Ryan Jay Sidebottom (born 15 January 1978) is a former England international cricketer who played domestic cricket for Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire and retired in 2017, after taking more than 1,000 career wickets. He is the only player in the last 15 years (as of 2017) to win 5 county championships and also won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 with England.
He was primarily a left-arm fast-medium bowler. Sidebottom played his first Test match in 2001 against Pakistan, but failed to take a wicket and was dropped for six years. In 2007, he was brought back into the side following an injury to Matthew Hoggard and took four wickets in his first innings. He went on to become a prolific bowler for England over the next two years, though injuries saw him lose his place in the Test side in 2009. He retired from international duty on 20 September 2010, after playing 22 Tests for England and winning the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.
He took the 37th Test cricket hat-trick in his 11th match for England against New Zealand, becoming the 11th English player to do so, on 8 March 2008, and on 23 March, he took his third five-wicket haul in the same series, breaking the previous record for an Englishman in New Zealand. He is a former pupil of King James's Grammar School, Almondbury, Huddersfield. He has two children, a daughter, Indiana Nell, and a son, Darley Jack with his first wife Kate. He now lives with his second wife Madeleine and her son Louis. His father, Arnie Sidebottom, was also a cricketer, and played one Test match for England in 1985 against Australia, as well as playing professional football.
Career
Sidebottom started playing as a young boy for Kirkburton Cricket Club. He made his debut for his native Yorkshire in 1997. The winner of the NBC Denis Compton Award two years running, (in 1999 and 2000), he finished as the leading domestic English-bowler at the end of 2000, conceding only 12.5 runs for each of his 24 wickets, and capping this with a nomination for Cricketer of the Year by the Cricket Writers' Club. Injury problems took away much of his 2000 season, but, during the winter, Sidebottom toured the West Indies with England A, taking 16 wickets at a bowling average of 16.81. He made his international debut the following summer against Pakistan in place of Matthew Hoggard. He played in two ODIs in October 2001 against Zimbabwe.
Sidebottom left Yorkshire to join Nottinghamshire at the end of the 2003 season, having taken 163 wickets for Yorkshire at an average of 25.12. At Nottinghamshire, he took 50 wickets in both the 2005 and 2006 seasons, helping them to the County Championship title in 2005. He has won five County Championships in total; he won the title with Yorkshire in 2001, 2014 and 2015 after returning to the county of his birth, and with Nottinghamshire in 2005 and 2010.
He sports a flamboyant hairstyle which has led to the dressing room nickname of "Sexual Chocolate". Sidebottom's long hair indirectly led to a second nickname, "Stringfellow", after a hapless Henry Blofeld repeatedly confused him with long-haired nightclub impresario Peter Stringfellow during the first Test match against New Zealand in 2008.
On 22 February 2017, Sidebottom announced that he would be retiring from first-class cricket in all formats, commencing at the end of the 2017 County Championship. He now runs a Cricket Academy and Foundation.
Sidebottom was appointed bowling consultant for Surrey, on 14 March 2018.
In 2019, Sidebottom appeared on the eleventh series of Dancing on Ice alongside professional skater Brandee Malto. Following a skate-off against Melody Thornton and Jane Danson, Sidebottom and Danson were eliminated in Week 7.
His international career is now behind him but he can draw much satisfaction not only from the manner in which he took a belated second chance in international cricket, but the way that latterly he has committed himself with skill and determination to an extended career on England's professional circuit with Yorkshire, the county of his birth.
International Test career
Debut—Pakistan 2001
Sidebottom made his international Test debut at Lord's in May 2001, as England took on Pakistan. Batting first, England made 391 and in reply, Pakistan made 203 and 179, with the away side sinking to an innings and 9 run defeat. Sidebottom contributed four with the bat and finished with figures of 0–38 and 0–26.