Michael Finan Signs Full-time Professional Contract

Michael Finan is indebted to his Cheshire team-mate Harry Dearden for helping him to achieve his ambition of becoming a first-class cricketer.

Finan thought that ambition had ended seven years ago when, having played for Lancashire through their age group teams he was not taken on to the academy at Old Trafford and trials with Northamptonshire’s Second XI also ended in disappointment.

Instead Finan concentrated on his day job working at the Total Cricket Centre in Ashton-under-Lyne and playing club cricket at weekends in various leagues around the North West.

He was spotted by Cheshire, made his debut for them in 2019 and impressed batter Dearden who returned to play National Counties for them last summer after six years playing for Leicestershire.

Dearden recommended Finan, a left-arm pace bowler, to his former county last summer and Leicestershire beat off competition from Yorkshire to sign him on a two-year contract.

Finan impressed as a batter on his LV County Championship debut, scoring 58 from number 11 against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge, and ended the season by taking his maiden five wicket haul in the first innings against Middlesex at Grace Road.

“I did well in white ball cricket last season and Harry put my name forward to Dips Patel, the Second XI coach at Leicestershire,” Finan said.

“I actually played a Second XI match for Yorkshire against Derbyshire in July and I got offers from both Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

“But I knew Callum Parkinson and Aaron Lilley from my time playing youth cricket at Lancashire and Leicestershire were very supportive, knowing that I have a young family.

“They put their faith in me first and foremost. Yorkshire was ridiculously hard to turn down, but joining Leicestershire seemed like the right thing to do.

“They said that they wanted me to come down and play some games for them rather than trialling and I played in a Royal London Cup match against Nottinghamshire which didn’t go too well – I think I was just a bit nervous – but the three Championship matches were good fun.

“I definitely owe Harry a few pints for recommending me to Leicestershire.”

At 26 Finan admits that he is a late developer who would not have been given his opportunity at first-class level had he not played for Cheshire.

“I played for Lancashire through the age groups with Harry and the likes of Danny Lamb, Haseeb Hameed, Saqib Mahmood, Matt and Callum Parkinson, Matt Critchley and Josh Bohannon,” Finan said,

“I didn’t get taken onto the Academy and didn’t do anything county-wise for two years. I went away to Australia a few times and when I came back the second time I trialled at Northamptonshire.

“I did reasonably but I had a Gilmore’s groin at the time and probably shouldn’t have played so nothing came of that.

“So I then just tried to knuckle down job-wise. I started working at Total Cricket and it was there one night that the owner asked if I wanted to net bowl at the Cheshire guys who were training at the centre.

“They picked me for an Academy game against MCC, I did well and then got picked for the first team and it went from there.”

“Playing for Cheshire really helped me to develop a lot and got me to where I am now. I would definitely not be where I am now without playing for Cheshire.

“The gap between club cricket and county cricket is enormous. National Counties is a far better standard than club cricket. It’s very competitive, you are playing against ex-pros and young lads wanting to become first-class cricketers and it helped me to progress a lot.

“I am quite a late developer and I wouldn’t have been able to show that improvement had I not played for Cheshire.”

Finan is not only one of the latest National Counties player to graduate to the first-class ranks but the third member of Cheshire’s seam attack from 2019 to secure a county contract following Ben Aitchison (Derbyshire) and Ben Gibbon (Worcestershire) who will now be opponents in the forthcoming season.

Having swapped long days working at the Total Cricket Centre for full-time training with Leicestershire, Finan cannot wait for the new season to start.

“Until now I was either taking holiday or unpaid leave from my job to play cricket, but my work now is also my hobby,” he said.

“Total Cricket was also my hobby as it was still in cricket. I have always wanted to do something in cricket but turning up every day, batting, bowling, fielding and doing gym work doesn’t feel like work. I’m loving it massively and I’m just addicted to it now.”