In a world of franchise leagues and increasingly exhausting international commitments, it is rare to find a county overseas pro who comes back year on year.

Pakistani batsman Shan Masood is captain of Yorkshire but has only been ensconced at Headingley for two years, while tweaker Simon Harmer of Essex has been at Chelmsford since 2017.

Despite an impressive international and T20 league career, 39-year-old Colin Ingram stands out as a proper old-fashioned overseas pro in the modern county game.

Every April since 2015, the left-handed batter has turned up at Sophia Gardens and gone about his run scoring in a familiar, boundary-laden style.

Ingram, who has 40 caps for South Africa – all in white ball cricket – has taken his ball-striking ability all over the world: Delhi Capitals, Guyana Amazon Warriors, Hobart Hurricanes, Islamabad United, to name a few, have all benefited from the services of the South African.

None have welcomed him quite like Glamorgan. After a period where he played just one County Championship match in four years, between 2018 and 2022, the leftie has been an important part of the Glamorgan middle order ever since.

Prior to this season, an average of 39.24, with seven hundreds told a story of a solid operator, able to accumulate runs at a decent rate.

In previous seasons, Ingram’s talent was always more suited to the white ball side of the game. Excellent averages of 65.91 in List A and 33.33 in T20s proved as much.

Four successive One-Day Player of the Year awards underlined his importance to Glamorgan.

2024, though, has been the year of the red ball for Ingram. Against Leicestershire in August, Ingram passed 1,000 first-class runs in just 13 innings this season, the fewest ever to reach the landmark.

In doing so, Ingram broke another famous Glamorgan overseas batter’s record: Majid Khan had reached 1,000 runs in 15 innings in 1972.

The innings that broke a Glamorgan record, also broke a personal one for Ingram. The 257* was his first double hundred in his fifteenth year of professional cricket.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it,” says Ingram.

“This season has seen a number of firsts for me, and I just tried to keep it really simple and work in partnerships and push the game forward.

“We have talked about trying to get in front of the game and after yesterday’s great bowling performance we needed to knuckle down and push ourselves forward.”

Ingram’s overall record this season is best-in-class: 1351 runs at an average of 90.06, with five hundreds and six fifties.

He is the top run scorer in Division Two and second overall in the country, behind Durham’s David Bedingham.

Ingram’s remarkable form has earnt him a place on the shortlist for the 2024 Professional Cricketers’ Association player of the year, alongside England’s Joe Root and Gus Atkinson, and Hampshire’s Liam Dawson.

“I’m not someone who pays a massive amount of attention to records and I was totally unaware that I became the quickest Glamorgan player to 1,000 runs,” Ingram adds.

“I’ve touched an average of 40, which has taken me 19 years, to tick off a 200, which is something I’ve always wanted to do, makes me very happy.”

Ingram’s season started with a bang. His first eight scores of the season read: 132*, 30, 51, 82, 11*, 48, 113, and 170.

With the extent of Ingram’s form, it is difficult to imagine that, in May, he was ‘rested’ from the side when Glamorgan had three overseas players to fit into two positions in the side.

Marnus Labuschagne, Australia’s number three and one of the most accomplished batters in the world, and Pakistani international Mir Hamza were preferred to Ingram for a game against Leicestershire in May.

Following that game, Ingram re-established himself as the premier batter in the side with that 257* and has not been out of the side since.

White-ball runs are to be expected, and his calming presence in the one-day side has helped his side to the final of the One-Day Cup against Somerset where he scored 11 in a fine win for the county.

A second trophy win in four years, both win Ingram playing important roles, has underlined his value to Glamorgan as an overseas player.

However, with Glamorgan finishing the season in mid-table of Division Two, individual performances can sometimes get lost in amongst the jumble of draws, wins, and loses.

This season, though, no one connected to Glamorgan will forget the form of Colin ‘Kingram’.

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