Gary Joseph Pratt (born 22 December 1981) is an English former professional cricketer, who played as a left-handed batsman but also bowled right-arm off breaks.
Pratt performed well in his early career, picking up the NBC Denis Compton Award in 1999 as the most promising young player at Durham County Cricket Club,[1] and scored a century for England Under-19s.
He failed to match that form afterwards; he did not play a single first-class game in 2005 (although he famously appeared as a substitute fielder for England) and in August 2006, Durham announced that they had decided not to renew Pratt's contract.
England fan organisation the Barmy Army planned to fly Pratt out to Australia for the 2006–07 Ashes series as a good-luck charm, but failed to find sponsorship for his plane fare.
[11] Pratt felt that the event that thrust him into the cricketing limelight was also the one that quickened his dramatic fall from grace, ignoring his skill with the bat: "I was just known for fielding afterwards, and I didn't really want that."