Khan gives up Royal captaincy

Javed Khan has relinquished the captaincy of Farnham Royal CC, stating the pressure was affecting his cricket.

All-rounder Khan took over the mantle from the now departed Ollie Clayson, but a so far unsuccessful campaign has left Royal bottom of Division 1 without a win.

Voce-captain and Buckinghamshire CCC batsman Warren Miller has taken over as skipper for the rest of the season.

“I stepped down,” Khan revealed to the Advertiser. “It’s a long story, but actually the captaincy was affecting my cricket.

“So I told my president that I just want to play cricket.

“Since being skipper I haven’t had a good innings.”

He added: “There was a pressure and you have to think about the team.
“I just want to play cricket.”

Khan also revealed that when Clayson left at the end of last season, no-one felt ready enough to take over the captaincy and so he volunteered.

“Nobody was ready to take the captaincy so I said I’d take it,” he stated. “But now I said to Warren you take it and I’ll support you.”

In Saturday’s draw with High Wycombe, Miller was captain and it allowed Khan to open up with bat, scoring a season’s best 58.

“I wasn’t captain on Saturday - Warren was,” he confirmed. “It was a very very good game.

“The game was in our hands. We batted well and bowled well, but didn’t do enough.”

After both openers were dismissed for eight runs between them, Paul Davis and Khan steadied the innings as the former hit an impressive 91.

Sharif Naseri also got among the runs with 42, as did Ian Bucknell with 37. Royal closed on 283-9, Chris Sketchley taking 4-87.

In reply, Wycombe opener Matt Eyles smashed 120 before Naseri dismissed him.

With contributions from David Cranfield-Thompson (56), Paul Sawyer (29) and Nitin Sehgal (26), Wycombe edged towards victory, but had to settle on 282- and a draw.

Despite propping up the rest of the table and sitting 28 points off safety, Khan believes Royal, who won Division 2 (West) last season, can avoid relegation.

“We can beat any team,” he rallied. “We are in the middle of the season and we need to make runs like we did on Saturday and put the other team in a difficult position.”

On Saturday, Royal travel to Radlett.