S-Club Three make case for changelings

Kent's Saggers, Lancashire's Swann and Essex's Stephenson find best form at new counties

They could be called cricket's changelings, players who have thrived since switching counties and finding that the grass grows greener with another side.

Countless ailing cricket careers have been relaunched over the years by a change of sides and nowhere is that statement better reinforced than among a trio of in-form players making an impact this season. Kent's Martin Saggers, Lancashire's Alec Swann and the Essex prodigal John Stephenson – an S-Club Three.

Indeed in Stephenson's case it borders on the remarkable; in his first incarnation in Chelmsford he was an opener, winning his solitary England cap against Australia in 1989 on the strength of a string of big scores as a front-line batsman.

Last winter he rejoined the county of his birth from Hampshire, where he had been converted to an all-rounder batting lower down the order, but played just a handful of matches last season as the county went for youth.

His return to Essex at the age of 37 was therefore not expected to create waves and he began this season in semi-retirement; resigned to spending the twilight of his cricket career in the game's equivalent of a seaside bungalow, i.e. playing some one-day cricket, but chiefly captaining and coaching the Second XI.

But a change is clearly as good as a rest and in Stephenson's case, having answered a call to arms just a month into the season he made an immediate impact, his medium-pace bowling giving him his first 10-wicket haul in a match including a career best 7 for 44 in the second innings, ensuring a victory over Worcestershire. It also made him an ever present in the Championship side.

"It has surprised me," admits Stephenson, who left Essex to captain Hampshire in 1995. "The initial plan when I returned here was that I would play one-day cricket, but I got an opportunity early on, it is just brilliant."

While it was the Hampshire captaincy which tempted Stephenson, for Swann it was the lure of guaranteed first-team cricket (form permitting) in his favoured position as an opener that persuaded him to leave Northamptonshire for Lancashire. Already he has gone into Lancashire lore and legend by becoming that county's first batsman to score hundreds in his first two Roses matches – Geoff Boycott in 1963 was the last player to achieve the feat.

"I had always been an opening bat," says the Northampton-born Swann, who left behind his younger brother, Graeme, at Wantage Road. "Last year I wasn't batting where I wanted to and I was in and out of the side.

"For all that, I didn't expect to make it straight into the side, but fortunately I had a satisfactory pre-season and got off to a good start." So good in fact that Swann makes a surprising and revealing admission – surprising for someone who made his debut back in 1996 – about his first-team appearances this summer. "This is the longest run that I have had," says the 25-year-old, who has opened in all 12 of Lancashire's first-class matches.

He is not alone in finding an improvement in his lot. Saggers was a relative late starter, at 24, when he made his debut for Durham in 1996, but played just nine first-class matches.

His cricketing clock was advancing alarmingly and when he was released in 1998 he thought that was it. "I thought I might never play first-class cricket again," he says. "I was 26 and had not proved myself at that level." But Kent signed him up and in the two matches he played in he claimed 12 wickets at an average of 16.0. That, though, was that as far as 1999 went. Saggers was found to be suffering from a stress fracture of the back and by the time the following April came around, even though the injury had cleared up, he found himself wondering once more if he would ever play again.

He has – and with astounding success. He just seems to get better. "There is no doubt the change has been as good as a rest," says the swing and seam bowler who has topped 50 wickets in the three seasons since then.

None of the trio claims to be preparing any differently with their new county, although Stephenson admits: "Just being back with Graham Gooch has helped me a lot. We are very close friends and stayed in touch all the time I was at Hampshire."

Swann explains: "There is one difference between Lancashire and Northamptonshire. At Old Trafford players are on 12-month contracts, as opposed to a seven-month one at Northants. That means that Lancashire are paying us throughout the winter as well, giving a structure to my training and practice regimes, which meant that I began this season fitter and I feel I am a proper, full-time pro. But technically I am doing nothing differently. I have not changed anything about the way I play. I am just very happy. A lot more settled."

Saggers echoes that, and while the grass in Kent is certainly not greener – most certainly not the pitches – the amiable Lincolnshire-born bowler says: "My bowling suits the ground at Canterbury. I have certainly felt more at home here.

"Other than that, though, I can't put my finger on why things should have improved for me as they have. I am certainly not preparing any differently, I think it boils down to confidence. Over the three years with Kent I have developed my all-round bowling game, bringing in new things."

Whatever the secret is, Stephenson is determined not waste a moment. "My coaching career is on hold. I'd like to keep my place in the first team and the agreement is that I ride it for as long the form lasts."

What all three seem to have in common is renewed belief in their abilities. They are revelling in the confidence bestowed on them by their new coaches and colleagues. Changing rooms, changing places, changing sides, it all boils down to one thing – a change in fortune.