James Savin Foster (born 15 April 1980) is an English cricket coach and former

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. A

wicket-keeper In cricket, the wicket-keeper is the Cricket player, player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket, ready to stop Delivery (cricket), deliveries that pass the batsman, and take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the ...

who played seven

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

and 11

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s in 2001–02 and 2002–03.

Education

He was educated at

Forest School, Walthamstow Forest School is a private day school in Walthamstow in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The school occupies a large campus around its original Grade II listed Georgian and Victorian terraced buildings. The school has more than 1,430 pu ...

and

Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...

( Collingwood College), where he completed the Sport in the Community course. In 2001, and still an undergraduate, he was called up for an England winter tour.

Playing career

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

, Foster has played for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

since his

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

debut in 2000 and in 2009 Season was selected as vice captain. He made his maiden first-class hundred against

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

in 2001, but two broken bones ruined his 2002 season and though 2003 was a better year there was little hint of the startling summer he was to enjoy with the bat in 2004. That season he hit four more centuries, including 212 against

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

as Essex made 708/9 declared. He also passed 1,000 runs for the season for the first time,

averaging In ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by how many nu ...

51.85, and claimed 51 victims. In the 2006 season, he averaged 42.41 in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship and showed good form with the gloves and bat in one day cricket also. Foster was the recipient of the

NBC Denis Compton Award The NBC Denis Compton Award was an annual award given to 'The Most Promising Young Player' at each of the 18 first-class counties in England and Wales. The award was made between 1996 and 2011. A player may receive the award more than once. Hist ...

in 2001. In the winter of 2007–2008, Foster played for England Lions team for their tour to India, after being called up following an injury to Worcestershire's Steven Davies. Good form with both the gloves and the bat in recent seasons kept Foster in the selectors minds' for a possible recall to the England setup, demonstrated by his selection for the MCC season opener against Sussex in 2008. This was realised when he was picked as the only regular wicket-keeper in England's 30-man squad for the

2009 ICC World Twenty20 The 2009 ICC World Twenty20 was the second edition of the Men's T20 World Cup, formerly known as the ICC World Twenty20 that took place in England in June 2009. As before, the tournament featured 12 male teams – nine of the ten Test cricket, ...

. Debate continued in the run up to the 2009 Ashes series whether Foster should be selected as the Test wicketkeeper for England. Foster played for England in the

, receiving high praise for his sharp keeping and stumpings of

Yuvraj Singh Yuvraj Singh (born 12 December 1981) is a former Indian international cricketer who played in all formats of the game. An all-rounder who batted left-handed in the middle order and bowled slow left-arm orthodox, he has won 7 Player of the Se ...

and

Dwayne Bravo Dwayne John Bravo (born 7 October 1983) is a Trinidadian retired cricketer, a former captain of the West Indies cricket team and the current mentor of Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League. Prior to that, he served as a bowling c ...

. However, due to the preference of selectors for wicketkeepers who can bat fluently,

Matt Prior Matthew James Prior (born 26 February 1982) is a South African-born English former cricketer, who played for England in Test cricket and for Sussex County Cricket Club in domestic cricket. He was a wicket-keeper and his aggressive right-handed ...

remained the first-choice for England, and these five appearances were the total of his T20I appearances. Foster was made county captain of Essex in June 2010 for all forms of the game, when Mark Pettini stepped down due to poor form with the bat. In 2011, Foster was given a beneficiary by Essex, and this included many events such as a Twenty20 match named "Fozzy's Big Bash". This match featured the Essex 1st XI vs an All Star XI, which included leading Test wicket-taker Muttiah Muralitharan and former England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff among others. He was replaced as captain in December 2015. His continued form, particularly behind the stumps, was one of the factors that led to two promising wicket-keeper batsmen, Adam Wheater and

Ben Foakes Benjamin Thomas Foakes (born 15 February 1993) is an English professional cricketer who plays internationally for the England cricket team, England Test cricket team. In domestic cricket, he represents Surrey County Cricket Club, Surrey, having ...

to leave the county to further develop their careers. In 2018 he shared keeping duties with Wheater who had returned from Hampshire, and then Foster retired at the end of the season after hearing that Essex would not be renewing his contract. James Foster has been known to display a fiery temperament. This was demonstrated in a televised T20 game vs

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South Londo ...

in 2011 at

The Oval The Oval, currently named 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 sinc ...

. Foster was the recipient of a waist-high full toss from Zander de Bruyn, which Foster was caught out from. A heated argument with the umpires then followed. Foster was subsequently fined an undisclosed amount by

Essex County Cricket Club Essex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Essex. Founded in 1876, the club had minor county status until 1894 w ...

and also given a two match ban by the ECB.

Coaching career

Foster after retiring from cricket, was appointed as the T20 batting consultant for

Glamorgan Glamorgan (), or sometimes Glamorganshire ( or ), was Historic counties of Wales, one of the thirteen counties of Wales that existed from 1536 until their abolishment in 1974. It is located in the South Wales, south of Wales. Originally an ea ...

for

2019 t20 Blast The 2019 Vitality Blast was the seventeenth edition of the T20 Blast currently known as the Vitality Blast, a professional Twenty20 cricket league that was played in England and Wales which was run by the ECB, has been branded as the Vitality ...

. He was appointed as the head coach of Khulna Tigers, for 2019-20 season, a franchise of

Bangladesh Premier League Bangladesh Premier League (), also known as Dutch-Bangla Bank BPL for sponsorship reasons, is a professional Twenty20 cricket league in Bangladesh organised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). It was formed in 2011 by the BCB, after the su ...

. Also he is appointed as fielding coach of

Kolkata Knight Riders The Kolkata Knight Riders, also known as KKR, are a professional Twenty20 cricket team based in Kolkata, West Bengal, that competes in the Indian Premier League (IPL). The franchise is owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla, and ...

for IPL 2020 season., in 2022 he was appointed as the head coach of

Peshawar Zalmi Peshawar Zalmi (; ; literally meaning "Peshawar's youth") is a Pakistani franchise Twenty20 cricket team which plays in the Pakistan Super League and represents Peshawar, the capital city of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The team is owned b ...

replacing Daren Sammy few days before the

2022 Pakistan Super League 2022 Pakistan Super League (referred to as HBL PSL 7 for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season of the Pakistan Super League, a franchise Twenty20 cricket league which was established by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2015. The tournam ...

, who was unable to perform his duties for personal reasons. In November 2022, he was named as the assistant coach for Kolkata Knight Riders.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, James English cricketers England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers England Twenty20 International cricketers Essex cricketers Essex cricket captains Durham MCCU cricketers Northern Districts cricketers 1980 births Living people People educated at Forest School, Walthamstow Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers British Universities cricketers Alumni of Collingwood College, Durham English cricket coaches Wicket-keepers People from Leytonstone Cricketers from the London Borough of Waltham Forest