Matthew Fisher is ready to make the step up the senior team.
Yorkshire seamer Matthew Fisher will make his debut for the county on Sunday in a move that would not normally be particularly shocking – except that he is only 15-years-old.
Fisher will become the third youngest player in English county history to play a full first-class match, with number two on the list dating back to 1867.
Charles Young, at the tender age of just 15-years, 131 days, took the record for being the youngest ever cricketer in England when he took to the field for Hampshire against Kent.
This impressive statistic stood for 144 years before Yorkshire fielded wicketkeeper Barney Gibson in a match vs Durham University, aged 15 years, 27 days.
Now it seems the county are planning to continue in the same vein after naming Fisher in the Vikings squad to take on Leicestershire in a YB40 clash.
“I could never imagine at the start of the season that I would be named in the first team squad,” the schoolboy was quoted in the Sun upon hearing the news.
“It’s unbelievable. When I found out, I was very proud and emotional. I was smiling from ear to ear.
“My target at the start of the year was to get one or two second team games – I’ve already surpassed that.”
Yet despite Fisher having only just finished his GCSEs he is comparatively geriatric compared to Pakistani cricketer Alimuddin.
In 1942 the batsman took to the field for the one and only time for Indian domestic side Rajputana in the Ranji Trophy, aged just 12-years, 72 days.
Perhaps even more amazingly, on October 24 1996 Pakistan broke a record that had not been touched since 1959 when they fielded Hasan Raza against Zimbabwe.
At just 14 years, 227 days Raza is still the youngest international player; not to take anything away from Fisher of course.
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