{"id":290666,"date":"2023-09-14T01:37:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/?p=290666"},"modified":"2023-09-14T01:37:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-14T01:37:04","slug":"inside-county-cricket-middlesex-all-rounder-josh-de-caires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/%d1%81ricket\/inside-county-cricket-middlesex-all-rounder-josh-de-caires\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE COUNTY CRICKET: Middlesex all-rounder\u00a0Josh De Caires"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>INSIDE COUNTY CRICKET: Middlesex all-rounder\u00a0Josh De Caires talks about his lucky break, England hopes and listening to dad Michael Atherton&#8230; sometimes<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Josh De Caires boasts the best figures in County Championship this season<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He has worked on his bowling with former England leg-spinner Ian Salisbury<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Josh De Caires smiles when he remembers the presence of a particular Sky Sports commentator at one of his first televised Twenty20 appearances for Middlesex.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It was at the Oval,\u2019 says the once part-time off-spinner who has become a frontline threat this year. \u2018I was bowling an over when he was on commentary, which was quite funny.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I could see him in the Sky pod when I was walking back to my mark. I\u2019m sure it would have been a terrible experience for him having to commentate on me like that \u2014 but it was amusing for me.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The man De Caires is talking about is a former England captain and one of the most respected pundits in the game, Michael Atherton. And it was amusing for the 21-year-old because Atherton happens to be his father.<\/p>\n<p>De Caires was something of a chip off the old block \u2014 albeit one with a more modern array of strokes \u2014 when he started making his way at Lord\u2019s as an opening batsman. But his career has exploded in a different direction this year after he worked particularly hard, with the help of former England leg-spinner Ian Salisbury, on his second suit as a slow bowler.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/13\/23\/75406161-0-image-a-64_1694644808647.jpg\" height=\"634\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Middlesex&#8217;s Josh De Caires\u00a0boasts the best figures in the County Championship this season<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/13\/23\/75406165-0-image-a-65_1694644825371.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>De Caires has worked on his bowling with the help of former England leg-spinner Ian Salisbury<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/13\/23\/75406607-0-image-a-69_1694645664309.jpg\" height=\"476\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Former England captain Michael Atherton is one of the most respected pundits in the game<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/13\/23\/75406313-0-image-m-68_1694645159846.jpg\" height=\"503\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>So much so he now boasts the best figures in the County Championship this season \u2014 eight for 106 against Essex \u2014 to go along with his seven-wicket haul against Hampshire. And to think he only had one first-class wicket to his name going into June.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I was definitely a part-timer even at the start of this year but I got a lot of confidence from how I bowled in the T20s,\u2019 says De Caires, who grew up in Hertfordshire and has barely a hint of his father\u2019s Lancastrian tones.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I felt I had a good enough skillset to try to influence games in first-team cricket with the ball. I\u2019ve not completely invested everything in it and I still hope to forge a career with the bat. The bowling is coming along at the moment and it would be nice to do both.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>De Caires, who carries his mother\u2019s surname, only played at Chelmsford because of a delay in the arrival of Middlesex\u2019s new overseas off-spinner Jayant Yadav due to visa issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It could have been a very different week for me if the Indian embassy had been a bit more organised!\u2019 he smiles.<\/p>\n<p>Atherton will be taking something of a back seat in De Caires\u2019 development \u2014 unless he is commentating on him.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018He\u2019s helped lots but at the same time he tries to stay out of the way,\u2019 De Caires explains. \u2018It would be very draining if all you talked about with your old man was cricket, so we try to avoid it a little bit. But he\u2019s a great sounding board and he\u2019s got a pretty level head on his shoulders. So he gives me good advice here and there. He tries to make his level head rub off on me but I\u2019m not sure we\u2019re there yet!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>A few more big hauls of wickets and there might be another \u2018Atherton\u2019 playing international cricket before long. Intriguingly, De Caires qualifies in theory for West Indies through his Guyanese mother but he insists a Caribbean future is not an option.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m not too sure about that but I\u2019d have to forego my county contract and my ambition is to play for England anyway,\u2019 he says. \u2018So if that\u2019s ever a possibility, I\u2019ll go down that route.\u2019<\/p>\n<h2>Leicester packing a good punch<\/h2>\n<p>Leicestershire, so often the whipping boys of domestic cricket, could have suffered another under-achieving season when coach Paul Nixon suddenly left Grace Road in June and then three of their best players in Colin Ackermann, Callum Parkinson and Chris Wright announced they would be joining other clubs at the end of this season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/14\/00\/75406775-0-image-a-71_1694646055901.jpg\" height=\"424\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Leicestershire have gone from strength to strength since departure of\u00a0coach Paul Nixon<\/p>\n<p>Instead they have been transformed under new joint head coaches James Taylor and Alfonso Thomas. They go into Saturday\u2019s 50-over cup final against Hampshire at Trent Bridge on the back of Wednesday\u2019s narrow failure to chase a mammoth 499 against Sussex aiming to strike a blow for the little guys so often marginalised in modern county cricket.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018It could have been a real negative turning point,\u2019 former England batsman Taylor told Mail Sport of Nixon\u2019s departure by \u2018mutual consent\u2019. \u2018There was lots of noise from the outside and it could have massively derailed us.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But we\u2019ve gone from strength to strength and we\u2019ve got stronger and tighter as a unit over the last two months. The players have done a fabulous job and we\u2019ve got some real leaders in the group. We\u2019ve got some experienced players and the younger ones are learning from them. We\u2019re well led and the guys have stepped up.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Lots of great things come with big clubs but it\u2019s powerful when a county like Leicester do well. Little old Leicester are packing a good punch well above our weight by reaching this final and still pushing for promotion in the Championship despite only just losing to Sussex.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/cricket\/article-12515985\/INSIDE-COUNTY-CRICKET-Middlesex-rounder-Josh-Caires-talks-lucky-break-England-hopes-listening-dad-Michael-Atherton-sometimes.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>INSIDE COUNTY CRICKET: Middlesex all-rounder\u00a0Josh De Caires talks about his lucky break, England hopes and listening to dad Michael Atherton&#8230; sometimes Josh De Caires boasts the best figures in County Championship this season He has worked on his bowling with former England&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290665,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>INSIDE COUNTY CRICKET: Middlesex all-rounder\u00a0Josh De Caires - Sports-Life-News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/\u0441ricket\/inside-county-cricket-middlesex-all-rounder-josh-de-caires\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"INSIDE COUNTY CRICKET: Middlesex all-rounder\u00a0Josh De Caires - Sports-Life-News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"INSIDE COUNTY CRICKET: Middlesex all-rounder\u00a0Josh De Caires talks about his lucky break, England hopes and listening to dad Michael Atherton&#8230; 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