Paul Walter’s path to winners’ medals in the County Championship, Vitality Blast and Big Bash League has not been a conventional one.
Paul was 22 before he signed his first professional contract with Essex in 2016 and making his debut later that summer as a left-arm seamer and number ten batter.
At the start of the 2025 season Paul was opening the batting, making a century against Worcestershire at Chelmsford, and providing variation to Essex’s attack with his height – 6ft 7ins – awkward angles of attack and subtle variations of pace.
Paul first attracted Essex’s interest when he struck six sixes in an over playing for Billericay in an Essex Premier League match.
A successful trial with Essex followed and he collected his first winners’ medal as part of their County Championship-winning squad in 2017.
Essex won the Championship again in 2019 but Paul did not feature in first-class cricket that season although there was compensation as he played a key role in helping Essex to win the Blast for the first time.
His batting continued to develop in all forms of cricket culminating in a maiden first-class century against Yorkshire at Chelmsford in 2022.
Paul’s clean-striking and big hitting plus which supplemented his bowling attracted the interest of Manchester Originals who recruited him for the first three seasons of The Hundred.
He was part of the Originals squad that reached the final of the inaugural tournament in 2022 when they were beaten by Southern Brave.
A stint with Sharjah Warriors in the International League T20 in the winter of 2022/23 was Paul’s first taste of overseas franchise cricket.
He followed up with two winters with Brisbane Heat between 2023 and 2025, winning the BBL in his first season with them.
Paul won two Player of the Match Awards for his all-round contributions to victories over Melbourne Renegades (40 not out and 3-27) and Sydney Sixers (23 not out and 2-25).
Having helped Heat beat Sydney Sixers again in the final in January 2024, Paul joined Peshawar Zalmi in the Pakistan Super League the following month.
First-class
Highest score: 141 Essex v Yorkshire at Chelmsford (2022)
Best bowling: 3-20 Essex v Lancashire at Blackpool (2023)
List A
Highest score: 50 Essex v Glamorgan at Cardiff (2021)
Best bowling: 4-37 Essex v Middlesex at Chelmsford (2017)
T20
Highest score: 78 Essex v Glamorgan at Cardiff (2023)
Best bowling:Â 3-20 Manchester Originals v Southern Brave at Southampton (2022)
Equipment Sponsor: Keeley Cricket
Twitter:Â Â @PWalter_22
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