Neil Clifford Saker (born 20 September 1984) is a former 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 for

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 ...

. He is a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium pace bowler. In July 2003 Saker made his first-class debut against India A, he scored 5 and bowled 15 wicketless overs. In September of the same season he made his county cricket debut against

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 ...

, his maiden first-class wicket being that of

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 ...

. At the end of the season he became the first Surrey Academy player to sign a full-time professional contract with the county. After a season in the second team, Saker was used frequently in the first team in 2005 although twelve of his thirteen appearances came in the one-day format. He was given more first-class opportunities in 2006 and 2007 playing a total of 15 matches, taking 29 wickets at an average of 45.03. After playing a single one-day match in 2008 he was released at the end of the season. During the

2010 Clydesdale Bank 40 The 2010 Clydesdale Bank 40 tournament was the inaugural ECB 40 limited overs cricket competition for the English and Welsh first-class counties. In addition to the 18 counties, Scotland and the Netherlands took part, as well as the Unicorns, a ...

domestic

limited overs Limited overs cricket, also known as white ball cricket, is a version of the sport of cricket in which a match is generally completed within one day. There are a number of formats, including List A cricket (8-hour games), Twenty20 cricket (3-h ...

competition, Saker was added to the

Unicorns The unicorn is a legendary creature that has been described since Classical antiquity, antiquity as a beast with a single large, pointed, spiraling horn (anatomy), horn projecting from its forehead. In European literature and art, the unico ...

squad to play against the regular first-class counties. The Unicorns were initially made up of 15 former county cricket professionals and 6 young cricketers looking to make it in the professional game.Cricinfo staff
Unicorns name squad for Clydesdale Bank 40
13 April 2010,

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

. Retrieved on 2 May 2010. He appeared for Unicorns again in 2011 and also played for

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

in four first-class matches in the same season, but did not win a long-term contract.

References

External links

*
Surrey County Cricket Club player profile
1984 births Living people English cricketers Surrey cricketers Unicorns cricketers Kent cricketers Shropshire cricketers People from Tooting Cricketers from the London Borough of Wandsworth 21st-century English sportsmen {{england-cricket-bio-1980s-stub