Joseph Emmanuel Benjamin (2 February 19618 March 2021) was a

St Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

–born English

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er who played in one Test match and two

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s in 1994 and 1995. He also played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

for

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

and

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South Londo ...

s from 1988 to 1999.

Early life

Benjamin was born in Christ Church,

Saint Kitts Saint Kitts, officially Saint Christopher, is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Saint Kitts and the neighbouring island of Nevis constitute one ...

, on 2 February 1961. His family relocated to the United Kingdom when he was 15 years old and resided at first in the

Midlands The Midlands is the central region of England, to the south of Northern England, to the north of southern England, to the east of Wales, and to the west of the North Sea. The Midlands comprises the ceremonial counties of Derbyshire, Herefor ...

. He played in the Birmingham League, where his performances in sporadic fixtures for Staffordshire drew initial attention.

Career

Benjamin signed his first county contract for

in 1988, when he was 27. He was unable to receive regular playing time, with

Gladstone Small Gladstone Cleophas Small (born 18 October 1961) is an English former cricketer, who played in 17 Test matches and 53 One Day Internationals (ODIs) for the England cricket team. He was a part of the English squads which finished as runners-up ...

Tim Munton Timothy Alan Munton (born 30 July 1965) is an English cricketer. He had a long career in county cricket, playing over 500 games combined between first-class and List A, primarily with Warwickshire before ending his career at Derbyshire. He also ...

, and

Allan Donald Allan Anthony Donald (born 20 October 1966) is a South African former cricketer who is also the former bowling coach of Bangladesh national cricket team. Often nicknamed 'White Lightning' due to his quick bowling, he is considered one of the ...

starting ahead of him. Benjamin ultimately featured in 25 first-class matches in his four years with the team. Benjamin went on to play with

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

from 1992 until 1999. He was honored as the team's Player of the Year in 1993. He claimed 64 wickets at 27.85 that year and took 6 for 19 against

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

, the best in his career. He managed to better those numbers the following season, with 80 wickets at 20.72, and received his first international call-up that same year. He had 53 wickets at a decent rate of 25.01 in 1995, but he began to lose playing time from that season onwards. In his final season with Surrey in 1999, the club won the

County Championship The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Rothesay County Championship, is the only domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales. Established in 1890, it is organised by the England and Wales Cri ...

, though he only played in two of the matches. He was subsequently released by the team. For his career, Benjamin took 387 wickets in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

between 1988 and 1999, at an average of 29.94. His best effort with the bat was a first-class 49 while his average stood at 11.38, leading ''

ESPNcricinfo ESPNcricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a ...

'' to describe his batting as "the hit-and-miss variety". A

One-Test wonder In cricket, a one-Test wonder is usually a cricketer who is only selected for one Test cricket, Test match during his career and never represents his country again. This is not necessarily due to a poor performance and can be for numerous reasons, ...

, Benjamin's single Test match appearance for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

came in 1994 when he was selected for the final Test of the series against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...

, his home ground. He performed well in the match taking four wickets in the first innings. However, his effort was overshadowed by

Devon Malcolm Devon Eugene Malcolm (born 22 February 1963) is a Jamaican-born English former cricketer. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Malcolm played in 40 Test matches and 10 One Day Internationals for the England cricket team. Malcolm was one of the fastest ...

's spectacular nine-wicket haul in the second innings. He was 33 at the time, and did not play any more Test matches for England as the national selectors preferred to concentrate on younger seam bowlers like

Angus Fraser Angus Robert Charles Fraser (born 8 August 1965) is an English cricket administrator. He served as the managing director of Middlesex Cricket between 2009 and 2021, before assuming a new role heading the club's academy. He is currently se ...

and Chris Lewis.

Later life

After retiring from cricket, Benjamin remained in Surrey. There, he coached at

Reigate Grammar School Reigate Grammar School is an 11–18 co-educational private day school in Reigate, Surrey, England. It was established in 1675 by Henry Smith. History The school was founded as a free school for poor boys in 1675 by Alderman Henry Smith with Jo ...

and Reigate Priory Cricket Club. Benjamin died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

on 8 March 2021. He was sixty years old.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benjamin, Joey 1961 births 2021 deaths England Test cricketers England One Day International cricketers English cricketers Surrey cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Staffordshire cricketers Black British sportsmen English people of Saint Kitts and Nevis descent Sportspeople of Saint Kitts and Nevis descent People from Christ Church Nichola Town Parish Saint Kitts and Nevis emigrants to the United Kingdom 20th-century English sportsmen