Tim Piper, who runs the Cricketers Arms in Redditch, Worcestershire, is in line for a £50,000 payday when Tongue steps out at Lord's this week
A pub landlord is set for a considerable cash windfall after backing Josh Tongue to be a future England cricketer when he was just 11 years old.
Tim Piper, who runs the Cricketers Arms in Redditch, Worcestershire, is in line for a £50,000 payday when Tongue steps out at Lord's this week.
The seamer has been rapidly elevated to the national team, following an impressive winter with England Lions and injuries to several senior bowlers. And when he runs out at the home of cricket against Ireland, Piper will be able to collected on a 500/1 gamble.
"I used to go and see him in the garden playing with his dad when he was just a year old and then when he was two or three he was playing in the nets and he knew how to bowl properly with leg-spin, top-spin and everything," the landlord - a friend of the Tongue family - said.
"Of course I'm not going to play down £50,000, but it's just such a wonderful story in itself.
"When he was younger he started to get better and better, batting with pace and getting better with bowling.
"He was touch and go thinking of calling it a day and 12 months later here he is playing for England."
Tongue forms part of a seam arsenal for England against Ireland which also includes Stuart Broad and Matthew Potts.
Piper says he had so much confidence in the quick's potential that he first tried to make his bet when Tongue was six.
"They didn't take it seriously – I'm not sure why," he said.
Tongue nearly called time on his blossoming career prematurely last year after struggling to overcome a shoulder-nerve injury. He missed 15 months with the problem, which took three specialists – and eventually an injection of Botox – to solve.
When he came back, by which time his firstborn child had arrived to offer a sense of perspective and motivation, he found himself bowling with the same pace as before, only without the pain.
The first day of England's clash with Ireland is due to begin at 11am on Thursday (June 1).
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