With thanks to Tom Evans @ Merseyside Cricket Online (merseysidecricket.com can be supported @ https://buymeacoffee.com/tomevanscricket)
Hampson hopes sharing the load can help Wigan overcome key departures
Wigan skipper Jordan Hampson hopes his side can shrug off the loss of two star all-rounders and climb the Premier Division table.
Last season’s top run scorer, Adnan Miakhel, has left for Newton-le-Willows, while John Richardson, who topped the charts in 2023, will turn out for Lancashire Cup joint champions Prestwich in the Greater Manchester Cricket League.
With both also playing a big part in the seam attack, Hampson would be forgiven for worrying about the gap they will leave.
Instead, he is looking to the future and hoping to bring through a new crop of youngsters.
Hampson said: “Adnan leaving was a bit of a shock, we’d spoken to him a couple of days before he said he was going.
“But it is what it is. We’re never going to hold someone back if they want to go and develop somewhere else.
“And John lives in Bury and he doesn’t drive so it’s a lot of travelling for him.
“He was bowling 15 overs a game, so it’ll mean we have to share it out a bit more.
“But I think we’ll come together as a team.”
Key to Hampson’s plans are left-arm spinner Brad Barrow, 17, and Lancashire age-group batter Aveen Dalugoda, 16, both of whom will have bigger roles to play this year.
“We want to keep bringing the young ones through and keep giving them chances,” Hampson added.
“Brad took some important wickets at important times, and Aveen played some great innings for us last year.”
Another big change will be the lack of an overseas spinner. Avinash Yadav bowled 287.5 overs last year, and Vinay Choudhary 289.1 the year before, but Wigan have instead opted to bolster their batting with Indian opener Shubham Khajuria.
Hampson, who was the Premier Division’s leading seamer in the scorching summer of 2022, knows he will have a lot of bowling to do.
“It’ll be completely different this year, a lot more sharing the overs out and everyone chipping in a bit more,” he said.
After starting last season with three wins – beating Northern, and inflicting champions Ormskirk’s only league defeat of the season – Hampson’s first year as captain took a turn for the worse with a run of nine winless games.
He believes if they can iron out the inconsistency and get a settled XI, a top-half finish should be in their grasp.
Hampson added: “It’s about consistency. The biggest thing we struggle with is having the same 11 players each week.
“Ormskirk and Northern have the same players every week, and that makes a big difference. “I think we would have done a lot better last year but we went on a losing streak – hopefully we can do better this year.”
With thanks to Tom Evans @ Merseyside Cricket Online (merseysidecricket.com can be supported @ https://buymeacoffee.com/tomevanscricket)
