Dominic Ostler

Dominic Piers Ostler (born 15 July 1970) is a former cricketer who played in first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket for Warwickshire between 1990 and 2004. He also played for the England A cricket team in 1995 and 1996 in first-class and List A games. He was born in Solihull.

Ostler played for most of his career in senior cricket as a specialist right-handed middle-order batsman; he bowled occasionally at right-arm medium pace, was an outstanding fielder at slip and also very occasionally kept wicket. He was a regular in the Warwickshire side pretty much from his debut to the end of 2002, apart from a period in the late 1990s when he lost confidence and form; a second downturn in form led to his retirement in 2003, though he appeared in a few List A matches the following season. He remains as of 2015 a regular player in high-quality Birmingham area club cricket.

Ostler made a low-key entry into Warwickshire's first team, but in his third match in 1990 his steadiness, batting at No 8, helped his side to take a somewhat contrived victory over Derbyshire after Derbyshire has forfeited their entire second innings; he scored 42 not out to seal the win after a late collapse. His highest score of this first season was only 71, but he was consistent and scored 510 runs at an average of exactly 30.00 in his eleven games. The following year, when he was awarded his county cap, he played regularly and made 1284 runs at an average of 36.68; the season also contained his first first-class century, an innings of 120 not out that saved the match against Kent after Warwickshire had been forced to follow on.

That 1991 season set the pattern for the next four years of Ostler's cricket career: he was a consistent if rarely flamboyant scorer and was ever-present in Warwickshire's middle order in both first-class and List A matches. He passed 1000 first-class runs in a season in 1992, 1993 and 1994, and was only 17 runs short in 1995. In each of these seasons, there were large-scale centuries from Ostler. In 1992, he made 192 against Surrey; the following season, the Essex away match produced a score of 174 for him; in 1994, he scored 186 against Yorkshire; and in 1995 his first double-century was a score of 208 in the home match with Surrey.