Patrick Foster’s gambling caution: ‘Quite a few in cricket need help’

No one knew why Patrick Foster wasn’t performing better – he should, by rights, have been the star player for his club. Foster had been signed by Northamptonshire in his teens, developing through their academy and second XI. As a student at Durham University, he was mentored by Graeme Fowler and by his early 20s he had played against and alongside the likes of Virat Kohli, Josh Lalor and Dawid Malan. Even now, his teammates at Oxford’s Horspath CC would still see the occasional flash of the former professional’s undeniable talent; the problem was, he didn’t seem to be trying.

The 27-year-old Foster batted recklessly, like someone working off their anger issues, or trying to get out as quickly as possible. Bowling – his specialism – seemed a chore, and he was unengaged in the field, preferring to stay out on the boundary. There didn’t seem much team spirit about him either. The young man spent most of the lunch and tea breaks on his phone, and his commitment was increasingly flaky. For someone who had once been desperate to play cricket for a living, he always seemed to have a reason why he couldn’t make the next fixture.

When Foster left the club in 2016 it was under a cloud. “I’d taken advantage of their support,” says Foster. “My relationship with the game had become quite a sad one.” He had borrowed considerable sums of money from both the club and a couple of individuals involved at it, wrongly assuming that each would never find out about the other. Worse, he’d stopped making any repayments. The truth was, he owed a lot of other people too.

Foster’s gambling addiction began at 19, the first time he ever laid a bet. In a new book, co-authored with cricket journalist Will Macpherson, he describes how his student mates