Pace bowler Jack White signs new deal at Northants

White initially signed for Northants ahead of the 2019 season, but he was denied any first team appearances due to injury.

Head coach David Ripley kept faith with the 28-year-old though, and offered him a new deal for 2020 - only for the Covid-19 pandemic to strike.

For a while it seemed as though White would have another summer of inactivity through no fault of his own, but the ECB did manage to get a shortened season underway in August.

That gave White a batch of Bob Willis Trophy matches to show what he is all about in the first-class arena, and the Cumbrian did the business.

White performed brilliantly to claim 13 wickets in just four games, with best figures of four for 35 and an average of 20, and he finished as the club's leading wicket-taker in the competition.

Those stats and his performances were more than enough to persuade Ripley to offer the bowler a new deal, which he was happy to sign.

“I’m really happy to have signed a new contract, as an unknown player to turn up injured last year and not be able to show what I can do was hard to deal with.” said White, who was spotted by former County assistant coach Phil Rowe when playing Grade cricket in Australia.

“But I worked very hard with Lorks (strength and conditioning coach Chris Lorkin) in the gym for months over the break to make sure when I was fit I could make an impact.”

He becomes the latest in a string of bowlers who have been picked up from lower level cricket by Northants, following in the footsteps of the likes of Jack Brooks, Ben Sanderson and Richard Gleeson, a player he used to come against in the Northern League.