Martin Saggers

Martin Saggers originally began his career at Norfolk where he was spotted by Durham and moved to the north-east in 1996.

However, his time at Durham was not a success and in 1998 he was released. He joined Kent and since then never looked back.

In 2000 he took his best figures of 7-79 at Chester-le-Street against former side Durham, and won the most promising uncapped player award as well as joint player of the year.

In 2002 he finished as the joint-top wicket taker in English cricket with 83 first-class victims to his name.

However, he was 30 years old at that stage and with England looking to blood young stars for the future it seemed his time had passed.

But with his continued weight of wickets in county cricket he was always at the back of the selectors’ minds and he was put on standby for the winter tours of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka when he would earn his first England cap.

He was called up to face Bangladesh in Chittagong for the second Test, after Andrew Flintoff’s groin injury failed to clear up fast enough, and finished with respectable figures of 3-62.

Then in 2004, following the withdrawal of James Anderson through injury, Saggers was called up to the England squad for the second npower Test against New Zealand at Headingley.

Saggers took two wickets in that match, as well as the third Test at Trent Bridge, but did not feature for England afterwards, though he was among the provisional names for the 2003 World Cup.

He took 20 first class wickets during the 2005 season and was out of contract at the end of the campaign.

He accepted a one-year extension with Kent but had also entered into talks with Warwickshire, at the same time as he became a parent for the first time.

He was plagued by injuries in 2005 and 2006 and spent a month on loan at Essex in 2007 but returned to secure his first-team place, after taking 30 wickets in the season, and was given a contract extension to the end of the 2009.

2008 was a strange season for Saggers. He played just one limited overs match, and finished wicketless in the Friends Provident Trophy clash with Essex.

He was in and out of the championship side but often found himself sidelined in favour of more proficient batsmen.

Saggers’ season was encapsulated by an unfortunate encounter at Beckenham in June. Playing for a combined Kent and Northamptonshire Second XI, Saggers took all nine Yorkshire wickets on the first day, with Oliver Hannon-Dalby and Mark Lawson due to resume the last-wicket partnership on the second day.

But Kent decided that Beckenham had to be prepared for a Friends Provident Trophy match after Canterbury was deemed too wet, and play was called off at lunch on day two of the second-string match. Saggers was left agonisingly close to all 10 wickets, on 9-62.

Having played a bit-part role for Kent's first team in the first half of the 2009 campaign, he was forced to retire that September due to a knee injury.