Player Profile
Matthew Hurst - feel free to call him Matty - is a wicketkeeper batter from the village of Billinge, which straddles the rugby league heartlands of Wigan and St Helens. It’s no real surprise, therefore, that he’s a cricketer who is good with his hands.
And like the teams of those two towns, he is starting to impress abroad as well as on home soil.
In recent years, Wigan and St Helens have had success in the World Club Challenge against teams from Australia. In March just gone, Wigan even won a game in Las Vegas!
In the 2024/25 winter, either side of Christmas, Hurst went Down Under to play for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash (T20) League. He hit 64 runs in five appearances added to six catches and a stumping.
Either side of that commitment, he toured South Africa and Australia with the England Lions, posting scores of 53, 33 and 35 in a pair of red-ball games against a Cricket Australia XI and Australia A.
That came after an impressive 2024 summer on home soil with Lancashire, in which he was a shining light in a disappointing relegation campaign in the Championship. He also caught the eye at the top of the order for the Manchester Originals in the Hundred, scoring a best of 78 in six outings.
He played all 14 Rothesay County Championship matches for the Red Rose, added to 12 Vitality Blast matches.
He scored 905 runs with one century and five fifties and claimed 46 catches and one stumping. What followed was two player of the year awards. He was honoured as the club’s young player of the year and 1864 Members’ player of the year.
His century - 104 - came in the second innings of a defeat against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in May.
Hurst, now 21-years-old, signed his maiden rookie professional contract with Lancashire at the end of the 2022 summer and prepared for 2023 with an Ashes tour with the England Under 19s, playing two Test Matches and a trio of ODIs.
He batted at four in the Tests and returned a top score of 55 in the opening victory at Brisbane before taking the gloves in the 50-over matches and batting at three.
It stood him in very good stead as well, as he had a 2023 to remember, playing 10 first-team matches across the County Championship and One-Day Cup.
He debuted in the latter competition and hit one fifty in eight matches - 66 in a win over Middlesex at Lord’s - and he shared the wicketkeeping duties with George Bell.
He then played the last two Championship matches of the season, both draws against Nottinghamshire and Kent, and hit unbeaten scores of 54 and 76 in the middle order.
He is a right-hander who started his cricketing journey at Newton-le-Willows before moving to play for Leigh, and he is a fearless and innovative batter who packs a punch.
Hurst played Under 14s cricket for Lancashire before progressing through the age-groups to the Academy and into the second-team, making his debut for the latter in 2020.
He has since impressed with seven fifties and a century at that level.
That ton was 101 batting at number six in a Championship win over Leicestershire at Kibworth in April 2022. With George Lavelle in the side that week, he played as a specialist batter.
That was also the case in his first two first-team Championship appearances at the end of 2023. However, throughout 2024, he took the gloves consistently.