Former Shropshire and Shrewsbury cricketer to head down under with England Over-60s
Former Shropshire and Shrewsbury skipper John Foster will pit his wits against ex-Australian Test star Graham Yallop when England Over-60s tour Down Under next month.
Yallop will skipper the Aussies against Foster's England squad in three ODI test matches taking place on a tour over four weeks in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide.
And Foster is relishing the chance to lock horns with the former Australian skipper who played 39 Tests and 30 one-day Internationals for his country, including being part of the famous 'Botham's Ashes' tour of 1981.
Foster said: "It was a pleasant surprise to hear Graham will be playing. One of our aims is to raise the profile of seniors' cricket and having a player of Graham's standing will help do just that.
"It is a real bonus for us to hear we are going to be challenged by a former Test player and it means we are all looking forward to the tour even more than we were before.
"It gives us a bit of an opportunity to create something more special and show that people of our age can still play an active part in the game. It is great that more and more 50 and 60-year-olds are still playing the game and some coming back to playing cricket at a time when the numbers in cricket generally are falling.
"And with Graham playing, hopefully that will raise the profile of this tour even more."
The England tour party has been selected from cricketers who have played in the Seevent 60+ County Championship – a competition which has grown rapidly in the past few years.
Foster, who is Cricket Shropshire's director of performance and president at Shrewsbury Cricket Club, added: "The enthusiasm for the game is great to see, particularly as we still play old-fashioned cricket – hard but fair and we have fun."
There are other Shropshire connections with the squad as the tour manager is Andrew Clarke from Oswestry, and the scorer will be Maggie Boyden who fulfils the same role for Shropshire Over-60s.
The squad of 18 will have 13 matches during the month-long tour, and Foster is hoping to spread the games around so that most will play in eight.
He added: "A four-week tour Down Under will be a fantastic opportunity. Our objective is, of course, to have a great time and we will enjoy it even more if we win all of our matches and bring back the Ashes!"
