Alec James Swann (born 26 October 1976) is a former English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er who played for

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

and

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a Historic counties of England, historic county, Ceremonial County, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significa ...

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship ...

. A right handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

, he scored 3,305 first-class runs including eight

centuries A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

. He is the older brother of

Graeme Swann Graeme Peter Swann (born 24 March 1979) is an English former cricketer who played all three formats of the game. Born in Northampton, he attended Sponne School in Towcester, Northamptonshire. He was primarily a right-arm off-spinner, and also ...

and is a journalist who was the cricket correspondent of the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph.

Cricket career

Northamptonshire

Prior to making his debut for Northamptonshire Swann had represented England at under-15 level and made appearances for

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

in the

minor counties championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

.Player Oracle: AJ Swann
CricketArchive, Retrieved on 4 August 2009 Having scored centuries for Northamptonshire in consecutive second XI matches at the start of the 1996 season he was given his first-class debut against

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, scoring an unbeaten 76 in the second innings. Later in the season he appeared for England Under-19s against

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

before making his

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It b ...

debut against

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. Swann continued to play mostly second XI cricket in 1997 but made two first-class appearances at the end of the season. In the second of these he scored his maiden first-class century, batting at number three against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family ...

he made 136. He began the following season in the first team but poor form led to him returning second XI cricket. After scoring three centuries in four innings at that level he returned to the first team where he scored 85 against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, this was his only first-class fifty of the season.First-class Batting and Fielding in Each Season by Alec Swann
CricketArchive, Retrieved on 4 August 2009 Swann continued to switch between the first and second team in 1999 although he showed improved form, in 12 first-class matches he scored 573 runs at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 31.83. Playing against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The traditi ...

in June he scored a career-best 154 and shared a 217-run

partnership A partnership is an arrangement where parties, known as business partners, agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments ...

with

Matthew Hayden Matthew Lawrence Hayden (born 29 October 1971) is an Australian cricket commentator and former cricketer. His career spanned fifteen years. Hayden was a powerful and aggressive left-handed opening batsman, who along with opening partners, Just ...

in the process, despite this he returned to second XI cricket the following week. He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut against Nottinghamshire a month later, scoring 74 as opener and again sharing a century partnership with Hayden. In 2000 Swann made only three first-class appearances and after a poor 2001 season in which he averaged 21.77 from 13 matches he was released by the club.

Lancashire

In January 2002 Swann was signed by Lancashire to strengthen their batting options following the retirement of

Mike Atherton Michael Andrew Atherton (born 23 March 1968) is a broadcaster, journalist and a former England international first-class cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman for Lancashire and England, and occasional leg-break bowler, he achieved the ca ...

. Swann was a regular opener during the 2002 season playing 18 first-class matches and scoring 1,073 runs at 37.00. His tally was the first and only time he reached a 1,000 runs in a season and included two centuries, both against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

. Innings of 128 and 111 made him the first Lancastrian to score centuries in his first two

Roses match The Roses Match refers to any game of cricket played between Yorkshire County Cricket Club and Lancashire County Cricket Club. Yorkshire's emblem is the white rose, while Lancashire's is the red rose. The associations go back to the Wars of the R ...

es. The following two seasons were less successful for Swann, in 15 first-class matches he scored 467 runs at 21.22. He was released by the club at the end of 2004 season.Alec Swann leaves Lancashire
Cricinfo, Retrieved on 4 August 2009 Post cricket, Swann has embarked on a successful career as a journalist.

References

External links

*
Alec Swann's weekly Cricket column for The Roar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swann, Alec 1976 births Living people Cricketers from Northampton Bedfordshire cricketers English cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers Northamptonshire Cricket Board cricketers Lancashire cricketers