New Zealander James Franklin joined the Trent Bridge staff midway through the 2014 season, primarily to play in limited-overs cricket. He arrived in June after the Club’s main overseas player, Peter Siddle, was recalled by Cricket Australia.
Born in Wellington in 1980, Franklin first appeared for Wellington in 1998/99 and made his New Zealand Test debut in 2000/01. He began his international career as a left arm pace bowler who could swing the ball, but developed into an effective all-rounder. He had played 31 Tests, 110 One Day Internationals and 38 T20 Internationals when he signed for Nottinghamshire. He was experienced in English conditions with previous spells at Essex, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire and had made his mark at Trent Bridge with six wickets in the 3rd Test of 2004.
Franklin played in all nine of Nottinghamshire’s 50-over Royal London One-Day Cup matches in 2014, helping the Club reach the semi-final and scoring 190 runs and taking seven wickets along the way. In his six T20 appearances, he scored 68 runs and took three wickets from the six overs he was asked to deliver.
Franklin played in one First-Class match, contributing 63 runs and 1 wicket in a defeat against Durham at The Riverside. He left the County in early September to join up with Barbados Tridents in the Champions League T20 tournament.
Franklin returned to England in 2015, signing for Middlesex as a non-overseas player thanks to his grandfather’s Northern Irish origins. He soon assumed the captaincy and was at the helm when Middlesex won the Championship in 2016. He continued playing through until the end of the 2018 season and the following year was appointed as Lead High Performance Coach with Durham.
May 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 627