Robert Damien Bale Croft MBE (born 25 May 1970) is a former Welsh cricketer who played international cricket for England. He is an off-spin bowler who played for Glamorgan and captained the county from 2003 to 2006. He retired from first class cricket at the end of the 2012 season, having played county cricket for 23 seasons. He commentates on cricket occasionally for Sky Sports. Early life and education Croft was born on 25 May 1970 in Morriston, Swansea. He was educated at St John Lloyd's Roman Catholic Comprehensive School, Llanelli. He played rugby union as a scrum half for Llanelli RFC Under-11s. He studied at Swansea Metropolitan University. Cricketing career He made his England debut against Pakistan in 1996, and did enough to earn a touring place to Zimbabwe and New Zealand. In Christchurch, he took his Test best figures of 5–95 and his winter figures were a highly impressive 182.1–53–340–18. He played the first five tests of the 1997 Ashes series but was dropped for the final test, replaced by Phil Tufnell, after averaging 54 with the ball and showing a weakness to short-pitched fast bowling as a batsman. Around this time, Croft was involved in what ESPNCricinfo calls "an unsavoury, but in truth pretty harmless, pushing and finger-wagging incident" with Mark Ilott during the NatWest Trophy semi-final against Essex, which Glamorgan narrowly lost. However Croft had a happier experience that year in helping his county to their first County Championship in 28 years, Croft taking 54 wickets in Glamorgan's campaign at an average of 23.31. Croft toured the West Indies with England that winter, but in spite of taking six wickets in the fourth Test, it was the only Test he played that series. Restored to the England Test team the following summer, his last-wicket stand with Angus Fraser in the third Test of the 1998 series against South Africa saved England from an innings defeat, Croft personally scoring his highest Test score, 37 not out. Wisden observed that "England found an unlikely hero in Croft, who made up for three wicketless Tests by keeping his end intact for more than three hours". Croft was dropped for the next Test, although his innings helped to shift the momentum in the series, which England won. He enjoyed another relatively successful tour in Sri Lanka early in 2001, taking nine wickets at 28.66 as England won the three-match Test