From Grace Road to Glory: Phil Defreitas | Watching a Genius at Work

By Tim Murray

When a high-class Test player marvels at what he is seeing, you know it is something special. That was the case for Phil DeFreitas when he played for Derbyshire against Durham at Queen's Park early in the 1994 season.

DeFreitas - known almost universally throughout the cricketing world as Daffy - was one of England's top all-rounders since the War playing in 44 Tests, 109 one-day internationals and five Ashes series against Australia. That Chesterfield game was at the start of his six-year stint with Derbyshire and Durham held the upper hand for much of the four days. 

They rattled up 625-6 declared before a bowling attack including West Indian paceman Anderson Cummins and left-arm spinner David Graveney bowled out the hosts for 341. Derbyshire followed on and were still well behind on 188-5 when DeFreitas marched out to join Mohammad Azharuddin. 

"Cummins was making the ball swing away from right-handers and Azha was playing him away through square leg," DeFreitas recalled. "I thought: 'How is he doing that?' "At the other end Grav was bowling into the rough and making it turn and bounce but Azha was in no trouble at all." 

Azharuddin, one of India's finest batters, was playing one of the best innings in Queen's Park's history - a masterful 205 off 192 balls. It was a knock which included a final-day century before lunch. It helped Derbyshire to a total of 442 but could not prevent Durham racing to their victory target of 159 for the loss of only three second-innings wickets. The match produced the staggering aggregate of 1,570 runs. 

DeFreitas played with and against the biggest names of his era and he said: "Wasim Akram stands out but with Derbyshire Azha and Dean Jones were fantastic players." 

Five years before that game DeFreitas took nine wickets for Lancashire in a drawn three-day match at Queen's Park. He remembers batting against a Derbyshire attack spearheaded by Ian Bishop and also featuring Paul Newman, Simon Base and Martin Jean-Jacques. He said: "It was a quick, bouncy wicket and I thought: 'Wow, this is a bit different'." 

Wisden reported: "A superb pitch, fast and true, produced an eventful game." 

DeFreitas, who captained Derbyshire in 1997, looks back fondly on his games on the ground. It staged more Derbyshire fixtures in those days and DeFreitas said: "It was like a festival, we looked forward to it. It's a beautiful setting and I've not seen many to match it." 

There was also time for a few lighter moments and he recalled the Sunday League game against Yorkshire in the Park in 1995. "We were playing in coloured clothing," he said. "We were nine down and Dev (Devon Malcolm) was going out to bat but he'd got his white pads on. No-one had said anything in the dressing room and it was only when he got out there that he realised." 

Daffy had a stellar career, scoring almost 11,000 first-class runs while his whippy fast-medium bowling claimed 1,248 wickets. He also turned in a host of match-winning performances in one-day games. So what does he rate the outstanding achievement of that 21-season stint? He said: "I've had World Cup finals, Lord's finals, man-of-the-match awards and a Test career but the thing I treasure most is becoming a professional cricketer - walking into Grace Road, going into the store room and being presented with my Leicestershire jumper by Ken Higgs. It was my ambition to be a professional cricketer and having that jumper showed that I had made it. I go cold now when I think about it and I've still got the jumper." 

Fittingly for someone who has kept his feet so firmly on the ground, DeFreitas is now a member of coaching staff at Leicestershire, his first county. He is passing on to the next generation his wisdom, the skills that took him to the top and, perhaps most importantly, his love of and enthusiasm for the game.