South African cricketer Herschelle Gibbs has signed a contract to play for the English club Lashings later this year from June to August.
Gibbs has previously had a short spell for the team traditionally known as the ”Pub” side in English cricket circles, because the club had its origins in a bar where patrons could add their names to a list to make up a team.
Lashings play social fixtures, mainly 40-overs contests and a few 20/20 fixtures, from June to August.
The club’s owner, David Folb, has brought a ”Harlem Globetrotter” element to the team in the past few years when it contracted some of the world’s greatest cricketers, past and present. At one stage the team’s line-up included three former West Indian captains in Viv Richards, Richie Richardson and Alvin Kallicharran. The latter is at present the manager of the team.
Some of Gibbs’s Proteas teammates have signed contracts to play for county sides during the off-season. However, instead of day-to-day graft, week in and week out, as is the case with county and league cricket, the Lashings side play limited-overs matches thrice-weekly from June to August.
Apart from Gibbs, Lashings’ 2005 summer line-up will include new signings Chris Cairns (New Zealand), VVS Laxman (India) and Phil Tufnell (England).
Lashings chief executive Andrew Fitch-Holland said on Wednesday that the club will be recruiting more legendary players shortly, which will make it ”the most astonishing Lashings line-up ever”.
The club markets itself as the ”world’s greatest cricket team” and in the past decade the side has seldom lost a match against opposition in the United Kingdom.
On Wednesday, Gibbs also signed a contract with Swiss watch giants TagHeuer and will over the next year wear the brand’s sticker on his bat in international matches. — Sapa