Martin Saggers

Who is Martin Saggers?

Martin John Saggers is a retired English cricketer and an English county cricket umpire, who spent the majority of his career at Kent. He had little success in his three seasons with Durham between 1996 and 1998, but then joined Kent and from 2000 to 2003 passed 50 first-class wickets each year, his best being 83 in 2002. He also played for Essex on loan in 2007.

Saggers made his Test match debut in 2003/04, as a replacement for the injured Andrew Flintoff in Dhaka, and also played in two of the three Tests against New Zealand the following summer. At Leeds he took the wicket of Mark Richardson with his first ball, but some wayward bowling and poor performances with the bat led to his being dropped for the games against West Indies.

Saggers suffered a knee in jury in August 2009, and a month later announced his retirement from professional cricket. Graham Johnson, Kent's chairman of cricket, paid tribute to Saggers, saying "We owe Martin a great deal, especially during a period when he was our seam attack. Quite rightly, on the basis of this success, he received recognition at International level.