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COVERED
Chris Read
Within the eerie, borderline-oxymoronic
surroundings of Rock City in the daytime,
the Nottinghamshire Club Captain is at
home reliving his glory days as a fan of
indie rock in the 90s.
The framed backstage print of Ian Brown,
frontman of the Stone Roses, compelled
Read to whip out his phone for a cheeky
photograph.
To many, Read is the archetypal studious,
traditional cricketing leader. But, for off-
field Chris Read, this is the perfect setting.
“The last time I came, I stood here
watching the Charlatans with Swanny,” said
the Nottinghamshire Captain, eyes engaged
with nostalgia as he took up a position to
the right of the Main Hall’s stage.
“So many of my favourite bands have
played here. Many of them split up,
although a fair few are coming back out of
the woodwork for reunion tours now.”
Read could have talked music all day. But,
321 first class appearances, 15,128 runs
and 1,007 dismissals et al, there’s plenty
of cricket to get through too.
There have been three separate flirts with
England selection, each of which ended
in disappointment. Read’s world has also
been rocked on numerous occasions by
irreversible changes to his sport.
His career could so easily have gone the
same way as indie rock’s influence on the
music scene, fleeting reunions aside, by
the turn of the century.
For it not to have done so is a triumph for
the physical fitness, mental toughness and
the regime of gruelling self-appraisal that
has become the 37-year-old’s way of life.
He captained Notts to the LV= County
Championship in 2010, a title he’d
already won as part of Stephen Fleming’s
champions in 2005, and added the
Yorkshire Bank 40Trophy in 2013.
To label a longstanding player a legend is
clichéd and oft overused. In the case of
Chris Read, it’s as apt as apt can be.
Born in Devon and commencing his
cricketing education in Paignton at the
age of six, Christopher MarkWells Read
represented his home minor county before
being snapped up by Gloucestershire.
An England A international in his teens,
whilst still very much an understudy to
Jack Russell, Read found first team cricket
by moving to Nottinghamshire in 1998.
So impressed was the England hierarchy
by the teenage Read’s introduction to the
first class stage, aTest debut versus New
Zealand quickly followed.
Admitting, with hindsight, that he was far
from prepared for the highest level at that
“It’s just what I do.”
Chris Read,with a shrug of his heavily
burdened yet notably relaxed shoulders, has
a remarkably understated way of describing
his career success and longevity.