Ian Leslie Pont was born on 28 August 1961 at Brentwood, Essex. He is the youngest of three cricketing brothers, the oldest Kelvin (1949) and Keith Rupert Pont.
Ian was a right hand bat and a right arm fast-medium bowler who joined Notts in 1981/82 season, first playing for the Second XI and then for the First XI. He was a fast bowler, attacking batsman and had a superb throwing arm.
He played for Notts four times in the County Championship in 1982 making his debut at Lord's against Middlesex. He took 1 – 93 when bowling and made 16no in Notts first innings and eight in the second innings. Unfortunately, Notts lost by an Innings and 113 runs, which was very surprising considering that the team contained Tim Robinson, Clive Rice, Bruce French and Peter Such.
Ian played a further three Championship matches for Notts – against Surrey, Leicestershire and Somerset – but also featured in four John Player League games and a second round game in the Nat West Competition against Gloucester at Trent Bridge.
Ian then moved on from Notts and eventually made his debut for his home county, Essex; in his first game against Somerset in July 1985 he took 5-105 and in his final game for Essex he again took five wickets against Surrey on the 30 August 1988.He is probably best remembered for his sensational throw that ran out Chris Broad in the 1985 Nat West Final.
He had a terrific throwing ability and is recorded as the second longest throw of a cricket ball of 138 yards, or 414 feet. With this in mind he had a spell as a professional pitcher in the national baseball league for the Philadelphia Flyers in 1987. He had a great ability at throwing the javelin in athletics and could have followed a career there, being described by Fatima Whitbread’s mother ‘as the most natural javelin thrower’.
Ian Pont retired from cricket in 1988 to concentrate on his business, Hogger Sports, and was responsible for delivering coloured cricket clothing to the Axa Equity & Law League.
Ian launched his coaching company Mavericks in 1996 using Advanced Biomechanics learned in America. Ian’s insistence on pace and accuracy training (ABSAT) has led him to become one of the top bowling coaches for the development of players.
He has become a world renowned T20 bowling coach and has written three books on biometrics for fast bowlers. Ian Pont has been one of the bowling coaches for England, Pakistan and Bangladesh and coached notable fast bowlers such as Shaoib Akhtar and Dale Steyn.
He is currently Fast Bowling Coach to Essex County Cricket Club and National Bowling Coach to the Netherlands. Ian also works as specialist coach to the Worcestershire Academy. He has been asked to head up the Regional Fast Bowling Coaching for the ECB and has been working at Loughborough with England’s young fast bowling group on National Skills Sets training. Ian also travels to Chennai, India, to team up with Dennis Lillee at the MRF camp every February.
June 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 493