KEIGHLEY cricket star Gareth Batty hit the headlines this week after he was rescued from the Indian Ocean before England's first Test against Sri Lanka.

The bowler, who is now with Worcester, played with the Lawkholme Lane club as a teenager, perfecting his spin technique with the club in the Bradford League.

He was relaxing with team mates before the start of the latest match when he got into difficulties while swimming close to the team's hotel.

Waves were crashing him on to rocks offshore when Michael Vaughan raised the alarm and lifeguards pulled him from the water.

He was caught by a strong current while swimming in the surf and driven towards the rocks.

He told reporters with the touring party: "At one point I feared the worst, this definately shook me up.

"I wouldn't say I'm a brilliant swimmer, but I'm not a novice. I was whacked onto the rocksd and the scary bit was when another wave knocked me over again.

"The lifeguards were brillian. About six or seven of them came flying into the water."

One rescuer said: "I could tell he was quite a strong swimmer but these rip tides are difficult for anyone if you go out too far. When we reached him he looked a little shaken and tired."

But Batty recovered to take two wickets as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 331 in their first innings. He scored 14 with the bat as England reached 235 in reply.

Batty followed up by capturing the vital wicket of opener Atapattu who was stumped with Sri Lanka on 72-3 six runs later he captured the wicket of Tillakaratne who was trapped lbw to leave the innings at 78-4 and give England a real hope of gaining a win He ended the day with two wickets for 28 runs off his 14 overs with four maidens.

He played with Yorkshire after being spotted in local cricket, but then moved to Surrey and is now with Worcester. He took 56 wickets and scored 491 runs for the county in 2002 and was called up for the England Academy in Adelaide in 2002-03.

He was in the right palce at the right time as injuries hit the main England squad during their tour of Australia and he played two one-day internationals in Australia.

He was in the party for the last summer's tests against South Africa, but didn't get a game. He was then given a place in the squad for the current tour of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.