At 23 years of age, Kiran Carlson became the youngest of Glamorgan’s title-winning captains as he lifted the Royal London Cup at Trent Bridge last Thursday after the 58-run victory over Durham (wites Andrew Hignell).
As the list below shows, the Cardiff-born batsman, who stood in for Club captain Chris Cooke during the 50-over competition, became the youngest of the Club’s leaders who, on seven occasions, have led the Welsh county to silverware:
1948 - County Championship: Wilf Wooller, aged 35.
1969 - County Championship: Tony Lewis, aged 31.
1993 - AXA Equity and Law League: Hugh Morris, aged 29.
1997 - County Championship: Matthew Maynard, aged 31.
2002 - Norwich Union League: Steve James, aged 35.
2004 - totesport League: Robert Croft, aged 34.
2021 - Royal London Cup: Kiran Carlson, aged 23.
Kiran’s squad was also the most youthful and inexperienced Glamorgan side to win a major domestic title, as shown by the table below, with Hamish Rutherford the only player in the Welsh county’s squad with international experience having played in 16 Tests, 4 ODI’s and 8 IT20’s for New Zealand:
Season Av. age of the Number of players Number of players with
Glamorgan squad under 25 international experience
1948 31.8 3 2
1969 28.7 4 3
1993 28.1 4 4
1997 27.7 5 5
2002 27.8 4 4
2004 28.2 5 5
2021 26.6 7 1
At the age of 40, Michael Hogan also became the oldest title-winning Glamorgan cricketer since Viv Richards, who aged 41, was part of the Welsh county’s Sunday League-winning team in 1993. Don Shepherd was also part of the 1969 Championship-winning squad in 1969 at the age of 42, whilst Johnnie Clay had celebrated his 50th birthday by the time his beloved Welsh county lifted the title at Bournemouth during 1948.