Durham sign Tom Latham as overseas player for 2018 season

Ahead of the 2018 season, Durham have signed New Zealand’s Tom Latham as one of their two overseas players, the other one being South Africa’s Aiden Markram. Markram will play in the County Championship until May, after which Latham, who was with Durham last season too, will take over and captain the side in the One-Day Cup. Last season, Latham scored 382 runs at an average of 63.67 for the team. He will not be available for the start of the season because of international commitments.

Latham, since his arrival into the big stage at the age of 19, has played many roles for New Zealand – batting, wicketkeeping and captaining. He has played 34 Tests, 70 ODIs and 13 T20Is, in which, batting at various different positions, he has scored 2295, 2301 and 163 runs respectively. He has also captained the Kiwis in the limited overs format whenever the regular skipper is not available.

“He has a wealth of international experience and brings exceptional batting, fielding and leadership skills into the dressing room,” Durham chairman Sir Ian Botham was quoted as saying by BBC.

Early beginning 

Latham was in the squad for New Zealand’s side in the 2010 edition of the U19 World Cup. Later on that same year, he played first-class cricket for Canterbury. Two years after that, he made his debut in ODIs and Twenty20 and since then, he has batted on nearly every position on top, middle and lower. He is one of the very few cricketers to have played in almost all the 9 positions.

Career highlights 

One of the biggest highlights of his career is three successive Test half-centuries in the West Indies in 2012, which contributed to an overseas series win. That same year against Pakistan in the UAE he scored centuries in successive Tests, thereby becoming the first New Zealand batsman to do so for 24 years.

Durham have won the county championship thrice – in 2008, 2009 and 2013 and will be hoping for another title this year.

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