Martin John Saggers (born 23 May 1972) is an English county cricket umpire and a retired English cricketer. He played international cricket for the

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engl ...

, including appearing in three Test matches and spent the majority of his

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 officia ...

career at Kent County Cricket Club. Saggers was born in King's Lynn in

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

. Saggers had little success in his three seasons with

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

between 1996 and 1998, but then joined Kent and from 2000 to 2003 took more than 50 first-class wickets each year, his best being 83 in 2002. He also played 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 ...

on loan in 2007. He played for his native

in minor county matches in 1995–6. Saggers made his

Test match Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

debut in 2003/04, as a replacement for the injured

Andrew Flintoff Andrew "Freddie" Flintoff (born 6 December 1977) is an English television and radio presenter and former international cricketer. Flintoff played all forms of the game and was one of the sport's leading all-rounders, a fast bowler, middle-ord ...

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

, and also played in two of the three Tests against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

the following summer. At

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popula ...

he took the wicket of Mark Richardson with his first ball, but some wayward bowling and poor performances with the bat led to his being dropped for the games against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

. With the bat, he scored 1, 0 and 0 in three innings, finishing his Test career with a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 0.33. Saggers suffered a knee injury in August 2009, and a month later announced his retirement from professional cricket. Graham Johnson, Kent's chairman of cricket, paid tribute to Saggers, saying "We owe Martin a great deal, especially during a period when he was our seam attack. Quite rightly, on the basis of this success, he received recognition at International level. Always enthusiastic and positive during his career, he will carry these qualities into his plans for what follows after cricket". In 2012 Saggers became a full-time cricket umpire, standing 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 ...

matches in England.Saggers promoted to full umpires list
CricInfo, 2011-11-11. Retrieved 2016-04-08.Martin Saggers - from Test cricketer to first-class umpire
BBC Sport, 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2016-04-08. In 2020, he was appointed to the ICC International Umpires' Panel. In January 2022, he was named as one of the on-field umpires for the 2022 ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup in the West Indies.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saggers, Martin 1972 births Living people Cricketers from King's Lynn Durham cricketers England Test cricketers English cricket umpires English cricketers English One Day International cricket umpires English Twenty20 International cricket umpires Essex cricketers Kent cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Minor Counties cricketers Norfolk cricketers

See also

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