Joseph Liam Denly (born 16 March 1986) is an English professional cricketer who plays for Kent County Cricket Club. He is a right-handed batsman and occasional leg break bowler who plays as a top-order batsman. Denly played age group cricket for Kent and began his professional career with the county before moving to Middlesex for three seasons between 2012 and 2014. He won the Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year award in 2018 and was named the season's Most Valuable Player.
Denly has represented England in Test, One Day International (ODI) and Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. He played age group cricket for England and made 14 one-day appearances for the international team between 2009 and 2010 before falling out of favour with the national selectors. He was called back into the England Test match and one-day squads in 2018 following two seasons of good performances for Kent, making his Test debut for England in January 2019.
Early life
Denly was born in Canterbury in 1986. He attended Chaucer Technology School in the city. Denly played football for Charlton Athletic's academy as a teenager and played for Whitstable Town under-18s, breaking his arm in a match. His brother, Sam, most recently managed Kent-based football club Hythe Town. Denly, his brother and his father Nick have all played cricket for Whitstable Cricket Club in the Kent Cricket League.
Domestic career
Denly played for Kent County Cricket Club at every age level and was a member of the county's cricket academy. He made his first-class cricket debut for the county in 2004 against Oxford University aged 18 before playing his first County Championship match against Gloucestershire the following season. At the end of the 2005 season he was given an extension to his contract.
Denly scored his maiden professional century in 2007, carrying his bat for 115 not out out of a Kent total of only 199 against Hampshire at Canterbury. In July Denly was called up to the England Lions squad for the match against India, and made 83 off 90 balls. In his first season, he brought up 1,000 first-class runs.
The 2008 season began slowly with a series of low scores. He did, however, make a career best score of 149 against Somerset at Tunbridge Wells and go on to end the season as one of the year's highly rated players.
Denly has spent several English off-seasons, starting in 2006–07, playing in Australia in the Sydney Grade Cricket competition for UTS Balmain (now known as Sydney Cricket Club), in part to improve his back foot play. He returned to the club for the 2016–17 season.
On 9 September 2011, Denly surpassed his previous high score of 149 and recorded a score of 199 against Derbyshire. On 28 September 2011, Denly moved from Kent to newly promoted Middlesex. He returned to Kent in October 2014 after three seasons with Middlesex, ending his contract with Middlesex a year early to do so. His time at Middlesex was disappointing with him unable to perform consistently, scoring "just 1,829 Championship runs" in his time with the club and after averaging around 20 runs per innings in his final season with the club.
Denly improved on his first-class high score in May 2016 when he scored 206 not out in the first innings of a match against Northamptonshire, his maiden first-class double century. He signed a long-term contract extension during August 2016, having made headlines earlier in the year when he retired not out in a County Championship match against Derbyshire at Derby when his wife went into labour unexpectedly early with the couple's first child. At the beginning of 2016, Denly gave up alcohol for a year in order to raise money for Cancer Research UK and the Professional Cricketers' Association benevolent fund, raising more than £4,000. After signing a contract extension in August 2016, Denly further improved his first-class high score on 21 May 2017 when he made 227 in the second innings of a Championship match against Worcestershire. His innings put Kent on course for victory, but Worcestershire successfully chased a target of 399 the following day.
