Lancashire's Steven Croft has recently announced his retirement from cricket to make a full time move into coaching.
Following the announcement, he has discussed the highs and lows of his career, as well as his ambitions in his new role.
Photo credit: David Rogers/Getty Images
Following the announcement, he has discussed the highs and lows of his career, as well as his ambitions in his new role.
Photo credit: David Rogers/Getty Images
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00:00So, first of all, congratulations on your career, congratulations on your retirement.
00:10Has the decision being out in the open sunk in just yet a couple of weeks on?
00:15It has in a way, yeah. It's something I was thinking about for, obviously for a few years,
00:21obviously when you get to your mid-30s, when you're in professional sports, when you get
00:26asked the question a lot, when is the time coming up? But yeah, I suppose it's even been
00:32from 2018, a testimonial year, and it probably wasn't until then really I had a chance to
00:39reflect on my career and realised that I'd achieved quite a bit in the game and played
00:44a lot for Lancashire. So, yeah, it's one of those years, year on year, and I think the
00:49more I've got into coaching, the more, and especially this year was a bit of a hybrid
00:54year with coaching and playing. Yeah, it was one of those years as well that I thought
00:59I can't 100% commit to either really. When I was coaching, I felt like I was going back
01:04to playing. When I was playing, I felt like I was going back to coach. So, it made the
01:09decision quite easy really because coaching is something that I'm passionate about and
01:13want to go into. So, yeah, I decided to fully make the plunge about a month ago and, yeah,
01:20happy with the decision that has been made so far.
01:23Yeah, was it about balancing pros and cons leading up to last month? It's quite a short
01:27amount of time really to make that decision and then go through with it.
01:31Yeah, I felt fine to play another year, another two years, and I don't think that would probably
01:37ever leave me really. I'll always feel like I'm competitive and I feel like I'll still
01:43feel like I compete out there with the best. But, yeah, coaching was something I'm really
01:49looking forward to get into as well. I've got some good news around. I'll be doing the
01:54England Young Lions, which is the 19s, this winter as well. So, I think that made the
01:59decision a bit clearer as well that I can fully immerse myself in not only Lancashire
02:04but the young England players as well, which has been really nice almost a week into retirement
02:09really. Yeah, it's not a bad start, is it? An international call as such as a coach.
02:14I waited 21 years as a player and didn't get one. After a week as a coach, Young Lions came
02:21calling. But it's been a great even year of learning really. It's still great that I got
02:28to play. I got to coach as well with Lancashire and with England Lions as well with their warm-up
02:34game against Sri Lanka, their full test team. So, it's been a great year of learning really
02:40and almost it cements my decision really to stick with the inevitable that was coming really.
02:48It was always going to come one day and, yeah, I still feel like I'm good enough, which is,
02:53I suppose most sportsmen would rather do that than get the tap on the shoulder and say,
02:58look, we feel you're lagging behind a bit and I still feel good enough and, yeah,
03:03still happy with the decision. It's something probably early on in my career since I'd done
03:10the captaincy stuff and I think coaching then really appealed to me. So, I'd got my Level 3
03:16done around a decade ago and got the highest qualification in a Level 4 done sort of three,
03:22four, five years ago it was now. And, yeah, my path was pretty clear from quite early on.
03:28We were probably around 2010-11 that I knew I wanted to coach. So, I tried nearly every winter
03:34then to keep up with that and I've been doing the academy and Lancashire EPP for nearly a decade now
03:40in the winters and the last couple of, or last three seasons, doing the one-day comp for
03:47Lancashire, the RL50 comp as a coach. So, yeah, gained quite a lot of experience before jumping
03:54into the role, which I suppose you can't do in every job really. But, yeah, a privilege that
04:01had the opportunity to do it with Lanx while still a player and look after life after cricket as well.
04:07You mentioned the decision to retire was around a month ago. So, did you know when you played your
04:11last game at Old Trafford that that was it? Not necessarily, no. I sort of had a sort of
04:16picturesque version in my mind that at that time as well we were in the finals and we still had a
04:25quarterfinal down at Sussex and I think before, if we got to finals day, I was going to sort of
04:31announce that finals day is going to be my last cricket for Lancashire, but unfortunately we
04:36didn't get there. So, sort of last game was down at Hove. But, yeah, it's one of those things,
04:42I think professional sport, it had been nice almost by Old Trafford and I could have waited
04:48on till next year, but I think a lot could have happened in the meantime. It could have been
04:53injuries. I might have had that tap on the shoulder to say, look, we don't think you're
04:57in our strongest XI. So, I think to go out, especially for me mentally, thinking I'm still
05:04good enough to do it was nice really. Yes, it would have been nice to know this is my last game
05:12and my family would have been there at Old Trafford. But, yeah, sometimes the stars don't
05:17always align and, yeah, it's probably, it would have been nice as well if we got to finals day
05:23at Edgbaston as well. But, yeah, still happy with the way it's all panned out really.
05:29Yeah, obviously you could have gone out with a big fanfare at home, but the fact that you mentioned
05:34the fact you could have played on if you wanted to, that you're competing in that final game,
05:38like any normal game, is that a special thing in itself?
05:41Yeah, and I didn't want it to be about me either. There's a lot been before me and
05:49obviously there's a lot of teammates as well. And, yeah, it's a team game and, yeah, if the
05:54stars had aligned and everything went accordingly, yeah, it would have been nice. But, yeah, it just
06:01didn't quite happen. And, yeah, it's one of those things in sport and at least I got to go out on
06:07my terms.
06:10Of course, you came through at Blackpool. Was cricket always the one for you? Was that always
06:15going to be a career you pursued?
06:17No, not intentionally. No, I probably didn't know it was a career until I was probably an early
06:24teenager really. I was football mad and played for Blackpool Town Team and trialled around at
06:32Wimbledon when they were back in the day in the Premiership. But, yeah, I juggled football and
06:38cricket as a teenager. And then it probably wasn't until around sort of 15, 16, I really
06:46sort of then went after cricket and Lancashire then had a newly found Cricket Academy in 2002,
06:55I think it was. And, yeah, it was then I thought, right, I want to be a cricketer and give it my
07:01all really. And, yeah, luckily it paid off.
07:05But at one point the main dream wasn't the Red Roses such, it was the Tangerine as well.
07:10Yeah, yeah, I was always a Blackpool fan. Yeah, I always loved football, still love football
07:16going down to Bluefield Road. And, yeah, I think sport played a massive part in my development as
07:23a cricketer in person really. I always loved competing at school. I loved going to school
07:29because it was an outlet for sport really. I played everything at school from football to
07:34cricket, hockey, rugby, basketball. I did it all at school and I loved going really.
07:40It wasn't, admittedly, the best with my books and the brightest, but the vehicle of school
07:47gave me sport, which I loved. How much of a grounding did Blackpool Cricket Club give you
07:54heading into, obviously, what you've gone on to achieve in your career?
07:57They were fantastic, the club and the people in it, the coaches, the parents. I joined there
08:06when I was around 10 years old. And, yeah, sort of quickly developed from the junior teams playing
08:14in higher junior teams to then playing sort of fourth team, third team at senior men's cricket.
08:20And then I think on my debut in the Northern Leagues, a 13-year-old, I think at the time it
08:25was sort of Fred's record, it broke. And, yeah, it was quite an early expose to senior cricket,
08:31which put me in good stead playing against some really good cricket professionals as well. They
08:36had some really good pros in the league as well. And, yeah, I learned a lot down at Blackpool
08:42Cricket Club, especially some of the teammates and older teammates. I know Paul Danson's only
08:48just retired now. He's kept on for almost as long as I did. And people like Mark Lomas and Rudra
08:55Singh, people that have been around a lot of league cricket and almost sort of took me under
09:01the wing, really. And everyone at the club as well always really looked out for me and still enjoy
09:07going down to this day. And, yeah, Julian, a man for, old man for a pint down there as well.
09:14Yeah, you do like staying local because you played for Livermore as well recently. Is that
09:17something that's going to continue or is that retirement means retirement for everything?
09:22Yeah, I'd still like to play. I think, yeah, like I said earlier, I'll always have that
09:28competitive sort of nature in me. And I think, yeah, whether it's league cricket or a bit of
09:33paddle or tennis, I still feel like I'll need to get that out of me somehow. And, yeah, I don't
09:39think hitting the kids over the fence in the backyard is going to cut that. So I think,
09:45yeah, a few games for Livermore maybe in the summer. Well, hopefully, yeah, just feed that
09:51burst. I'll always have a passion to pick up a bat as long as I can walk and run. So, yeah,
09:58hopefully a few more league runs to come. Is that a warning to anyone who comes up against you?
10:04Yeah, yeah. And it was only... I'd made the decision this year and then I got 200 in a row
10:12for Livermore. So it's almost a peace of mind at the back end of the season thinking, oh, this is
10:17probably my only cricket now. So, yeah, having not been able to... well, not playing for Lanx
10:23anymore, it's the only thing I can... the only team I can play for. So, yeah, looking forward
10:29to that next year. Looking back, can you sort of believe what cricket has given you throughout
10:35your life and continue to give you now? No, not at all. I've said it a couple of times.
10:41As a young star, I just wanted to grow up, play a game for Lanx, get the red rose on my chest and
10:48name a number on my back and I'd have been happy with one game. But to have a professional career
10:54for 21 years and travel the world playing cricket and I still don't feel like I've had a proper job
11:03as an adult yet. I did work at Pizza Hut when I was in the academy line in the cricket clubs.
11:08But, yeah, it's given me an amazing life. To travel the world doing something you love,
11:16I feel very privileged, really, and especially at a club like Lancashire, as a local lad,
11:22to captain them, to get capped, to win some trophies at your sort of boyhood county club
11:28is something I'd never have thought as a teenager, really. You mentioned, obviously,
11:33that target of playing one game. How did your targets progress throughout your career? Because
11:36you mentioned the trophies, you mentioned being captain, you played overseas as well.
11:41So how did your targets, yeah, sort of change? Did you always have new targets cropping along
11:46or did you have an end goal once you reached one? Yeah, it sort of grew organically, really.
11:54Initially, as a youngster, it was just to get a game for Lanx and to get that contract. When
12:01that happened, it was trying to then be a first-team regular, then get your first 100 and
12:07tick stuff off as you go along. And then, so you get capped. And then, yeah, obviously,
12:12a big one was to play for England. It never sort of quite got there. Yeah, it got into
12:19like a World Cup provisional squad. But, yeah, nothing really came about. And, well, yeah,
12:24hopefully that the next chapter, I feel me personally, probably almost took my eye off
12:30the ball sort of midway through my career for almost wanting to play for England. Probably a
12:36little bit too much, really, where I think at the start and end of my career, probably had
12:42different mentalities of just enjoying the game for what it is, really, a game, really, and
12:48competing for your team rather than thinking, I've got to play for England to be a success.
12:56Yeah, I'm sure I've had the mindset at the back end, which I think we'd all like with a bit more
13:01experience behind us. It might have put me in better stead. But, yeah, we'd all like to be
13:08there. But it wasn't through like a trying, I suppose. Does it bother you now, obviously,
13:12not playing for England? Yeah, obviously, I think sort of that when you're sort of mid-20s and
13:17around there, I was sort of itching to get a go. But, yeah, no sort of hard feelings against it.
13:23I gave it my best. And, yeah, it's one of those things that some players get the chance, some
13:29don't. And, yeah, like I say, it wasn't through lack of trying. And, yeah, proud of my sort of
13:35records I've got for Lancashire. And, yeah, even one game, it would have been nice. But,
13:41yeah, no sort of hard feelings with it. And, yeah, something I think that's helped me,
13:46that's touch wood, going to help me sort of progress into coaching more that I feel like
13:52the cricketing chapter's over. I've done a heck of a lot with my career and proud of a lot
13:58with Lancashire, which I think which will put me at ease to them that the line's under my playing
14:06career now. And now it's time for my coaching, which I think will hopefully make that transition
14:12smooth. We touched on Old Trafford before. Can you believe how much that place has changed,
14:19in the way it looks at least, throughout your career? But I'm guessing it's the same
14:24feeling when you go into the ground. Yeah, it's the same, obviously, when you're going
14:30through the gates. But, yeah, it has changed a heck of a lot, almost. Being a traditionalist,
14:36I did used to like the old pavilion where you go in and you're walking past the receptionist and
14:42things like that. But you look at the ground now, it's, yeah, it's a mega stadium, really,
14:47and you can't have too many complaints about playing there every week. And the two hotels and
14:53the point and media centre and the pavilion still, it's a phenomenal ground. And, yeah,
15:00still sometimes pinch yourself when I played there, especially those Roses games when there was
15:0520,000 in. And, yeah, it was an unbelievable experience. And like most things, they've
15:12developed with time and it's one of the best places probably to play in the world now.
15:18On your coaching, you mentioned, obviously, England Lions, you've got that opportunity.
15:22What are your ambitions, coaching? Have you laid something out, long-term, what you want to
15:27sort of achieve? I think, obviously, that a sort of loose, sort of long-term goal would be a head
15:34coach and, obviously, Lancashire would be, obviously, number one and international honours
15:38as well. But for me, yeah, I'm sort of similar with the playing stuff, really. I'm going into
15:46coaching, hopefully, to help people and get them to where they want to be, really. So I think even
15:53sort of quite young, sort of in my infancy of coaching, really, but had a lot of wins already
15:59with it already. And for me, that's, it could be little things as well on and off the field, which
16:06to me, a little win. So, yeah, the aim is just to help people, to help players on the field,
16:12off the field and get them to places where they want to be. And I can look back on my experiences
16:18and those experiences around me from people I play with and the coaches as well to try and
16:24help those people, really. And just finally, if you're having a good summer next year with Liverpool,
16:30maybe Lancashire might be short of injuries. If that phone call came in saying,
16:35do you fancy a comeback, would you never say never or is that the book, confirm the clause now?
16:40Yeah, I'm content with it. And yeah, if it was Old Trafford against the Yorkies, maybe that would
16:46appeal if we were very short. But it's one of them. I'll always think I've got competitiveness in me.
16:53I'll probably still say yes when I'm 60 years old. But yeah, it's one of those I'm really happy with
17:01where I'm at with it. And yeah, if the call came along, it'd be hard to say no ever again,
17:08especially at Old Trafford. But yeah, I feel like the decision's been made. And
17:14yeah, I'm really happy with where it's at really.
17:22It'd be nice to beat them again.