When troubled Worcestershire signed Adrian Shankar, the former Lancashire 2nd XI batsman, a couple of weeks ago, they were in dire need of a miracle worker. They were bottom of the table, with a tiny budget, and had little prospect of winning a single match – let alone avoiding relegation.
In Shankar, they found a man capable of the extraordinary … but not quite in the way they’d hoped. Just like Brad Pitt’s character in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Shankar was blessed with the ability to get younger over time.
At the start of the season Shankar was a 29 year old who had achieved little in his career. Yet a couple of weeks ago, when he signed a two year contract with Worcestershire, he had metamorphosed into a pugnacious 26 year old – young enough, incidentally, to qualify for the young player incentives provided by the ECB.
Worcestershire’s miracle man was announced with great fanfare by the media. Despite struggling to make the grade for Lancashire, Shankar claimed he had been one of the leading scorers in Sri Lankan domestic cricket this winter – where he had come up against several leading players.
He also claimed he’d made his county second team debut at the tender age of 14, and had been Cambridge University’s youngest ever captain. As he told Worcestershire he was 26 years old last week, and records show he’d played in the 2002 Varsity match, he must have played against Oxford as a mere 17 year old. Wow. Most people are getting to grips with A-levels at that age – but not Shankar.
The impressive list of achievements didn’t end there. The Cambridge University coach had allegedly described Shankar as ‘one of the finest young players since John Crawley’. He was also a dab hand at other sports – a junior tennis champion and a footballer good enough for the Arsenal Academy, apparently.
Unfortunately for Worcestershire, however, it turned out Shankar’s greatest talent was telling porkies. Everyone embellishes their CVs to a certain extent, but the ostensible miracle man had taken it to extremes. The result? Worcestershire have sacked him – and with good cause.
It was revealed today that Shankar did indeed play cricket in Sri Lanka this winter – but not at a first class level. Furthermore, the players he claimed to have played against were involved in other matches at the time. Ooops.
Meanwhile, far from being one of Cambridge University’s finest young batsmen, the Cambridge UCCE coach had actually described him as ‘a poor player’ who he would never recommend. As for his footballing ability, Arsene Wenger has been unavailable for comment.
Shankar’s biggest sin, however, was claiming he was 26 years old. In doing so, he gained an unfair advantage in selection – Worcestershire need all the financial help they can get, and those young player incentives from the ECB come in very handy.
Maybe that’s why Shankar was selected in the first team straight away, without playing a single second XI match. Unsurprisingly, he was dismissed for a duck on his debut.
It seems incredible that a professional county can be taken in by such outrageous claims. Did they not see Shankar play in the nets before offering him a two year contract? Then again, Worcestershire’s attack isn’t exactly the best. Anybody can look good in practice against poor bowling – even a 29 year old underachiever.
However, the thing that really mystifies me is this. How on earth did Shankar get into Cambridge University? He doesn’t sound like the sharpest tool in the box. It just shows how far you can get with a dodgy passport and the gift of the gab.
James Morgan
Lancashire were equally conned! Hes been there the last 2 years under similar pretences, look at their press release when they signed him!
Far is the team of Lord, Curtis, Hick, Moody, Botham, Neale, D’Olivera and Rhodes fallen.
To be fair, I remember reading that Basil D’Olivera lied about his age when he got picked for England … could be wrong though. Plus he actually did quite well, unlike Shankar!
I suppose when your desperate you will beleive anything. Sad that worcester got sucked in like that but what on earth did he think he was doing?? His lack of any ability was always going to find him out never mind his Walter Mitty trail of lies!
Are decent young cricketers so hard to find that counties have to resort to no marks like this?
I had a laugh when I heard about this on the radio. I was at school with Shanks, he was always a bit of a wag. Good footballer but not good enough for Arsenal! Nice guy but definitely someone who might come up with this sort of scam.
On the point of his intelligence, he’s a smart guy. Combined with his cricket ability it’s no surprise he got into Cambridge. And I believe he WAS the captain there. However maybe he’s not the most trustworthy type.
But the youngest captain in Cambridge’s history??? Nice to hear from you Frank. Interesting to hear from someone who actually knew him. I am just a scorned Worcs fan ;-) To be honest, the story probably reflects worse on Worcs than Shankar.
The funny thing is that he played alongside Alastair Cook in the school team. Of course he was three years older than Cookie. Interestingly I don’t think he was captain of the school team – despite being the best batsman – so perhaps the cricket coach was pretty smart.
As someone who played ECB Prem cricket with Shanks I share your view that it could only be him who would try it on! Maybe that law degree will come in handy :)
Not only did he play with Cook in the Bedford School side but also Will Smith now of Durham. Sometimes the truth is what you want to hear; why Worcs didn’t check more is a very sad reflection on the club. You cannot blame someone for holding on to a dream!
For Spencer?
Frank, have you seen that the Birmingham Mail have mentioned you in this article http://bit.ly/kwaOJa amazing how their quote appears to be remarkably similar to your comment here ;-)
Oh dear Morgsy – God’s Own County made a right hash of this one!!
The closest I got to the 3 Pears was that Club & Ground game against your old school. I still cringe at dropping you at mid-off in that game, it was an absolute dolly. After that not even a decent porky pie would’ve got me a 2nd game.
Probably just called up pretending to be George Weah with a recommendation that he was a great prospect. Also known as falling for a Souness.
I remember that guy who pretended to be George Weah’s cousin at Southampton. A mate of mine saw his debut. Apparently he didn’t understand the offside law!
Surely someone must have noticed that this kid was a joker? I checked out his cricinfo profile just after I’d read the article about him, and not only was his first-class average extremely measly considering his HS was 143, but he’d played 2 one-day games, scored 27 and 0 and had a strike-rate of 23.68. He faced 111 balls for that 27 – HELLO?!
On the other hand, blagging your way through ten years of County cricket… Why didn’t I think of that?
It sounds to me as if it could be a case of a young cricketer failing to live up to early promise.