Dermot Reeve - Domestic Career

Domestic Career

Reeve first played cricket in England as a member of the MCC Young Cricketers - an academy of up and coming young players between the ages of 18-20, who are based at Lord's cricket ground. He played for Hong Kong in the 1982 ICC Trophy, averaging 34.50 with the bat and 15.71 with the ball. He signed for Sussex for the 1983 English season, and took 42 wickets in the County Championship at 29.35 apiece, although he was less successful with the bat and did not reach fifty in his 20 innings that year. He remained with Sussex for six seasons, his most successful being 1987, when he managed a batting average of over 40 and took 42 wickets at under 30.

He moved to Warwickshire in 1988, and it was here that he gained his greatest successes. In the batsman-friendly summer of 1990, he averaged 54, making his highest first-class score of 202 not out, and making two other centuries on the way to a total of 1,412 runs. Reeve was made captain in 1993, and in 1994 led the county to an unprecedented domestic treble, winning the County Championship, the AXA Equity and Law League and the Benson & Hedges Cup, only being defeated in the final of the NatWest Trophy. This achievement came despite well-publicised differences of opinion with Warwickshire's star batsman, Brian Lara, vividly described a few years later by Reeve in his book Winning Ways. One of his improvisations against left-arm spinner, Rajesh Maru, of Hampshire was to drop his bat to avoid being caught out by the close fielders.

The following season, Warwickshire retained their Championship and NatWest Trophy crowns, but Reeve left Warwickshire after playing until halfway through the 1996 season. Reeve made over £500,000 tax free during his benefit year with Warwickshire. Reeve was named as one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1996, and received the OBE for services to cricket that same year. He moved on to become coach to Somerset (for whom he also played several games in one-day cricket in 1998), and also began to work in television cricket commentary for Channel 4.