He already holds the record for the most runs ever scored in the First Grade competition, but Greg Mail’s tally increased again during the off-season, even though he didn’t pick up a bat.
The Sydney Cricket Association has determined that performances in all Grade Twenty/20 matches are now to be taken into account in players’ First Grade career records. Richard Cook of Fairfield, a member of the SCA Committee, has explained that this step was taken in response to a request from the SCA players’ consultative group, which was then endorsed by the captains’ forum. One outcome of the decision is that Greg Mail’s record number of First Grade runs now rises, slightly, to 14,279.
Mail was not the only beneficiary of the decision: the inclusion of some slogged Twenty/20 runs pushed Mark Faraday past 5000 First Grade runs and 4000 First grade runs for University (he now has 5179 runs in total, 1121 for Manly and 4058 for University). Tom Kierath’s Twenty/20 wickets carry him past 200 wickets in First Grade – he now has 203. Admirers of slow-medium bowling will be delighted to learn that Ed Cowan’s tally of First Grade wickets rises by two, to capture his unfortunate victims from the 2008-09 Twenty/20 competition, when Ed abandoned his usual leg-breaks to experiment with low-bouncing seamers.
In a further decision made last night, the SCA has resolved that First Grade career records will now include all First Grade Limited Overs matches – stretching back to the 1967-68 Rothmans Cup. This means that one-day games played between 1967-68 and 1992-93 will now be counted in First Grade performances. The low moaning sound you hear in the distance comes from club statisticians wondering how they are going to rework 25 years of records…