Worcestershire Cricket Society have been forced into a late change of guest speaker for their opening winter cricket evening of 2022-2023 in the Graeme Hick Pavilion on Tuesday (7.30pm).
Former England spinner Monty Panesar had agreed to be the original speaker but pulled out on Thursday evening because of work commitments.
But the Society have moved quickly to find a quality replacement in another ex England player in pace bowler Dean Headley.
He was originally scheduled to address the Society on February 14 but was happy to step in at the last moment after Panesar withdrew.
The Society will now be striving to find a speaker for the February evening.
Dean began his career with Worcestershire Seconds before moving onto Middlesex and Kent and picked up 60 wickets in 15 Tests for England before retiring through injury in 2001.
More recently he was back at New Road last summer as an ECB Match Officer for one of the LV=Insurance County Championship matches.
Society Secretary Mike Hitchings said: “It was a real disappointment that Monty Panesar pulled out, particularly with it being so late, and we were concerned about finding a quality replacement at such short notice.
“But Frank Watson did a sterling job in managing to get Dean to push forward his visit to us from February and we are extremely grateful to both of them.”
Non-Society members can attend this and any of the winter cricket evenings for an admission charge of £5 per evening.
Frank Watson will be the sole MC for the Panesar evening but then he and Dave Bradley will join forces for the remainder of the programme through to March.
A reminder that the other guest speakers in 2022-2023 are Phil Newport (November 8), Paul Farbrace (December 13), Joe Leach (January 10), and David Millns (March 14).
