Full Name

Steven Paul Crook

Born

May 28, 1983, Adelaide, South Australia

Age

40y 296d

Nicknames

Crookster

Batting Style

Right hand Bat

Bowling Style

Right arm Fast medium

Playing Role

Bowling Allrounder

Height

5ft 11in

Education

Rostrevor College

RELATIONS

(brother)

Steven Crook, an Australian-born skiddy seam bowler and hard-hitting lower-order batsmen, started his first-class career at Lancashire but had limited chances to show his worth. After a loan move to Northamptonshire at the end of the 2005 season, he made a permanent switch for 2006 where he earned greater chances in the one-day arena. Injury ravaged much of his time at Northants but he found other outlets to express himself, including a stint as lead singer of the band Juliet the Sun. The Sun newspaper even credited their track, Time For Heroes, as one of the reasons that England won the Ashes.

Musically feted by an English tabloid or not, Crook found cricketing satisfaction hard to find. At the end of the 2009 season, he stepped away from professional cricket, but returned after a trial period with Middlesex to earn a two-year contract. He became a regular in the one-day and Twenty20 sides, but less so in the Championship - where he neither merited a top six batting slot nor a place as a frontline bowler - and his desire for more four-day cricket prompted a move back to Northamptonshire at the end of the 2012 campaign.

Crook's first season back at the County Ground was a success. He was one of Northants' key performers in all three formats in 2013, none more vital than a man-of-the-match performance against Essex in the Friends Life t20 as Northants went on to win the trophy at Edgbaston. He also heaped on the troubles for the 2015 Australian tourists with a whirlwind 142, his hundred rushing up in 77 balls. A career-best 145 followed against Worcestershire in 2016 when he was overshadowed by debutant Chad Barrett making a century from No. 10.

But cricket has never entirely dominated his life. "Do some cricket, do some music, do some business but mainly do fun things that test the bounds of reality," was his life philosophy as laid down on Twitter. When he retired in 2018, at 35, with two T20 titles, a promotion year and bags of memories, he seemed unlikely to have an inactive retirement.


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Steven Crook Career Stats

Bowling

FormatMatInnsBallsRunsWktsBBIBBMAveEconSR4w5w10w
FC107-1249282112075/48-39.663.9460.3930
List A91-30012887845/365/3634.365.7735.7310
T20s1339415372175733/193/1929.798.4921.0000

Batting & Fielding

FormatMatInnsNORunsHSAveBFSR100s50s4s6sCtSt
FC10714619404314531.83539374.96522--360
List A91679124410021.441223101.7115--180
T20s1331022713886318.501043133.070310659390

Recent Matches of Steven Crook

Photos of Steven Crook

Steven Crook on the attack
Steven Crook struck in his first over
Steven Crook hit 43 off 26 balls but it was not enough
Steven Crook played a defiant innings at No. 7
Steven Crook added wickets to his hundred with the bat
Steven Crook thrashed a hundred against his countrymen