CRICKET: Cross's memorable year may just be start.

Byline: PAUL EDWARDS 

FOR Leigh wicket-keeper and bats man Gareth Cross the 2004 cricket season was stuffed full of memorable days.

Maybe it was no surprise then, that this most promising of players was awarded his first professional contract by Lancashire and then named as the Liverpool Competition's Premier League Player of the Season all in little more than 24 hours.

Twenty-year-old Cross rates the Liverpool Competition very highly but the news from Old Trafford naturally took pride of place since it is a major step towards what he hopes will be a first-class career.

``At the start of the season it was my goal to get a contract but in April I didn't think I'd achieve it this year, '' he explained. ``However, Warren Hegg's injury meant that I got a chance in the second team and I did all right in my six matches although it's a step up from club cricket. ''

Indeed, Cross's season might have been even more dramatic. An injury to Jamie Haynes just before Lancashire's Championship match against Warwickshire led to Leigh's keeper rushing from Worksop to Old Trafford the day after hitting a polished 83 for the second team.

Cross warmed up with the first team but returned to the game against Nottinghamshire when Haynes recovered.

Cross's six matches for Lancashire's second string convinced officials at Old Trafford of his promise but Leigh also had plenty of opportunities to observe his development at first hand.

An aggregate of 742 runs with seven 50s and a debut ton against Wallasey added to 30 dismissals behind the stumps was clear proof that the player who spent last winter playing second grade cricket for Melbourne club St Kilda had returned from Australia a better player. Cross admits: ``Last winter helped me to get more used to fast bowling and although I didn't get a chance to keep wicket I did take the opportunity to practise hard. ''

Cross moved to Leigh from his local Bolton Association side Clifton at the age of 17 in the close season of 2000-1 and in four years has scored 2373 runs at an average of 32. 06, taken 75 catches and made 30 stumpings, all of which leaves him in no doubt that the move to the Competition was the right choice.

``I'd gone as far as I could at Clifton and I went to Leigh entirely of my own volition, '' he said. ``The cricket in the Competition is a lot more agressive, the standard is better and the longer matches have taught me to be more thoughtful about my game and to concentrate more. I'll always be grateful to the then Leigh skipper Steve Bailey for sticking me in the first team as soon as I moved to Beech Walk. ''

As for the best bowler he has faced in the Competition, Cross's choice of Mushtaq Ahmed is perhaps unsurprising and he picks out another legspinner, Iqbal Sikander, as the most difficult bowler to whom he has kept wicket, while at county level, a spell of seam bowling from Durham's Liam Plunkett will also stay long in his memory.

For now though, Cross is enjoying a well-earned break before reporting back for pre-season training as Lancashire's number two wicket-keeper in December.

And with Old Trafford having signed up Muttiah Muralitharan for another season, there is every chance that the 2005 season will also contain days when Cross's skills will receiving a severe examination.

Don't put money on him failing the test.

CAPTION(S):

Mushtaq Ahmed (left) is the best bowler Gareth Cross has faced