Matthew Hobden: Powerful right-arm fast bowler who starred for Sussex and looked set for a place in the England team

Matthew Hobden

Matthew Hobden, the Sussex cricketer who has died at the age of 22, was tipped to play for England even though his experience in county cricket was limited.

The 6ft 5in right-arm fast bowler, who took 48 wickets in his 18 first-class matches, had been selected for this winter's Potential England Performance Programme and was due to travel to South Africa to practise with the senior England team before the one-day international series that starts on 3 February. The England players wore black armbands during the second Test against South Africa in Cape Town as a mark of respect.

Born in Eastbourne, Hobden represented Sussex from Under-14s upwards and graduated to the Second XI in 2011. He made his senior debut for the county in a one-day match against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in June 2013.

By then he had already played first-class cricket for the Cardiff MCC university team while studying for a business economics degree at Cardiff Metropolitan University. He had previously attended Eastbourne College and Millfield School.

He made his Cardiff MCCU debut against Somerset at the Taunton Vale Sports Club ground in April 2012. The current England batsman Nick Compton made a double century for the county side, and Hobden made an inauspicious start, conceding 133 runs in 24 overs without taking a wicket, albeit on a pitch that heavily favoured the batsmen. He fared much better in his second match, against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, finishing with five for 62 against the team that would end the summer as county champions. That would remain his career-best analysis.

He made his first-class debut for Sussex in June 2014, against Nottinghamshire at Hove, where he dismissed three international batsmen in Phil Jaques of Australia, plus England's James Taylor and Samit Patel. His own batting position was No 11, but he proved he was no rabbit by making 65 not out against Durham at Chester-le-Street last year, when he and fellow fast bowler Ollie Robinson broke a 107-year-old record with a partnership of 164, the highest for the 10th wicket in Sussex history.

Tall and with an impressive physique, Hobden was able to propel a cricket ball at 85-90mph with seemingly minimal effort. Kevin Shine, the England and Wales Cricket Board's lead fast-bowling coach, remarked that Hobden was the most powerful cricketer he had seen in a PEPP squad.

A keen participant in club cricket, Hobden was a member of the Glynde and Beddingham team that won the national npower Village Cup in 2009, and went on to play in the Sussex Premier League for Preston Nomads, for whom he appeared as recently as August last year.

Hobden was in Scotland, at a private house in Forres, near Inverness, at the time of his death on Saturday. He is survived by his parents, Peter and Emma, and brothers, George, 25, and Charlie, 20.

Matthew Hobden, cricketer: born Eastbourne, East Sussex 27 March 1993; died Forres, Moray 2 January 2016.