Brief profile of Christopher Bassano by Matthew Reed

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Player:

CWG Bassano

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DateLine: 8th December 2005

 

Although his First-class debut (30 runs in two innings against the 2001 Pakistani tourists) slipped by relatively anonymously, Chris Bassano’s entrance in the County Championship against Gloucestershire certainly did not. As if an undefeated 186 (in just under 9 hours) in Derbyshire’s first innings wasn’t enough, he followed it up with 106 in the second. This was the first time anyone had recorded centuries in both innings of their Championship debut. However, Bassano had to return to Tasmania just two weeks later, as his father (the highly respected cricket writer Brian Bassano) had suffered a stroke from which he subsequently passed away from. When Bassano returned, he again made a very good impression (without reaching the dizzy heights of before), and he began a career of consistent run scoring for Derbyshire. However, in 2003, he averaged a very poor 14.57 in First-class cricket despite scoring four limited-overs centuries, including one, which he claimed followed a seagull caused sleepless night in a Hove B&B the night before a match against Sussex.

 

Despite having the shots to score all around the wicket, Bassano is also unafraid of digging in for long, accumulative spells, although he is confident enough against spinners to actively look to hit sixes off them. For a player who doesn’t mind attritonal innings, he can have a tendency to play shots away from his body, with sometimes unhappy consequences. Bassano had been on the fringes of the Tasmanian team for some years, where he got to know Derbyshire’s overseas player Michael Di Venuto. Di Venuto had no qualms in recommending him to Derbyshire (despite being born in South Africa and living in Australia, Bassano owned a British passport as he has a British mother), and further evidence of his ability had come in some high scores for various second XI teams in 2000. Although neither the then skipper Dominic Cork nor any of the Derbyshire committee had seen him play, it was decided that the risk in offering him a contract was worth taking. Bassano did eventually graduate to the Tasmanian First team, although his two Pura Cup matches in 2002/3 only yielded 26 runs from three completed innings. Despite being a decent batsman, Bassano’s time in as a First-class cricketer is probably over. The ECB’s decision to effectively impose a ‘fine’ every time a county fields a player who isn’t English qualified in 2006, (as Bassano isn’t) led the perennially hard up Derbyshire to come to a financial settlement with Bassano over the remaining year on his contract in December 2005. Although a useful county batter, Bassano’s weight of runs just wasn’t enough for him to be retained as an ‘official’ overseas player for the Peakites. Bassano could still make runs at First-class level, although he will be lucky to find another county or to get back into the Tasmanian reckoning.

 

December 2005

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Matthew Reed)