Warren Kevin Hegg (born 23 February 1968) is an English former professional

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 striki ...

er. He played

County Cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

for

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

. Although primarily a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

, Hegg was also a handy lower-order

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

, and made several first-class hundreds. He represented England in two

Test matches 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) ...

, however his international career was hampered due to England's selectors choosing

Alec Stewart Alec James Stewart (born 8 April 1963) is an English former cricketer, and former captain of the England cricket team, who played Test cricket and One Day Internationals as a right-handed wicket-keeper-batsman. He is the fourth-most-capped Eng ...

to act as an

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

. Hegg represented Lancashire for 19 years, captaining them for three between 2002 and 2004. He retired from competitive cricket in 2005.

Career

Lancashire's first choice wicket-keeper

Hegg made his first-class debut for Lancashire in 1986, and remained with the county for his entire career. Retrieved on 21 December 2008. In 1989 he set a Lancashire record when he held 11 catches in a single match first-class match; this feat, achieved 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 ...

, is the equal fifth most dismissals in a match by a wicket-keeper. One of Hegg's finest moments came on 12 June 1996 when playing for Lancashire against Yorkshire in the semi-final of the

Benson & Hedges Cup The Benson & Hedges Cup was a one-day cricket competition for first-class counties in England and Wales that was held from 1972 to 2002, one of cricket's longest sponsorship deals. It was the third major one-day competition established in Englan ...

. Chasing 251 to win, Lancashire were 97/5 when Hegg arrived at the crease. Further wickets tumbled around him but Hegg scored 81 from 62 balls to help steer his county to victory by 1 wicket from the very last ball of the match. Hegg played two

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) ...

es during the 1998–99 Ashes tour of Australia when

was moved up the order to play as a specialist batsman. Following Stewart's withdrawal from the winter tour of India in 2001, Hegg was recalled to the England squad for that tour and the one of which followed in New Zealand. Hegg never again played international cricket again, and was second choice to the younger wicket-keeper, James Foster, on the tour. Hegg was appointed captain of his county in 2002. Under his captaincy, Lancashire finished third and second in the County Championship in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

Final seasons

The 2004 season was an unsuccessful one for Lancashire, with the team being relegated to the second division of the County Championship for the first time in its history, despite having started as the bookmarkers' favourites to win the competition. The squad was severely depleted by injuries, at one point eight bowlers were unavailable, and Hegg himself suffered two hamstring injuries which meant he missed several matches, including the final match of the season which the team needed to win to stay in the first division. Following Lancashire's relegation at the end of 2004, Hegg stepped down as Lancashire captain. He was replaced by batsman

Mark Chilton Mark James Chilton (born 2 October 1976) is an English first-class cricketer. Chilton was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Durham University where he won the British Universities tournament in 1997. The same year he made his debut for ...

. Hegg said of his time as captain "It has been a great honour but now the time is right to step down and concentrate on helping the team recapture its position in the first division". On 15 May 2005, Hegg announced that 2005 would be his last year of cricket. Two weeks before the end of the 2005 season, a delivery from

fast bowler 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 ...

James Anderson James Anderson may refer to: Arts *James Anderson (American actor) (1921–1969), American actor *James Anderson (author) (1936–2007), British mystery writer *James Anderson (English actor) (born 1980), British actor * James Anderson (filmmaker) ...

ricocheted off

James Middlebrook James Middlebrook (born 13 May 1977) is a former English first-class cricketer, who last played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club on a short-term contract. He played as an all-rounder, batting right-handed and bowling off spin. Since retiring f ...

's stumps, dismissing him, and hit Hegg on the thumb. The freak accident forced Hegg's season to end prematurely, and he finished with a total of 951 first-class dismissals, of which 919 were for Lancashire, just six short of

George Duckworth George Duckworth (9 May 1901 – 5 January 1966) was a professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Lancashire and England. Duckworth, who won his cricketing fame as a wicket-keeper, was born and died in Warrington, Lancashire, an ...

's Lancashire record of 925. Retrieved on 21 December 2008.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hegg, Warren 1968 births Living people England Test cricketers English cricketers Lancashire cricketers Lancashire cricket captains People from Whitefield, Greater Manchester Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Wicket-keepers