Through circumstance Surrey found themselves having four home fixtures of T20 cricket in a week. The day before this scheduled commenced, at the Oval England played Australia in a ODI. The chance to see England take on the "old enemy" in any form of the game was not to be missed. Finally two days after the home schedule was complete Surrey travelled to Hove to take on Sussex, and again a trip to the coast was a grand way to complete the T20 calendar.
I concluded with so many games in quick succession it made sense to buy a rail season ticket. I became a "cricket commuter". On Sunday we setr off early for England v Australia. For the second time in three days, England's ODI squad did a thoroughly professional job in defeating the Aussies. The England ODI team, now minus Kevin Pietersen are staggering efficient ( a term usually used to describe German football teams). Alastair Cook and Ian Bell are not the first names one would think of when talking one day cricket. Both are primarily stroke players rather than hitters, but once bedded in, they are hard to dislodge and both are run gatherers. Similarly at present England are blessed with a quantity of pace bowlers who have speed, accuracy and the ability to swing the ball. Finally in Graeme Swann, England have what was for so long lacking, a top quality spin bowler who not only can take wickets but can bowl ten overs economically in this form of the game.
The weeks T20 games proved to be the bad, ugly and good. The four home games produced no victories, with defeats v Hampshie and Sussex, a capitulation v Kent and finally something of a comeback against Middlesex.
The week was billed as bowlers beware Kevin Pietersen is back. Sadly in the first part of the week KP failed to trouble the bowlers or indeed the scorers. Out 1st bowl against Hampshire. The Kent game took place the day after the team travelled to Wales for the funeral of TM55. It was I sense expecting too much for a group of young men to perform to the best of their ability the day after experiencing something that most people of their age have never had to deal with, the sudden death of a contemporary.
By Friday the team appeared to be more settled, although the selection policy was at time baffling. A crowd of around 15,000 came to the Oval and were entertained by a close game that the team from North london won on the penultimate ball. At the change of innings, the crowd were entertained by a London mascot race, that featured among others, Haydon the Womble from AFC Wimbledon.
On the Thursday, it was officially announced that Mark Ramprakash was retiring from 1st class cricket. Although not a surprise, the timing and circumstance of the announcement, was perplexing from the outside. It is now apparent that Ramps had been informed that he would no longer be considered for first team selection, and rather than kicking his heels around 2nd eleven grounds, Mark decided to call it a day.
The retirement of Ramps seems to bring down the curtain on an era of cricket. A batsman who has accumulated 114 first class centuries, many achieved after he decided to switch from Middlesex to Surrey. Bizarrely to the wider public Ramps is better known for his exploits on the dance floor rather than his time at the crease. He has been without doubt the outstanding county cricketer of his generation, sadly his reputation is affected by at best a modest teat average. However for years he carried the Surrey batting order.
I remember fondly the expectation as he got closer to 100 centuries and then the excitement of the achievement as he reached the milestone. It is entirely possible that he will be the last batsman to achieve the 100 hundreds. That's not to say there aren't player of sufficient talent, Cook, Pietersen,Gayle, Ponting all great batsmen, but today so much time is taken up with one day and T20 competitions, that the modern batsman simply does get the necessary number of innings.
As Ramps has explained young batsman today do not get the time to build innings, today's cricket culture denies them that. It's hit out or get out. He may be right when he says that the modern player has more than one eye on the IPL, Big Bash League, and T20 where money can be earned, rather than the traditional forms of the game that lead to the development of test match players.
The week ended with the trip to Hove. In the past umpires,players and groundsmen would have abandonned the day; but this is T20 and a near capacity crowd had paid to be entertained. At 3pm after a rain delay, Sussex batted for 9 overs and raced to 104 runs through a mixture of lusty slogs, slashes through the empty slip area and some ill thought out short pitch bowling that was rightly punished. The rain then arrived in tropical proportions, and a prolonged period of mopping up, Surrey were asked courtesy of the Duckworth/Lewis formula to make 62 in 5 overs.
The 5 overs saw two excellent catches and some good ground fielding, perhaps the great advance in the modern game. The game was finally decided by Kevin Pietersen who dispatched three balls for six and reduced what had seemed like a difficult target to a manageable total. When he crashed the 4th ball of the final over into the window of the commentary box, Surrey had won the game. Whether or not the 14 overs in the afternoon represented good value for £25 is reallyt debateable. However in the defence of Sussex CCC , they like all other counties cannot control the weather, and although I'm sure many felt cheated at the end, the rain fell agaib within minutes of the players exiting the field.
My final memory of our day at Hove, the seagull that deposited on me twice, hitting my head, jacket and jeans, however as I was told this is a sign of luck, which Surrey most definately needed.
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