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James Foster, aka Fozzy, has an impressive cricketing CV to which he adds more achievements as each year passes. Equally at home with bat and gloves, the Essex and England wicketkeeper has played in seven tests, 11 one-day internationals and five Twenty20 internationals for his country. James took over the captaincy of Essex, in all forms of the game, in July 2010 and was subsequently given a benefit for 2011 as due reward for his sterling service with the club.

James was awarded his first contract with Essex in 1999 and has played for the county ever since his Championship debut in 2000, and four years later he enjoyed a hugely successful summer with both bat and gloves, hitting four first-class hundreds @ 51.85 and claiming 51 victims behind the stumps. He then went on to hit another double hundred against Nottinghamshire in 2006 and was appointed vice-captain of Essex the following year.

His progress continued unabated when he was voted Essex’s Player of the Year for 2008 and 2009. Seasons that also proved successful for his county with promotions in both the one-day and four-day leagues as well as the Friends Provident Trophy. In those same years he was also named in the ‘Professional Cricket Association Team of the Year’.

An injury in 2002 then saw him fall down the pecking order for national service but his consistency with Essex was duly rewarded with a call-up for an England Lions tour of India in 2007/08.

A belated recall to the senior ranks came in 2009 when he played for England in the World Twenty20, receiving high praise for his sharp keeping and stumpings of Yuvraj Singh and Dwayne Bravo.