Chris Read

Chris or Chirstopher Mark Wells Read is a cricketer from England who is a wicket-keeper. He is ranked as one of the successful wicket-keepers in English cricket having an average of more than 30 but is not selected for the national team regularly and plays well in domestic cricket.

At the age of 16 Read played for Devon in a NatWest Trophy match. In 1997 he made a single AXA Life League appearance for Gloucestershire. He was a member of the England A tour to Sri Lanka and Kenya where he made his first-class debut in Nairobi. For the 1998 season Read was selected by Nottinghamshire. In the following summer he made 401 runs and claimed 42 dismissals and cemented his spot in the side. In the next winter he toured South Africa and Zimbabwe. In 1999 he scored his first first-class century against Warwickshire.

Despite the fact that Read was the wicket-keeper with a better ranking Paul Nixon and James Foster were favored and hence Read has to focus on his county cricket career. In 2002 he claimed 68 dismissals and averaged about 35 with a century against Northamptonshire.

For the 2003-04 tours Read was selected for the tours against West Indies, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and played in eight of the nine tests in the winter. In the final test against West Indies he was replaced by Geraint Jones but was retained in the one-day team.

Read was recalled for the series against Pakistan to replace Jones as well as for some matches of the Ashes series. In the fourth test he became only the 3rd player in Test history to take 6 dismissals in an innings twice. Chris Read has lost his seat to Matt Prior the current Wicket Keeper batsman for the England National Side but would surely give his best to compete and earn his place back.

Career Highlights

Read won the NBC Denis Compton Award in 1997.

In first-class cricket Read played in 247 matches and scored 18 centuries and 60 half-centuries and has piled up 11060 runs. he also has a huge figure of 749 catches and 41 stumped dismissals to his name.

He recently won the Wisden Cricketer of the year 2011.