A large crowd is expected at Manor Park on Sunday when Norfolk take on Northamptonshire in their ECB Showcase fixture (11am).
Norfolk may making a piece of their own history when they field three sets of brothers in their team. It is thought to be the first time this has happened.
They are the Downham & Stow brothers Ben and Arthur Wilcox, Horsford’s Callum and Ethan Metcalf and Ashmanhaugh & Barton Wanderers Jordan and Joe Everett.
They have all featured in recent Norfolk matches, but not at the same time. Ben Wilcox has been consistent with the bat and 18-year-old Arthur has shown great promise as an all-rounder. Ethan Metcalf has developed into a fine bat at the top of the order with Callum scoring his maiden century last season and taking his best one-day haul of 5-18 in May against Herefordshire. Jordan made 43 on debut at Suffolk in the one-day trophy and Joe took three wickets at Staffordshire on his debut and followed up with another three against Shropshire.
The ethos behind this annual fixture is to give the opportunity for local National Counties players to pit their skills against first class professional cricketers.
The game should provide a good spectacle for the Norfolk public as Northants have named a strong travelling party, with 12 of their 14-man squad having played first team cricket this season. They include the Indian Test player Prithvi Shaw who is the youngest Indian Test centurion on debut and just the second youngest behind the great Sachin Tendulkar. Shaw scored 134 in the first innings against West Indies on his debut at Rajkot in 2018.
When Northamptonshire announced the signing of Shaw last season, head coach John Sadler told BBC Radio Northamptonshire: “He's as good as I've ever seen in this game in 25 years."
Shaw went on to to make the highest score by a Northants player in 50-over cricket when he hit 244 against Somerset in the Metro Bank Trophy last August. He struck 429 runs in last year’s competition at an average of 143.
Another player in the Northamptonshire ranks will be Saif Zaib, who has played for Norfolk this season on two occasions as deputy for professional Josh Cobb. Zaib was in sparkling form on Thursday night when he smashed 86 from 41 balls, including eight fours and six sixes, as Northamptonshire Steelbacks secured their place in the quarter-finals of Vitality Blast with an 11-run victory over Birmingham Bears.
As in previous years Norfolk are standing by their policy of not playing a professional in this fixture, to allow more opportunities for their younger players to gain valuable experience.
A good relationship has been established between the two counties - wicketkeeper Charlie Hood came through their academy and Lewis Reeder has been in a regular feature in the Northants academy side this season, with Arthur Wilcox also playing.
Northants legend David Ripley, who was head coach between 2012 and 2021 and played 588 first class and list A games for the county scoring over 10,500 runs, will be a guest of the Norfolk committee. Ripley, who has been with Northants for over 40 years, still coaches the younger players and is keen to ensure close links with Norfolk.
Norfolk head coach Tom New knows Sadler very well from their time together at Leicestershire and is looking forward to the reunion.
He said: “Sads is a good guy and we have shared many happy times together on and off the field. It will be great to see him on Sunday. He kindly helped us out allowing Saif Zaib to play a couple of games for us.”
Sadler said: "This will be an excellent opportunity for our lads to get back into the tempo and rhythm of 50-over cricket, and for individuals to stake a claim for a place in the 50-over team. Norfolk have some excellent cricketers so we know it won’t be an easy match. We will have a very strong team out and we are looking forward to the contest.”
Norfolk: Sam Arthurton (cpt), Ethan Metcalf, Ben Wilcox, Jordan Everett, Freddie Fairey, Will Bowman, Callum Metcalf, Charlie Hood (wk), Arthur Wilcox, Joe Everett, Andy Hanby, Cameron Graveling.
Northamptonshire: Prithvi Shaw, Emilio Gay, Saif Zaib, George Bartlett, Lewis McManus (wk), James Sales, Gus Miller, Justin Broad, Michael Finan, Raphael Weatherall, Jack White, Freddie Heldreich, Alex Russell, Max Hunt.
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