Mark Lewis Pettini (born 7 August 1983) 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 str ...

er who has played domestically for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

and from 2016 for Leicestershire. He is a right-handed batsman and very occasional wicket-keeper and right-arm medium-pace bowler.

Playing style

An aggressive batsman, Pettini specialises in one-day cricket, where he usually opens the batting so as to make use of the batting powerplay in the early overs. In

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 ...

cricket, he bats in the middle order. He fields in a wide range of positions, but usually fielded at mid-off during his time as captain. His bowling is very rarely used, and when it is used, it is often in a declaration agreement.

Playing career

An expert in the limited-overs game, he was one of the key cameo figures in Essex's 2005 domestic one-day league title winning season, having previously gained experience as an England Under-19 player, having played twice against

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

during their English tour of 2002. Instrumental in achieving promotion for Essex during 2002, Pettini is known for his aggressive style of play. He has participated in the Twenty20 Cup each year since 2003, achieving a solid record in this competition. His highest first-class score is 208

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 ...

, made against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

in September 2006. Later the same month, against Leicestershire in the last match of the 2006 County Championship, he hit 114 not out from 29 balls, but this innings was made against "declaration" bowling and so was not eligible for the

Walter Lawrence Trophy The Walter Lawrence Trophy is an annual award made to the player who has scored the fastest century in English domestic county cricket that season, in terms of balls received (not counting wides). Hundreds are considered by a panel of experts ...

, nor did it count as a first-class record. In July 2007, Pettini was included in England's provisional squad of 30 for the inaugural

Twenty20 World Cup The ICC Men's T20 World Cup (earlier known as ICC World Twenty20) is the international championship of Twenty20. Organised by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the tournament consists of 16 teams, comprising t ...

, but a loss of form cost him a place in the final squad for the tournament. In June 2007, Pettini became permanent captain of Essex County Cricket Club following the retirement of

Ronnie Irani Ronald Charles Irani (born 26 October 1971) is a former England cricketer who played Tests and ODIs for England. He played only three Tests for England, with decidedly mixed success, but found a niche in One Day Internationals, where he gained muc ...

due to a knee injury. He had earlier held the job on a temporary basis while Irani was sidelined. At the start of the 2008 season, Pettini decided to move from opener to number five in the Essex batting order in four-day cricket. This change was made due to his indifferent batting form during the second half of the 2007 season. However, he would continue as an opening batsman in one-day cricket. Pettini began 2008 in superb form, hitting 153 not out against Cambridge UCCE, 80 not out in the LV County Championship Division Two opener against Northamptonshire at Chelmsford and 119 in Essex's first

Friends Provident Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scotland and Ireland. La ...

South East Division match against Kent at Canterbury. However, in Essex's next match, a county championship match against Derbyshire at Derby, Pettini was forced to miss the second and third days' play after suffering an astigmatism in his eye. He travelled to Cambridge to see a specialist for treatment. The eye problem would flare up again just a day before the county's Friends Provident Trophy final against Kent at Lord's. Pettini's form tailed off somewhat, but he did hit a match-winning 144 against the Surrey Brown Caps in a Friends Provident Trophy match at

the Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

on 11 May 2008. That game saw Essex score 391–5 from their 50 overs

On 16 August 2008, Pettini captained Essex to victory in the Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord's. He scored 10 opening the batting as the Eagles beat Kent Spitfires by five wickets to lift their first one-day knockout trophy since 1997

Pettini's father, Max Pettini, Max, is an

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies – in either ...

. Mark himself graduated with an astronomy degree from Cardiff University and has a keen interest in the subject. He is also a keen fisherman and loves darts, attending a number of PDC events with best friend

Alastair Cook Sir Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an English cricketer who plays for Essex County Cricket Club, and played for England in all international formats from 2006 to 2018. A former captain of the England Test and One-Day Intern ...

. During the 2008 season, Pettini stated on his

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

profile that his sporting hero is

Sid Waddell Sid Waddell (10 August 1940 – 11 August 2012) was an English sports commentator and television personality. He was nicknamed the 'Voice of Darts' due to his fame as a darts commentator, and worked for Granada, Yorkshire, BBC and Sky Sports. D ...

. Pettini also wrote a weekly column called "Pett Sounds" in the ''Southend Echo'' and ''Colchester Gazette'' newspapers. After some poor form with the bat, Pettini decided to resign his county captaincy for all forms of the game in June 2010. James Foster took over as Essex captain. Pettini then took a few weeks off to work on his batting. At the end of the 2015 season, Pettini was announced as moving from Essex to Leicestershire.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pettini, Mark 1983 births English cricketers Living people Essex cricketers Essex cricket captains English people of Italian descent Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Sportspeople from Brighton