It’s the second snowfall of winter, and Lowerhouse Cricket Club and the surrounding Lancashire hills are decked in white frosting. An unfriendly wind zips across the ground, where Stan Heaton – cricket chairman, child welfare officer, bar supervisor, groundsman and more – has opened up the clubhouse, much as he does nearly every other day of the year. He has just taken a booking from a woman who wants to run a pilates class and is reluctantly coming to the conclusion that the weather means he can’t get out his chainsaw for a spot of maintenance.
Lowerhouse CC was formed in 1862 and became a founder member of the Lancashire league. A former mill village, only two and a half miles west of Burnley centre, Lowerhouse sits in an area of high deprivation. The local MP is Anthony Higginbotham, part of the “red wall” Tory intake of 2019, and the first Conservative MP to be elected in the constituency for 109 years.
Looking out over the snowy field, it is strange to think that Lowerhouse, and clubs like them in the Lancashire league, were not so long ago the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings of the world – where top-class overseas professionals rushed to gain rich experience as well as earning a hefty pay cheque. The list of professionals to grace the league drops off the tongue like precious jewels: plink Michael Holding, plonk Sir Learie Constantine, plunk Steve Waugh.
Lowerhouse themselves have had an astonishing 25 pros who played Test cricket, and Heaton, who essentially runs the club, played and watched lots of them. The best? “Oh, that’s hard, there’s a difference between best and effective. The most effective we had is Francois Haasbroek (2011-13), who were nothing more than a South African state cricketer, came here as pro, married a Burnley girl and now plays as amateur. With him, we won the league, the cup, the double, you name it.
“The highest in standard was Manoj Prabhakar (1991), he was a top-five all-rounder in the world. Kirti Azad (1983-85) was another Indian pro, he won the World Cup for India on the Saturday and travelled up after the celebrations to play for us against Burnley the following day, and if I’m not mistaken he got a ton. Nobody would do that these days, but he had such pride. He hit 76 sixes in a season, I used to go into Lowerhouse junior school the other side of Liverpool road, to get the balls back on a Monday morning. He was a fabulous player. And Ryan Harris went on to play for Australia after he played for us. He was in his mid-twenties, most people thought it had passed him by, but we seemed to rejuvenate him and he went on to become one of the world’s greatest bowlers for about three years for Australia.”
Another surprise name in the hall of fame is Matthew Mott (1998), now the slightly under-pressure coach of England’s white-ball men’s side. “A super lad,” says Heaton, “I’d probably say that back then I wouldn’t have imagined him becoming a serious coach as he was quite a lighthearted lad, keen, determined on the pitch, but he didn’t strike you as coach/manager material. We’re very proud of him. We liked him a lot.”
In fact, the club have had a keen eye for pros with a little bit of something extra, engaging Tony Dodemaide (1986), who went on to become head of cricket at the MCC, chief executive of the Waca and an Australia selector; Andrew McDonald (2005), now head coach of Australia’s men’s teams, and Harris, who also coaches. Alongside this, Lowerhouse have at last gained international recognition, when Liberty Heap, whose shirt is framed on the clubhouse wall, played in the Women’s Under-19 World Cup.
The days of the Lancashire League engaging huge names disappeared with the year-long nature of modern cricket, and the money swilling around – top players have neither the time nor the financial need to commit to playing in the north-west of England for six months. When Mitchell Starc can pick up £2.35m from Kolkata Knight Riders and Harry Brook £380,000 from Delhi Capitals, the £12,000-£15,000 a club such as Lowerhouse can afford to pay fades into insignificance.
But though crowds are down from the league’s heyday, Lowerhouse will still, astonishingly, attract 800-1,000 spectators for a warm Friday night first XI game, fed by the flourishing junior section that Heaton and others put in place during the 2000s to revitalise the club. “That’s something to cherish,” he says. “Burnley is the world’s biggest village. We get so many spectators because they can relate to who they’re watching in the first XI, they’re either watching their nextdoor neighbour, the guy they work with at the factory or their son or nephew. They can relate to who they’re watching, they’re not coming and watching a team full of pot-hunters who don’t care about the club, don’t know the spectators and don’t speak to the spectators.”
And though the pro might not turn heads quite like a West Indian in their heyday, their importance is undimmed. Heaton again: “The thing a professional brings is impetus, this is a guy that’s better than you, this is a guy that may go on to play Test cricket, could go on to be the world’s greatest player. They bring intensity, they bring knowhow, they bring aura, they lift the place – it can go wrong, but initially that’s everything that you get. Especially when they’re getting fifties, hundreds and taking five wickets, it doesn’t half help, and what we all want is a professional to bat around, so the amateurs can take their time.” It can work for the young pros too: last year’s pro, Ruan de Swardt, was named recently by South Africa for their (albeit second-string) Test squad to tour New Zealand.
The 2024 Indian Premier League launches on 23 March, Lowerhouse’s first XI kick off against Rochdale away on 14 April. Something, perhaps, for everyone.
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