Essex County Cricket Club has a proud history of producing talented players from Metropolitan Essex, and Jamal Richards is the latest player from the capital to rise through the ranks at the Club.
Richards, who celebrated his 18th birthday earlier this month, is an all-rounder originally hailing from Edmonton, North London. He attended Norlington High School in Waltham Forest where he had the inspiration of looking up to alumnus, Graham Gooch OBE.
In 2016 at the age of 11, he joined the Essex Academy and has since progressed through the age groups. Making his Second XI debut last year, he played 12 games bowling 44 overs and taking 9 wickets at 28.56.
His development has recently been rewarded with a rookie contract, which he signed shortly before flying out to Abu Dhabi with the First Team for pre-season training.
Whilst on tour he has played two of the three practice games so far, impressing his coaches and teammates with both bat and ball. In his sole T20 appearance he picked up two wickets, whilst only going for 19 runs from his seven overs in the 45-over red-ball fixture yesterday, making him the most economical Essex bowler on the day.
