PROFILE

After being struck down by career threatening post viral fatigue midway through the 2010 summer it was a huge achievement for Joe to even make it on to the field in 2011.

Even on the pre-season tour of Barbados he was treading tentatively, but by the end of the summer he had scored 773 first-class runs at 38.65 with a best of 139 against Durham MCCU. He also surprised a few with his performances in one-day cricket, particularly in the FPt20 where he scored 154 runs at 25.66 at a quick rate. Hopefully a winter in good health will see Joe increasingly dominant in 2012.

Joe provides a solid presence at the top of the Yorkshire order, often at his best when the chips are down and conditions require patience and resilience.

A graduate of Oxford University he has played for the Oxford UCCE, Oxford University and Yorkshire. He captained the Oxford side in 2003. He scored 147 in the Varsity match in The Parks in 2004 and in the same year he also hit 144 not out in the one-day Varsity game at Lord’s.

Joe captained England at Under-19s and Under-17s level and his maiden Championship century for Yorkshire came against Leicestershire at Scarborough in 2005 when his 104 went a long way towards helping his side reach 400 to win the match by six wickets.

His 2007 summer started in dramatic fashion when a six-and-a-half hour century (149*) off 318 balls saw him carry his bat through the 1st innings of the season’s opener against Durham at Headingley. He then bettered that in June against Kent at Tunbridge Wells when he hit 187. The second half of 2007 however brought disappointing personal results and Joe lost his Yorkshire 1st Team place in 2008.

2009 though saw Joe returning to his best, passing 1,000 first-class runs for the first time in his career. Joe and Jacques Rudolph gave Yorkshire some much better starts than the team had managed for some time and, in August, Sayers was called into the England Lions squad to play Australia before the 5th npower Ashes Test. He then gained a place on the ECB’s Performance Programme during the 2009/10 winter.

Joe will not forget the end of the 2010 season when he got married to his fiancée Lisa. The couple had their first child just before Christmas 2011.

JAMES BUTTLER
January 2012