Credit: Northamptonshire County Cricket Club
Northamptonshire and Thurston extend contract
Charlie Thurston will stay with Northamptonshire until at least the end of 2022 after signing a 2-year contract extension.
“I’m delighted to have signed for another two years, I really enjoy playing my cricket at the club, there’s a great atmosphere within the group and we’ve got a really talented bunch of players.” Thurston said.
The 24-year-old was Northamptonshire’s leading run-scorer in the Bob Willis Trophy, notching up more than 350 runs at an average of 44. Having shown an appetite for red-ball runs in the Club’s second eleven last year, Thurston was pleased he was given the chance at the top level.
“I’m massively grateful to Rips [David Ripley] and the coaching staff for giving me the opportunity this year to play in the Bob Willis Trophy and I think that theme of picking young players and giving them a chance to shine has really helped my cause.
“Deep down I always knew I had it in me to score a decent number of runs at first class level, but it’s just a combination of opportunity and hard work really.” Thurston said.
It wasn’t just the coaching staff who helped push Thurston forward, Championship Captain Adam Rossington placed his faith in the young batsman too.
“Charlie’s been impressive this year in the Bob Willis Trophy and I wanted to see him bat up the order a bit. He’s played some very important innings for the club so hopefully he’ll continue that next year, he’s a brilliant lad to have around the squad.”
Despite not featuring for the Steelbacks during this truncated summer, Thurston still had aspirations of representing Northamptonshire in all formats.
“I still definitely see myself as a white ball cricketer as much as a red ball cricketer, it’s been a bit disappointing to not feature in the Blast but I’ve just got to keep working hard on my game.
If I put the hard work in over winter then hopefully next year I can get the opportunities that I got this year in red-ball and show I can get big scores, game changing and game winning scores in white-ball too.”