Mark Lewis Pettini (born 7 August 1983) is an English former

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 domestically for

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

and

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

. He was a right-handed batsman and very occasional wicket-keeper and right-arm medium-pace bowler.

Playing style

An aggressive batsman, Pettini specialised in one-day cricket, where he usually opened the batting so as to make use of the batting powerplay in the early overs. In

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 ...

cricket, he batted in the middle order. He fielded in a wide range of positions, but usually fielded at mid-off during his time as captain. His bowling was very rarely used, and when it was used, it was often in a declaration agreement.

Playing career

An expert in the limited-overs game, he was one of the key cameo figures in Essex's 2005 domestic one-day league title winning season, having previously gained experience as an England Under-19 player, having played twice against

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

during their English tour of 2002. Instrumental in achieving promotion for Essex during 2002, Pettini was known for his aggressive style of play. He has participated in the Twenty20 Cup each year since 2003, achieving a solid record in this competition. His highest first-class score was 208

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

, made against

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...

in September 2006. Later the same month, against

in the last match of the 2006 County Championship, he hit 114 not out from 29 balls, but this innings was made against "declaration" bowling and so was not eligible for the Walter Lawrence Trophy, nor did it count as a first-class record. In July 2007, Pettini was included in England's provisional squad of 30 for the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup, but a loss of form cost him a place in the final squad for the tournament. In June 2007, Pettini became permanent captain of Essex County Cricket Club following the retirement of

Ronnie Irani Ronald Charles Irani (born 26 October 1971) is an English former cricketer. He played three Tests for England in 1996 and 1999, but found a niche in One Day Internationals, where he gained much praise for his performances. He spent most of his c ...

due to a knee injury. He had earlier held the job on a temporary basis while Irani was sidelined. At the start of the 2008 season, Pettini decided to move from opener to number five in the Essex batting order in four-day cricket. This change was made due to his indifferent batting form during the second half of the 2007 season. However, he would continue as an opening batsman in one-day cricket. Pettini began 2008 in superb form, hitting 153 not out against Cambridge UCCE, 80 not out in the LV County Championship Division Two opener against Northamptonshire at Chelmsford and 119 in Essex's first

Friends Provident Trophy The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom. It was one of the four tournaments in which the eighteen first-class cricket, first-class counties competed each season. They were joined by teams from Scott ...

South East Division match against Kent at Canterbury. However, in Essex's next match, a county championship match against Derbyshire at Derby, Pettini was forced to miss the second and third days' play after suffering an astigmatism in his eye. He travelled to Cambridge to see a specialist for treatment. The eye problem would flare up again just a day before the county's Friends Provident Trophy final against Kent at Lord's. Pettini's form tailed off somewhat, but he did hit a match-winning 144 against the Surrey Brown Caps in a Friends Provident Trophy match at

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 ...

on 11 May 2008. That game saw Essex score 391–5 from their 50 overs

On 16 August 2008, Pettini captained Essex to victory in the Friends Provident Trophy final at Lord's. He scored 10 opening the batting as the Eagles beat Kent Spitfires by five wickets to lift their first one-day knockout trophy since 1997

Pettini's father, Max Pettini, Max, is an

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. Astronomers observe astronomical objects, such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, galax ...

. Mark himself graduated with an astronomy degree from

Cardiff University Cardiff University () is a public research university in Cardiff, Wales. It was established in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and became a founding college of the University of Wales in 1893. It was renamed Unive ...

and has a keen interest in the subject. He is also a keen fisherman and loves darts, attending a number of PDC events with best friend

Alastair Cook Sir Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an English former cricketer and former captain (cricket), captain of the England Test Cricket, Test and One-Day International, ODI teams. He is considered one of the greatest opening batsmen ...

. During the 2008 season, Pettini stated on his

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

profile that his sporting hero is

Sid Waddell Sidney Waddell (10 August 1940 – 11 August 2012) was an English sports commentator and television personality. He was nicknamed the 'Voice of Darts' due to his fame as a darts commentator, and worked for Granada Television, Granada, Yorkshire ...

. Pettini also wrote a weekly column called "Pett Sounds" in the ''Southend Echo'' and ''Colchester Gazette'' newspapers. After some poor form with the bat, Pettini decided to resign his county captaincy for all forms of the game in June 2010. James Foster took over as Essex captain. Pettini then took a few weeks off to work on his batting. At the end of the 2015 season, Pettini was announced as moving from Essex to

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pettini, Mark 1983 births Living people English cricketers English people of Italian descent Sportspeople of Italian descent Cricketers from Brighton Essex cricketers Essex cricket captains Mountaineers cricketers Kala Bagan Krira Chakra cricketers Mashonaland Eagles cricketers Leicestershire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers