Matthew Potts: ‘Wisden honour is confirmation I’ve started out on the right path’

“I t was more formal than I expected it be,” says Matthew Potts, the morning after the night before when, in front of a packed Long Room at Lord’s, amid dickie bows and evening gowns aplenty, the fast bowler was handed a leather-bound Wisden by Mike Brearley as one of the Almanack’s five cricketers of the year.

“You almost can’t believe your luck when a legend like that presents you with it – it was a very special moment,” Potts continues, shortly before leaving London for Cardiff where Durham are playing their third-round fixture against Glamorgan. “I delved into Wisden a few years ago out of curiosity and so I knew a bit about it. But some of the big names who have been in there in the past … well, it’s a huge privilege to be among them.”

The award itself has become an annual source of debate online, with its idiosyncratic criteria – based on performances of influence during the previous English summer and only able to be won once in a career – often lost in the race to reply. A personal view is this quirkiness is what makes the Wisden five so special, part hall of fame, part conversation starter, and far more interesting than the bog-standard best on show.

Either way, the square-jawed, flinty-eyed Potts had every right to crack a broad smile on Tuesday evening as Brearley shook his hand and offered gentle words of praise. Through that combination of fast-medium hustle, angle and seam-up nip, his 78 first-class wickets last season were 11 clear of next best and included 20 from his first five Test matches. As the good book notes, there were also six hauls of six wickets or more, the first seamer to do so since Waqar Younis for Surrey in 1991.

Not that he is looking back too much. The recognition, Potts says, is a