Hoylandswaine: Overseas stars, paying players and juniors

This interview with Hoylandswaine Cricket Club is about big-name signings, paying players, junior development and the swirling debate over ambition and fast-tracking success.

The club’s secretary Tony Harrison was on good form, answering any and all questions, however blunt I was, sometimes with a dead bat or with a flourish through the covers.

We start by recalling one hell of a signing by Hoylandswaine of Kamran Ghulam last summer; a Pakistani batter hoping to impress in club cricket. Over eight matches, he averaged 244 having only been dismissed once (by Scholes’ Wasim Javed).

Ghulam had to return home to play for Pakistan A and would go on to make his Test debut and score 118 in the second Test against England; one of the catalysts who would swing that series. Incidentally, spin duo Noman Ali (Bradford & Bingley) and Sajid Khan (Whiston Parish Church) both had club cricket experience in Yorkshire too.

Tony reckoned they knew Ghulam was a special player, adapting from concrete Pakistan surfaces to Yorkshire puddings (widespread floods after a very wet winter):

“You could see his application and it was his temperament. When he did get in, it was his ability to score quickly. We had Michael Cranmer here for six years (captained the side to the treble in 2014), an impressive overseas player but I’d say Ghulam was even better.”

For 2025, Hoylandswaine have signed Harpreet Singh who has 5,000+ runs over five seasons in the UK. Nadim Hussain & Raheem Shahban (Rastrick), Luke Bridges (Barkisland) & Suleman Khan (Spring View of the Liverpool & District Cricket Competition) are also heading to Haigh Lane.

Wicketkeeper-batter Simon Ward has signed from Wath of the YCSPL while Faheem Basharat moves to Hoylandswaine from Longton (North Staffs & South Cheshire League) where he took 42 wickets.

It is quite a club refresh (not all may play 1s) and perhaps adds fuel to the accusation seen online down the years that Hoylandswaine are mercenary in their approach to first-team honours, as opposed to developing their juniors.

Of course, quite a few clubs shake-up their teams year-to-year with transfers.

I ought to say I have no problem whatsoever with Premier League cricketers being paid (in case you were curious) and as a spectator, it’s a chance to see top-quality players in a club environment.

Where resentment simmers is if a club has much deeper pockets and so there’s a sense of inequality. You can’t do anything about this by the way. It can’t be policed, nullified or administered. Assuming you think it should be.

Having run Cricket Yorkshire for nearly 15 years, we all know clubs whose money tap has run dry, cue an exodus of players and a spell in the wilderness.

To play devil’s advocate for a moment, I’m curious what others in the Premiership would do, if they attracted a major financial backer. Splashing the cash on the first-team or more investment in facilities and coaching?

Equally, are Hoylandswaine that much different to other Premier League clubs around Yorkshire?

The counter-argument is that these star signings and the calibre brought in by Hoylandswaine improves the profile and quality of the league; something that Tony certainly subscribes to.

They are unquestionably a club who have had a long and illustrious roll call of county and international players passing through. I’ve seem them in a Sykes Cup Final and a few Heavy Woollen Cup games and they’ve always entertained the neutrals.

On a point of scheduling, Tony likes the way there has been forethought and collaboration on how cup competitions have been scheduled for 2025 which perhaps allows Huddersfield Premier Cricket League clubs scope to pursue honours on multiple fronts.

Unlike previous years, Heavy Woollen Cup fixtures begin on 22 June allowing for clubs to have their overseas and be at full-strength: “We’re very keen to win the Heavy Woollen Cup, being bridesmaids for three years and semi-finalists for another three years.”

The Sykes Cup and the Heavy Woollen Cup don’t seem to clash and Tony believes it’s difficult for clubs to go far locally and nationally: “I honestly think it’s that (ECB National Club Championship) or the Heavy Woollen Cup. I don’t think you can do both.”

Priorities at Hoylandswaine start with winning the Huddersfield Premier Cricket League’s Premiership. They finished third in 2024 and haven’t won it since 2022.

That said, it wasn’t a meagre last time round as their firsts won both the Sykes Cup and the T20 Cup.

In the league, Tony reckons the loss of Ghulam in May was significant, difficult to replace that overseas quality at short notice, while the ground had drainage issues where they couldn’t play three home games early doors.

Not that there are excuses tumbling out. “Best team won the league which were Moorlands. I’m a great believer the cream always rises to the top.”

Soon enough, we get to the crux of the interview as to how Hoylandswaine are perceived in some quarters. Big payers. Buying success. Pick an insult and you can probably track it down online.

The signing of former Derbyshire & England allrounder Samit Patel might be an example of rubbing clubs up the wrong way. High profile and yet unlikely to feature much.

I don’t know how much Hoylandswaine’s reputation as a club who buy in talent rather than nurturing their own is locked to the Huddersfield Premier Cricket league or further afield.

As Tony sees it, perceptions can be conveniently one-sided: “All teams pay money. They just hide behind us. No-one says anything about lots of Yorkshire players playing for Bradford League sides.”

Obviously, I can’t check any of this but Tony told me: “A lot of it is way, way over the top what we pay players, trust me. There are two teams in the league that pay more than us.”

In 2018, Alex Lees rediscovered his batting form that had fizzled out at Yorkshire with 1,119 runs for Hoylandswaine. After signing for Durham County Cricket Club, he would return the following year for a four-game stint in club cricket that included 200 against Golcar.

Incidentally, Lees had played for Lightcliffe in 2017 and broke the Bradford League record in a knock of 227 not out against Bradford & Bingley. I don’t recall mutterings about that but maybe there were.

We move on to discuss the future prospects at Hoylandswaine beyond the first eleven.

Their second team play in the Conference; a frustrating roadblock of a kind in that they’re not permitted to be promoted (despite winning the title in 2024, 2021 and 2019 in recent times).

I believe there’s a league rule that stops first teams playing second teams (unless they go down), even though Hoylandswaine 2nd XI (and others) would likely welcome the challenge at a higher level. Presumably it’s to help alleviate too many one-sided games.

I also learn that proposed changes to second-team cricket to freshen things up had met with resistance in the past:

“Everyone struggles at second-team level to recruit players…we have tried to push the rules at second-team…reduce the overs, coloured clothing, make it a bit more interesting but clubs have voted against that.”

Hoylandswaine have three junior sides and a development Sunday team (Div 1 of the Barnsley & District Cricket league) for that step up from juniors to senior cricket. They are also exploring whether there’s interest for a women’s team.

What I didn’t ask Tony at the time was whether that sense of identity of who ‘Swaine are as a club is lost – or diluted – by virtue of an ever-changing squad. Also, how many juniors have progressed through to play first-team cricket?

Future pipeline of juniors

The common gripe from some clubs is that either fashionable or well-financed alternatives poach their best juniors rather than cultivate their own. I’m not saying that’s the case here but it’s a stick to throw.

Tony’s point when it comes to building up their strength of juniors, is that there are six clubs within only a few miles from Hoylandswaine. Everyone scrapping for the same kids: “We are now going into schools, coaching to try and get these youngsters.”

It’s something I’ve heard many times around Yorkshire and some clubs are more successful than others in growing and maintaining their junior section, despite the local competition.

Tony was the one who set up juniors at the club some 20 years ago and warms to his theme: “There are only so many players to go round and every club will tell you that you’re paying players that you shouldn’t really be paying.”

(For the record, I think he means other clubs, not his own squad on this particular point!)

As for Hoylandswaine, they remain box-office, albeit with a small b. Players like Ben Kohler-Cadmore (901 runs), Jack Seddon (151 off 67 balls last season), Aaron Lilley (6,500 runs and 350 wickets in the league) and Furqan Shafiq (2,815 runs in three years) offer serious firepower.

Former Durham left-arm spinner Max Morley (50 wickets in 2024) and Umer Yaqoob (58 wickets) were a handful and expect more of the same. Faheem Basharat is a promising left-arm seamer with county 2nd XI experience.

Samit Patel knows a trick or two from his international, county and franchise days though whether he likes the size of the ground as a bowler is not yet on record.

The lower-case reference from earlier was a nod to the way that Moorlands have usurped ‘Swaine in the league and there is a sense of unfinished business in the Heavy Woollen Cup.

Without flexing their muscles at a national level yet, there’s reputation points left on the table, so to speak, whereas the likes of Richmondshire, Woodlands and others somehow manage both.

The new ECB-accredited status of the Huddersfield Premier Cricket League adds extra spice. They will be in the mix across all competitions and if Hoylandswaine do win the league and prevent a Moorlands ‘3peat’ then they’ll play against other top Yorkshire sides in the White Rose Trophy playoffs.

Of course, teams including Scholes – who finished second in 2024 in the Readers Premiership – will have something to say on that.

Hoylandswaine have major quality, enviable depth and a point to prove. A dangerous combination. Let battle commence.

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