Stuart Broad

Stuart Christopher John Broad (born 24 June 1986) is a former English cricketer who played Test cricket for the England cricket team and was One Day and Twenty20 International captain.

He was awarded the Leicestershire Young Cricketers Batsman Award in 1996.

Broad played his first game for Leicestershire 2nd XI in 2004 just before his 18th birthday and impressed enough to be given a full contract for the following season.

Broad continued to impress Director of Cricket James Whitaker and made his first-class debut early in the 2005 season against Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence.

He returned creditable figures of 1/40 from 15 overs.

His maiden first-class wicket was that of Nick Lamb.

Broad followed this appearance with his first County Championship appearance against Somerset at the familiar location of Oakham.

Broad played for the England Under-19 squad in 2005, facing the Sri Lankan Under-19 squad, and took five for seventeen in the first ’Test’ at Shenley.

In August 2006 he was voted the Cricket Writers' Club Young Cricketer of the Year.

In the 2006 season Broad took his first 5 wicket haul against championship favourites Surrey and scored his first championship 50 against Derbyshire.

His most eye-catching performances were in the Twenty20 Cup, where his economy of 4.50 was the second-best of the season of bowlers with more than 15 overs bowled.

In the County Championship Broad played twelve of Leicestershire's 13 matches until called up for England, and his 44 wickets at an average of 31.38 meant he led his county both in terms of wickets and bowling average.

On 23 August 2007 it was announced that Broad would be leaving Leicestershire at the end of the season to join Nottinghamshire, after choosing not to renew his contract and to return to his home county.

A right-arm seam bowler and left-handed batsman, Broad began his professional career at Leicestershire; in 2008 he transferred to Nottinghamshire, the county of his birth and the team for which his father played.

Broad was awarded the Man of the Match in the fifth Test of the 2009 Ashes series at the Oval, after figures of 5/37 in the afternoon session of the second day.

Broad was a member of the England team that won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.

His longevity, and highly successful partnership with fellow fast bowler James Anderson has resulted in him cementing himself as one of England's greatest Test bowlers of all time.

As a batsman, he holds the second-highest Test score ever made by a number 9, having scored 169 against Pakistan in August 2010.

On 30 July 2011, at the Nottingham Test match against India, he achieved a Test match hat-trick in the process gaining his then best Test figures of 6/46.

At the start of the summer in 2012 Broad, returning from injury, produced figures of 7/72 in a match haul of 11 wickets against the West Indies.

He is England's second-highest wicket taker in Test cricket.

In December 2021, in the second match of the 2021–22 Ashes series, Broad played in his 150th Test match.

During the 2023 Ashes series against Australia, Broad joined the small list of bowlers to take 600 wickets in Test cricket.

Broad is only the second fast bowler and second bowler for England to reach the milestone after James Anderson, who was bowling alongside him that day.

He is England's second most-capped Test cricketer after Anderson.

On 29 July 2023, Broad announced his retirement from all forms of cricket.

In his farewell match at The Oval on the concluding day of the Ashes, Broad hit a six from the last ball he faced, then took a wicket with the final ball he bowled to win the Test for the home side.

Broad was born 12 weeks prematurely and his life was saved by a doctor called John, after whom he was (middle) named when he survived.

At the age of 16, he considered himself better at playing hockey and played as a goalkeeper, for Leicestershire and the Midlands, and had a trial with an England underage team.

Broad was educated at Brooke Priory School and Oakham School, a co-educational independent school in the market town of Oakham in Rutland, where he was in the same year as England Rugby back-row Tom Croft.

Broad finished his school career with three B grades at A-level, and was given the choice of a place at Durham University or a contract with Leicestershire County Cricket Club.

Broad originally started his cricketing career as an opening batsman, following in the footsteps of his father, the former England opener and current ICC match referee Chris Broad.

It was not until he was 17 and had a growth spurt that he started to consider being a fast bowler.

Broad had been associated with Leicestershire since he was 8 years old, having represented them at Under-9 level, and played for Melton Mowbray club Egerton Park, which also produced England seamer Tim Munton.

Broad played for Egerton Park from the ages of 9 to 19; in his final two seasons he opened the batting with fellow Leicestershire player Matthew Boyce and spearheaded the attack.

In the 2013 season, Broad played in the final of the Yorkshire Bank 40 tournament.

He was out for a duck and got three wickets in his last over wrapping up the game against Glamorgan.

In the fourth Test of the 2015 Ashes series Broad took career-best figures of 8/15 in the Australian first innings as they were dismissed for just 60.

This performance was named as Wisden's Men's Test spell of the decade.

Broad was a part of the Nottinghamshire side that beat Surrey in the final of the Royal London One Day Cup in 2017 played at Lords.