Top ten things you didn't know about Martyn Ball

10. He played for Young England in 1989.

9. His nicknames (according to "The Cricketers' Who's Who") are Benny and Barfo.

8. He is Gloucestershire's only player on the Test leg of the Indian tour.

7. It took eight years at Gloucestershire before Ball was awarded his county cap.

6. The reason the England selectors selected him yesterday for the tour of India is that they wanted to replace Robert Croft with a "like-for-like replacement". Yes, they wanted a bowler just like Robert Croft...

5. Or maybe it was because they both have two middle names - Martyn Charles John Ball and Robert Damien Bale Croft (and that reminds me to give a special cheerio to Philip Clive Roderick Tufnell)

4. In the 2001 English first-class season he scored 379 runs at a batting average of 29.15, with a top score of his three half-centuries of 68. (Now maybe this is the "like-for-like replacement" of Croft they were talking about.)

3. In his 14-year first-class career for Gloucestershire, Ball has taken 291 wickets for a career bowling average of 37.01

2. He was equal-46th leading wicket-taker in the 2001 English first-class season, with 34 wickets.

And the Number One thing you didn't know about Martyn Ball is:

1. He exists!

Originally published on rec.sport.cricket following the news that Martyn Ball had been included in the England squad for their 2001-02 Test tour of India.