David Capel is currently Academy Director and 2nd XI coach at Northamptonshire. His first class career in England was spent entirely at Northants and he was one of the top county allrounders of his time. During our discussions David was very open and honest and included some very personal information, which I felt should not form part of the finished article.

Intro David Capel was one of England’s brightest hopes as an all rounder in the early eighties. His test career started in 1987 and lasted until 1990 amounting to 15 test appearances scoring 374 runs and taking 21 wickets. Capel also played in 23 One Day Internationals scoring 327 runs and taking 17 scalps. For a number of reasons, such as injuries, the press’ obsession with Botham’s replacement and the selectors’ revolving door selection policy, Capel and International cricket were destined not to mix. Capel did, however, excel on the county circuit for his native Northamptonshire, playing 250 county championship games scoring over 10,000 runs and taking 440 wickets. He was part of the successful Northamptonshire team that finished in the top 5 every year between 1992 & 1995 in their quest to win the county’s first county championship. He also enjoyed one day success in the 1992 NatWest trophy win over Leicestershire and 2 Tilcon Cup successes in 1982 & 1983, but there was final defeat heartbreak for Northamptonshire, and Capel, in the Benson & Hedges Trophy in 1987 & 1996, the NatWest Trophy in 1987, 1990 & 1995 and the Tilcon Trophy in 1984. In 1989 he was given the Wetherall award for being the leading all rounder in First Class Cricket that year, after scoring 1260 County Championship runs at 38.10 and taking 51 wickets at 30.56. This is an award also won by the likes of Richard Hadlee (4 times), Imran Khan (twice) and Garfield Sobers but never Ian Botham. Still with his home county, David Capel now coaches the Northants 2nd XI, as well as being the county’s Academy Director.
Earlier in your career you appeared to be used only as a batsman. Whose decision was it to get you bowling? When I was 15 I was a specialist batsman, an opening batsman in fact. I joined Northamptonshire as a 16 year old and begun to bowl in the nets, for fitness. I found my bowling was OK and during my time in South Africa it developed. As I always wanted to be involved rather than just fielding I gave it a go and felt I would be more use to the team. Geoff Cook, who was captain at the time, thought it would be a good idea to develop and use my bowling as we had a strong batting side at the time, whereas for various reasons the bowling was thin. It was by taking this approach that I got more opportunities in the Northamptonshire side, coming in at number 7 and bowling as the third seamer.
In the CountyChampionship you averaged just over 30 with the bat and just under 32 with the ball. When did you first consider your self as an all-rounder? I saw myself as a true all-rounder about 1987, I had previously been the third choice seamer but Neil Mallender had left to go to Somerset and Jim Griffiths had also departed. As a result I started to open the bowling with Winston Davis.
You played for Northamptonshire your entire career, did you ever consider leaving? There was a time where I had to make the decision whether to leave or stay. Northamptonshire were very successful in 1995, finishing 3rd after winning 12 out of 17 games. Anil Kumble was brilliant for us, taking over 100 wickets. We were playing brilliant cricket but it was looking like the end of an era, Lamby was close to retirement and Curtly Ambrose wasn't sure how much longer he would carry on at Northamptonshire. If I was ever going to leave it would have been then. I was at the end of my contract and I had a number of attractive - both in terms of salary and contract length - offers from other counties. Leicestershire, who won the following County Championship, Kent, Gloucestershire and Yorkshire were all interested. In the end I went with my heart over my head and didn't make the move. This was partly due to family reasons, partly because I am born and bred Northamptonshire and partly because I felt the team could go on and become the first Northamptonshire team to win the CountyChampionship. In the end Curtly came back for the 1996 season but the team, under Rob Bailey and John Emburey didn't really move on. We only won 3 games that year and finished 16th in the championship. Although I have never regretted the decision it would have been a good cricketing move as it would have offered me a fresh challenge and possibly more responsibility. As it turns out I never did that much after 1996.
Do you think you would have broken into the England side as a batsman rather than an all-rounder? I feel my natural way of playing is as a number 5 batsman and perhaps 3rd or 4th seamer rather than batting at 7 and opening the bowling. Mickey Stewart, who was always great with me, saw me as a bowler who could bat whereas I felt the opposite. It happened the same with both England and Northamptonshire though, they both needed bowlers at the time I was breaking through. An all-rounder can greatly improve the balance of the team. When I broke into the test side there was myself and Phil DeFreitas who were considered possible test all-rounders. I was a batsman who could bowl and Phil was a bowler who could bat. Maybe we just needed to be better on our weaker streams. Darren Gough is another player who was touted as a test all-rounder but found more success with the ball. I was always a batsman, batting was my first love, but I could bowl. I did have the ability to swing the ball though. Geoff Cook and Wayne Larkins encouraged me as a bowler and genuinely rated my ability to swing the ball both ways and to move it away from the bat late, all at a decent pace. Looking back, being classed as an all-rounder opened a lot of doors for me but as just a batsman I would guess I averaged over 40, whereas this was lower when I was bowling 30 overs a day. I sometimes resented bowling as I felt I was a lot better batsman without. The other side to this is that if you fail with the bat you get an immediate chance to make amends with the ball.

You had two winters playing in South Africa for EasternProvince for the 1985/86 & 1986/87 seasons. How did that come about and how do you feel those seasons helped you develop as a cricketer? I first went to South Africa as an 18 year old, coaching in Port Elizabeth and playing in the first league - The Port Elizabeth Grand Challenge. The following year I coached in Australia but returned to South Africa in 1984 and performed well and had a lot of success. This led to an offer to play first class cricket for EasternProvince in the 1985/86 season, unfortunately I didn’t do myself justice in that season and decided to return the following winter to show South African cricket what I could do. That season (1986/87), under Kelper Wessells was the making of me and I ended up getting picked for England for the Sharjah Cup. This was on the back of a good season for EasternProvince as well as a good 1986 for Northamptonshire.

Did you know you played in the 1st ever tied game in South Africa against Boland in January 1986? Yes I remember. I was playing for the Eastern Province B side to try and find some form. It was a superb game and I’d scored 54 before being bowled by Ian Callen who was a pacey Australian bowler with test experience. Despite it being the first tied game in the country there wasn’t a big thing made of it.

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Steven