medium-fast Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

and

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 spi ...

s. In 2008 Croft was given the Lancashire members' Player of the Year and One-Day Player of the Year awards. In 2008/09 he played for the

Auckland Aces The Auckland cricket team represent the Auckland region and are one of six New Zealand domestic first class cricket teams. Governed by the Auckland Cricket Association they are the most successful side having won 28 Plunket Shield titles, ten ...

in New Zealand as an overseas player. Awarded his Lancashire cap in 2010, Croft was part of the Lancashire team that won the County Championship in 2011.

Career

Born in

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

, Lancashire, Croft made his debut for the Lancashire Second XI at the age of 16, in May 2001. He made his first-class Lancashire debut in 2005, having previously made his list A debut for the Lancashire Cricket Board in 2002. He spent the winters of 2005–06 and 2006–07 playing club cricket in Australia. Croft finished the 2008 season with 585 first-class runs in thirteen matches, with an average of 32.50. He hit one century, his maiden hundred a 122 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 ...

and three fifties. In one-day matches, he hit 279 runs from thirteen matches, averaging 31. He was also the club's leading wicket-taker with fourteen, at an average of 21.71. In Twenty20 matches he hit 134 runs from eleven matches and took six wickets. He also won the Player of the Month award for August. In September 2008 Croft won two awards for the 2008 season winning the club's members Player of the Year award and the one-day Player of the Year award. At the start of August 2010, Croft was awarded his

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

. Croft signed a contract to become the overseas player at

, one of six first-class teams clubs in New Zealand for the

State championship New Zealand has had a domestic first-class cricket championship since the 1906–07 season. Since the 2009–10 season it has been known by its original name of the Plunket Shield. History The Plunket Shield competition was instigated in Octob ...

for the 2008–09 season. In eight first-class matches, he scored 330 runs, including two half-centuries, and averaged 36.66. Croft also played ten list A matches, amassing 209 runs with a single score above 50. During a drawn County Championship match against

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 ...

in August 2011, Croft scored the second century of his first-class career, and his first in three years. He passed 3,000 first-class runs in the innings of 122 from 182 balls, which equalled his highest score. Though there was a three-year gap between his first and second centuries, in the next County Championship match Croft scored a third, this time an innings of 107 in a Lancashire victory over

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 ...

. On 15 September 2011, Croft scored the winning runs as Lancashire beat

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 , lord_ ...

at Taunton to clinch the County Championship outright for the first time since 1934. Croft played in all 16 Championship matches and finished with 825 runs at an average of 31.73, making him the club's fourth highest run-scorer (only two Lancashire batsmen managed over- 1,000 runs in the 2011 season). Lancashire began their title defence poorly, with three losses from their first four County Championship matches. The batsmen struggled in particular, and it was not until the third County Championship match that one of them scored a century. Against a Somerset bowling attack depleted through injury, Croft scored his fourth first-class century. In June 2021, in the

2021 t20 Blast The 2021 Vitality Blast was the 2021 season of the T20 Blast, a professional Twenty20 cricket league played in England and Wales. It was the fourth season in which the domestic T20 competition, run by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), t ...

, Croft played in his 200th T20 match. He made his maiden T20 100 in June 2023, scoring 101 in a win against Northants.https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/vitality-blast-2023-1347399/northamptonshire-vs-lancashire-north-group-1347645/match-report

Personal life

Croft was educated at Highfield Humanities College in his hometown of Blackpool and

Myerscough College Myerscough College (pronounced as ''Myers-coe'') is a Higher and Further Education college near Bilsborrow on the Fylde in Lancashire, England. Origins Myerscough College was founded on 15 March 1894 as the ''Lancashire County Institute of Agr ...

in Bilsborrow on the Fylde. He has twice been the half-time guest at the club's home games at

Bloomfield Road Bloomfield Road is a single-tier football stadium in Blackpool, Lancashire, England, which has been the home of Blackpool F.C. since 1901. It is the third stadium in the club's existence, the previous two being Raikes Hall Gardens and the ...

, firstly against

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

on 21 October 2008. and again on 30 November 2009 during the

West Lancashire derby The West Lancashire derby (sometimes also known as the '' M55 derby'') is a local rivalry in English football between Lancashire clubs Blackpool and Preston North End. The derby has taken place across all four tiers of English football, but not t ...

against

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional football club in Preston, Lancashire, England, who currently play in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league syste ...

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Steven Lancashire cricketers Auckland cricketers Northern Districts cricketers 1984 births English cricketers Sportspeople from Blackpool Living people Lancashire Cricket Board cricketers Articles containing video clips Lancashire cricket captains Cricketers from Lancashire