Wisden overview
Despite falling behind Martyn Ball in Gloucestershire's hierarchy of offspinners, Jeremy Snape suddenly found himself England's No.1 slow bowler in October 2001 when they took an experimental attack to Zimbabwe. He seized his opportunity immediately, joining the team management committee, sharing Gloucestershire's one-day know-how with his team-mates, and then enjoying a dream debut with a swooping catch in the deep and the wickets of the Flower brothers, both stumped, in the same heady over. He finished with 2 for 39 and the Man of the Match award. An improving (and improvising) batsman, he names his bats according to the colour of their handles - Colonel Mustard, Red Adair, and so on - and also wielded them more vividly in 2001, scoring his maiden first-class hundred and averaging 48 in the Championship. A compact figure, Snape stands only 5ft 8ins, and is reputedly the slowest bowler in world cricket, with some deliveries barely touching 40mph. He is most dangerous when looping the ball up above the batsman's eye-level and drawing him down the pitch, but he is also an effective finisher of a one-day innings with the bat. As the World Cup approached, however, he was released by Gloucestershire after falling out with the management. Simon Briggs

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