Stephen Parry

Stephen Parry, a left-arm spinner, had to build his Lancashire career primarily playing limited-overs cricket for his first decade in the game. It was a none-too-easy task but that has not prevented him winning England honours and being recognised as a crucial element in the Lancashire squad.

His skill as a T20 bowler was evident in 2015 when who finished as the country's joint leading wicket taker - alongside team-mate James Faulkner - in the NatWest T20 Blast with 25 wickets as Lancashire won the competition for the first time. But it was not enough to win him a place in England's World Twenty20 squad in India in 2016 as Hampshire's Liam Dawson edged him out.

Parry played for Cumberland in Minor Counties cricket on his way to Lancashire honours and claimed a five-wicket haul on his first-class debut in 2007 against Durham University but opportunities were restricted because of the presence, in turn, of two other slow left-armers on the county staff: Gary Keedy and Simon Kerrigan.

He was first called up for the England Lions in a 50-over match against India A at Worcester in July, 2010. No mean batsman, he scored a Second XI century in 2011 and captained the Lancashire team that won the Second XI one-day competition in 2012.

He first awakened the interest of the full England squad in 2013. Despite receiving a broken arm courtesy of throwdowns from Peter Moores, then Lancashire's coach, he did enough to catch the eye of the England selectors who called him up for the tour of West Indies and World Twenty20 in Bangladesh. Strikingly, his 5 for 17 in a 40-overs match against Surrey at Old Trafford had only been exceeded once before by a Lancashire bowler in one-day cricket.

He made his ODI debut against West Indies, in Antigua, on trip dominated by spin bowling and acquitted himself well, his 3 for 32 enough to take the man-of-the-match award. Two T20 internationals followed in Barbados ahead of one game in the World T20 in Bangladesh later that month, but he was discarded after his fifth T20I, this time against Pakistan in Dubai, at the end of 2015.

Ashley Giles, then England's one-day coach, gave him opportunities in T20 and ODI cricket and the pair joined forces again at the end of 2014 when Giles, sacked from his England role, became Lancashire's director of cricket.

But it was Glen Chapple, Giles' successor, who finally gave him regular Championship opportunities. Ten years after his five wickets on first-class debut, he achieved it for a second time as Lancashire's defeat of Middlesex consigned them to a path that would end in relegation. An abiding love for Lancashire had kept him at the county, Parry suggested, and he aimed to make it worthwhile with a strong finish to his career.

ESPNcricinfo staff