After 500 games, nearly 10,000 runs and 1000 wickets there’s no-one at Blackburn North United Cricket Club like Mike Jansen

SHEER numbers of wickets and runs alone can’t do justice to Mike Jansen’s value to the Blackburn North United Cricket Club.

s17wh333 Mike Jansen from Blackburn Nth cricket club who will play his 500th game today. ECA (C Grade): Blackburn nth United v Mulgrave. Picture: Stuart Milligan

HE’S played 500 matches, scored 9,982 runs and taken 1061 wickets, but numbers alone cannot quantify Mike Jansen’s value to the Blackburn North United Cricket Club.

The 48-year-old has given more than he’s taken for 36 years, since he first padded up as an under-14 in 1978.

The captain of the club’s second XI played his milestone game at Terrara Park on Saturday, alongside his 22-year-old son Peter and some of the players who’ve soldiered with him over five decades.

His figures leave him with few peers in local cricket. But, stunning as they are, his contribution goes beyond runs and wickets after serving in a number of spells as captain of the firsts and seconds, treasurer and ­secretary.

Typically for a selfless clubman, Jansen is slow to draw attention to his efforts, but teammates don’t have to be asked twice about the esteem in which he is held.

“The club would probably have died a long time ago without Mike,” Damian de Ryk, a former captain who plays alongside Jansen in the seconds, said.

“He’s held all the positions but it almost doesn’t matter whether he’s secretary, treasurer or captain – he does everything anyway, from secretary to ­handyman.

“You won’t meet anyone in any club who loves his cricket more, he’s just got an insatiable appetite for it,” he says.

Jansen said he is keen to play into his 50s.

“I’d like to play for at least a couple more years,” he said. “We’ve got a reasonable team and, hopefully, we can get on a run and get to ­finals.

“These days I enjoy bowling more – I’ve had a few injuries with my back.”

It would have fitted neatly had Jansen crossed the 10,000 run barrier on Saturday but unfortunately he copped a good ball when he was on three runs and will have to pursue the magic figure in his next game.

He did take 1-14 off six overs as his side easily beat Mulgrave.

De Ryk is second on the club’s list of wicket-takers but trails Jansen by about 500 scalps.

He is well placed to judge his captain’s qualities with ball in hand.

“He swings it a lot,” he said. “His main weapon is his wiliness. He likes to seem innocuous and, when they get too confident, he strikes.”

Someone approaching 10,000 runs is no slouch with the willow, either, and Jansen still opens the batting.

De Ryk said Jansen is a model for the club’s younger players in terms of getting the most out of themselves.

“He probably didn’t start out with a massive talent but he works hard and got better and better,” De Ryk said.

“Taking more than 1000 wickets is practically unheard of.”

Jansen’s time with the club, which is a product of an amalgamation of Blackburn United and Blackburn/North Laburnum, has been decorated with much-deserved success.

The highlight was, probably, captaining the firsts to an A Grade Eastern Cricket Association premiership in 1999-2000 while he was a key player when the firsts took another premiership in 2004.

He captained that side for “seven or eight years” in the 1998-2007 period, and has also captained the seconds for 15 years, claiming four premierships at that level over his career, the first in the early 1990s and the most recent in 2012.

When asked about the best players he has played with, fellow veteran Jim Phillips, himself 49, is the first name that springs to his mind. Phillips is also still soldiering on, and was in the team on Saturday.

Jansen has revelled in the chance to play with his son Peter over the past few ­summers.