Mike Powell hit the headlines with an unbeaten 200 on his first-class debut for Glamorgan against Oxford University at The Parks in 1997. He subsequently became a member of the Welsh county’s one-day team who played at Lord’s in 2000, besides winning the National League title in 2002 and 2004. Two years later Mike also struck 299 against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham College and came within a run of becoming only the second batsman in the Club’s history to score a triple hundred.
Early in his career, Mike showed a penchant for making sizeable scores in Championship games with a fine 164 against Nottinghamshire at Colwyn Bay in 1999, besides taking part in a pair of century partnerships with Matthew Maynard in the Benson and Hedges Cup during 2000, against Surrey in the semi-final at Sophia Gardens, and Gloucestershire in the final at Lord’s. Two years later, Mike played a decisive innings of his own during the title-clinching match against the Kent Spitfires at Canterbury as Glamorgan won the National League title, besides amassing 1,152 first-class runs.
In 2004 Mike helped the Glamorgan Dragons win the National League title again, and when Marcus Trescothick was injured in the lead-up to the one-day triangular series with New Zealand and the West Indies, he was called up as cover. The Somerset batsman duly returned to fitness, but at the end of the summer Mike was chosen for the ECB Academy, and in 2004/05 he was a member of the England A team that toured the United Arab Emirates and Sri Lanka.
After a run-laden summer during 2006, with a career-best tally of 1,327 Mike was diagnosed as having a blood clot in his upper forearm during June 2007. After undergoing tests in hospital an operation then followed in Exeter with the removal of a rib that had been found to be putting pressure on one of his arteries leading to his left arm. But complications set in, necessitating a short spell in intensive care, and Michael missed the remainder of the 2007 season.
He thankfully returned to action during 2008, but not before burying the rib-bone under the turf at the Cardiff ground where later that summer he made 120 against Leicestershire, as well as his maiden List A hundred against Hampshire. 2009 saw Mike post two further Championship hundreds, but he lost his place in white-ball games. The following year, he also failed to gain a regular place in the Championship line-up as other younger batsmen emerged, and after having a Benefit Year in 2011, Mike joined Kent. He posted a pair of Championship centuries for them during 2012, but after a lean year in 2013 he retired from professional cricket. Mike subsequently joined an insurance brokerage before becoming Head of Cricket at Dean Close School in Cheltenham.
POWELL, Michael John
Born – Abergavenny, 3rd February 1977.
Best performances for Glamorgan:
In first-class cricket – 299 v Gloucestershire at Cheltenham College, 2006; 2/39 v Oxford University at The Parks, 1999.
In List A cricket – 114* v Hampshire at the SWALEC Stadium, 2008; 1/26 v Lincolnshire at Lincoln, 2004.
In T20 cricket – 68* v Somerset at Sophia Gardens, 2005.
| M | I | NO | RUNS | AV | 100 | 50 | CT | ST | |
| First-class | 209 | 353 | 32 | 12377 | 38.56 | 25 | 63 | 126 | – |
| List A | 201 | 190 | 20 | 4640 | 28.11 | 1 | 25 | 77 | – |
| T20 | 44 | 41 | 4 | 844 | 22.81 | – | 5 | 18 | – |
| Balls | M | R | W | AV | 5wI | 10wM | |
| First-class | 164 | 1 | 132 | 2 | 66.00 | – | – |
| List A | 24 | 0 | 26 | 1 | 26.00 | – | – |