By CONRAD SUTCLIFFE
DEVON’S game against Cornwall at Bovey Tracey tomorrow (Sunday) has been called off due to a waterlogged ground.
Although the pitch had been covered there was nothing ground workers could do to protect the outfield from the deluges of recent days.
Today’s Tolchards DCL B Division game against Ivybridge was cancelled due to puddling on the outfield and there was no realistic chance of the surface drying out in time to play tomorrow.
Cancelling the game means Devon go into next Sunday’s National Counties Cup game against Herefordshire at Instow without any match practice for more than a month. Their last outing was against Sidmouth on April 18.
New Devon captain Jamie Stephens, who has taken over from Alex Barrow, had been hoping to have a look at young players pressing for places in the cup squad.
One player Stephens and the Devon management know very little about is left-arm spinner Fahad Sabir, who has been recruited from the Birmingham League. It is a disadvantage for the new captain not seeing him bowl and working out how to set a field for him.
Sabir, 19, went through the Warwickshire youth system from under-13 in 2015 through to under-18 level in 2020. He has been a consistent wicket-taker in age group cricket with stand-out performances in 2018 against Staffordshire under-17s and Durham Cricket Academy.
Staffordshire were on the end of a five-for-38 haul in a 136-run defeat over two days at Halesowen
Sabir’s performance in a Twenty20 game against Durham was little short of remarkable. He claimed four wickets for one run conceded from four overs bowled – three of them maidens.
Club cricket started with Olton & West Warwickshire as an 11 year-old. By the age of 14 in 2016 he was playing in the second team and taking wickets.
Aged 17 in 2019 it was time to move on from the Warwickshire League to Birmingham League Premier Division side Dorridge, where he went straight into the 1stXI.
Dorridge were relegated at the end of the 2019 season. Sabir stayed with the club for the slimmed down 2020 programme, but has moved to West Bromwich Dartmouth for the summer of 2021.
