When it was realised that neither Stuart MacGill nor Chris Cairns - the County's contracted overseas players - would be available for Nottinghamshire in the early part of the 2003 season, South African international all-rounder Steve Elworthy was engaged to fill the gap.
He proved a most useful substitute. In his five First-Class games he scored 179 runs, average 22.37 and took 20 wickets, averaged 31.35. In addition he appeared in three Sunday League matches taking seven wickets, averaged 19.14, including four for 41 against Derbyshire at Trent Bridge.
Born in Bulawayo on February 23, 1965, Elworthy moved to South Africa as a teenager and represented Transvaal Schools in 1983/84. His First-Class debut came for Transvaal B against Natal B in 1987/88, but he did not obtain a place in the South Africa Test side until he toured England with 1998 team.
His single Test on that visit was at Trent Bridge. He appeared a second time for South Africa on their 1998/99 tour of New Zealand. However, his most notable performances at international level were in One Day matches, in particular during the 1999 World Cup in England.
South Africa reached the semi-finals of that tournament before going out to Australia on fewer wickets after their match had been tied - until a certain day in June 2019, the most exciting World Cup match ever staged.
Elworthy also played a single season with Lancashire in 1996.
Since his retirement Steve Elworthy has become a successful cricket administrator, firstly as Cricket South Africa's commercial and communications manager. and later as tournament director for the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in 2007.
In February 2010 Elworthy was appointed as Director of Marketing and Communications for the England and Wales Cricket Board and subsequently took up a new role as Director of Special Projects following the conclusion of his current contract as Managing Director of the 2019 ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup. This was to have included acting as Tournament Director for the inaugural season of The Hundred, a competition imperilled by the 2020 Coronavirus outbreak.
Steve Elworthy was awarded the MBE for services to cricket in 2018.
April 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 572
See Steve Elworthy's career stats here