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The Sweep 2026 Week 1: A short history of Cornwood’s overseas players
- Cornwood Cricket club
- May 4
- 7 min read
Words: Simon Travers
The grand opening of the 2026 Devon Cricket League season arrived on Saturday with the weather starting as it finished last September. After two weeks of sunshine, and a dry morning, an afternoon matinee of persistent rain took out every fixture in the county. The only team to come away with 20 points from Saturday was South Devon 3XI in H Division Central as Exmouth 4XI had already conceded their fixture. There were 13.2 overs of play possible across Oak and Delamore Park before the covers rolled on. Matt Skeemer took 2 wickets against Exmouth to gain a bowling bonus point, while there was only enough time for the Fours openers to reach 12-0 against Ivybridge 4XI before the rain set in. The Twos and Three had fruitless trips to South Devon and Paignton.
The clouds held back enough for the Women’s Firsts to travel to Exeter on Sunday for their second match of the WDCL season. It was clear the Oak Park Sisterhood were heading for a tough match as Exeter seek to recapture the Division 1 title they held in 2023 and 2024. Electing to bat, Helly Simpson’s team made decent progress, building to 68-4 at the halfway point of their overs. That was the moment when Exeter introduced their overseas player, Briella Humphreys-Crouch, into the attack. Humphreys-Crouch is a quality off spinner from Melbourne who immediately proved too much for the Cornwood lower order. Her figures of 5-4-1-6 are the best ever delivered against a Cornwood women’s team. Exeter captain Ella Goldsworthy hit a breezy 51* in 27 balls to ensure everyone was home in time for Countryfile. A one-sided result but perhaps a valuable experience for our young team. You can’t be what you can’t see and our players got to see close up a higher standard to aspire to and a young woman for whom cricket has opened an adventure on the other side of the world.
Earlier in the week, the colts year started with a spirited performance from the Under 11s Tier 2 team. For those unfamiliar with the Devon Colts structure, Tier 1 games are designed to be as competitive as possible, while Tier 2 games intend to focus on inclusion and skill development. Our Under 11s Tier 2 side were up against a strong Plymouth side who held a significant experience advantage. While that advantage showed in a 130 run win for the visitors, the Under 11s put in a keen effort with plenty of positives to take forward. The team did well to score 91 runs in their allotted overs and collectively took 6 Plymouth wickets. Ellie had the performance of the match, hitting three boundaries and taking a wicket in two economical overs.
The other news is that the club’s overseas professional for the season, Mohsin Khan, has arrived from Pakistan and is settling into club life. Mohsin is the thirteenth overseas professional to represent Cornwood since 1998. There is still living memory within the club of when Maxi Marshall and Stuart Hodge became the first two players from outside the village to be selected in 1956. That village feel, still vital to the club, meant that the committee resisted the urge to recruit globally for longer than some Devon clubs. The move to go international happened as Cornwood stepped up to A Division standard for the first time.
The first recruit was New Zealand bowler Karl Prescott. Karl was already a known quantity in the area, having already made what would turn out to be a long term connection with Plympton. 1998 was the last DCL season of twelve team leagues and 22 game seasons. It was a predominantly wet summer as Cornwood made a good fist of their first season as an A division side, winning and losing six and finishing seventh. Karl was a significant contributor, as only Tony Barter and Dave Matthews (three times) have taken more wickets in a season in a Cornwood shirt. Karl’s 52 wickets came at an average of 14.67 and an economy rate of 3.28. He claimed 5 five-fers and his 8-55 against Tavistock are the fifth best in club league history.
Karl moved on but Cornwood found another Kiwi in the form of Taranaki based batsman Greg Paynter. Greg played with the club from 1999-2001. His stellar year was 2000 when he delivered 629 runs at 41.93 in the club’s first Premier Division season. Greg was the first overseas player to record a century for Cornwood and also the first club player to score a ton in the Premier Division, hitting 102* at Torquay in losing cause, as the seasiders chased down 274.
Greg’s last season with the club, 2001, would have been a relegation year but for the league suspending movement between divisions in response to the foot and mouth outbreak. Rizwan Quershi, a left handed allrounder from Karachi, joined the club for the horror year of 2002, when the Ones went a season without a league win, losing 15 of 18 matches. Qureshi was not the first player to wear the club badge having played first class cricket. Major FAV Parker, one of Cornwood’s founders, played 5 matches for Hampshire and Combined Services in 1946. However, Qureshi was the first overseas recruit with first class honours. In two seasons at Cornwood, Rizwan made a solid contribution. He hit 300+ runs both seasons, and took 67 wickets at 18.37 including a haul of 40 dismissals in 2003.
2004 saw the arrival of Australian Nigil Singh. He took 32 wickets that season including 7-36 against South Devon. The year after brought the first arrival of Mohammed Salman, the overseas player who has had the longest connection with Oak Park. Sal played six seasons over three stints for the Ones, 2005-7, 2012 and 2017-8. He is one of two Cornwood players to have Test caps, with two appearances for Pakistan against the West Indies, as well as 7 ODIs and an IT20. Sal made an immediate impact for the club in 2005, scoring 849 runs at 70.75 including 4 centuries and taking 40 wickets at 15.65. He would never quite have that level of monumental impact again, but he would score 450+ runs in 5 of his 6 seasons here for a total of 2981 runs at 50.53 and still holds a club record of 9 career league centuries.
While it is easy to build a case that Sal is the overseas player who has had the most impact at Cornwood, you could argue that his replacement from 2008-11, Aizaz Cheema, is the most talented player to ever represent the club. Cheema is a right arm medium fast (at international level) bowler from Sargodha in the Punjab. The end of his time at Cornwood coincided with a late blossoming international career that included 20 wickets in seven tests. The highpoint of Aizaz's professional career was taking 3-46 in the 2012 Asia Cup Final against Bangladesh, including the prize wicket of Shakib Al Hasan. For Cornwood, Cheema was close to unplayable for A Division batters. Across his peak years of 2008-2010, Aizaz took 139 wickets at an average of 8.96, with an economy rate of 2.71 and a strike rate of a wicket every 19.86 balls.
After Sal’s first return in 2012, Aizaz Cheema’s bowling partner at the Lahore Lions, Asif Raza, came for a season in 2013. Asif had a positive year, taking 31 wickets at 17.03 in a successful Premier Division relegation dogfight. 2014 saw South African Byron Langley come to Cornwood. He took 29 wickets in a relegation year and has gone on since to pursue a career in entertainment and content creation. He still sometimes turns out for Putney CC.
The next overseas player to arrive at Oak Park in 2015 is another Cornwood legend and part of the family. Craig James, an imposing New Zealand paceman, played a key part in two promotion seasons in 2015 and 2019. As part of the 2015 team that won 15 matches, Craig led the bowling attack with 27 wickets at 17.48. Nobody in the Ones took 20 wickets in the 2016 Premier Division relegation season, but Craig roared back in a dominant 2019 campaign with 50 wickets at 8.54 that included a 7-26 demolition of Budleigh Salterton.
Covid restricted recruiting possibilities for the uphill struggle of the 2021 season, but 2022 will be remembered forever as the summer of Bista. Jay Bista became one of four players to score 1000 runs in a Premier Division season. After acclimatising in May, Jay was called back to India to captain an Uttarakhand team against Mumbai in the quarter finals of a truncated Ranji Trophy. It was a disastrous experience that caused Jay to be sacked as captain as he got a pair in a first class world record 725 run thrashing. Jay came back to England with a point to prove, competition from Paignton’s Divyaansh Saxena, and pitches that turned sub-continental in a two-month heatwave. The results were explosive as he hit four tons in five weeks, including a famous 182* against Sidmouth, on his way to scoring 1088 runs at 90.67.
Jay came back in 2023 but couldn’t catch lightning twice as Devon weather and pitches returned to their norm. Jay also had to leave before the end of the year to attend trials for the Indian cricket season. 2024 welcomed Sri Lankan allrounder Naveen Fernando to the club. Naveen quietly contributed as Cornwood continued to build their reputation as a Premier Division side. He is remembered for two match winning performances with the ball against Bradninch & Kentisbeare and Heathcoat. Last year, Samarpit Joshi was resident behind the stumps, scoring 497 runs and investing himself fully into all aspects of club life. Sami again had to leave before the end of the season, highlighting some of the growing tensions facing clubs with overseas players. It is becoming harder for clubs to get a full season from an overseas professional and tightened visa processes can cause complications.
Of course, this potted history doesn’t have the scope to cover so much of what is important about including professionals in the life of the club; the stories, the cultural exchange, the broadening of the imagination of what Cornwood cricket can be. If you have a favourite story about one of the players mentioned, share it with the community in the comments below.
Next week, we turn the DCL season off and on again to see if that works. It’s a double header against Paignton for Ones and Twos, with the Ones beside the seaside and the Twos at Oak Park. The Threes have a local derby against Plympton 2XI, while the Fours are on their bye week. Sunday sees the Fifths head to Harberton, while the P&D team start their season with a cup match against Plympton on Thursday. Finally, don’t forget to get your team ready for the club quiz this Friday night.
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