That England’s two Test debutants this week, Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith, are both Surrey players only serves as a reminder of the county’s pre-eminence in English cricket.
Surrey are not only the wealthiest of the 18 first-class counties but the most successful on the field — they are on course for a third straight championship title and ride high in the Vitality Blast — as well as the greatest talent factory available to the national team. Remarkably, the club have on their playing staff 14 cricketers who have represented England in Tests, ODIs or T20s.
Surrey players are known for carrying themselves with a swagger, but it must be hard not to exude a sense of entitlement when they represent a club as mighty as it is now. Including the two newcomers, more than one in four of all England debutants since 2016 were Surrey players at the time of their first Tests.
Surrey even possess the Test captain-in-waiting in Ollie Pope, who has formally been Ben Stokes’s deputy for more than a year. Were he to eventually take over it would address one of the club’s rare weaknesses: since Douglas Jardine in the 1930s, only Peter May and Alec Stewart have been official England Test captains.
It would be easy to suggest that Surrey benefit from harvesting cricketers from private schools in their catchment area. In fact, many started on the county pathway system while at junior or state school before moving to private schools on sports scholarships.
Advertisement
Smith is a case in point. He was in Surrey’s development system by the age of nine while at primary school in Ewell. By the age of 12 he was scoring hundreds, as well as keeping wicket, despite being small for his age: he was a natural timer of the ball who picked up length quickly. He went to Whitgift School in Croydon on a scholarship — as another Surrey player, Jason Roy, did before him — but he was already prominent on the county’s radar.
Attending private school gives youngsters more cricket, but many coaches believe that those who stay in state education while also involved in club cricket have access to a higher standard of play.
• Mike Atherton’s preview of England v West Indies first Test
Surrey’s strength lies in the number of schools and clubs in their area as well as being better resourced than most other counties — though their scouting system required development over the past 10-15 years after the club suffered bouts of underachievement.
“Our system allows us to see more players, assess them and put more of them into our pathway system,” Neil Stewart, Alec’s brother and a development coach, says. “We can have 100 kids aged 12 all being looked at. Hopefully that way you do not miss out on the little gems who are a bit small at 11-12. You give them the chance to develop.
Advertisement
“Pope and Smith were both small up to [aged] 15. Smith got runs early but Pope didn’t start scoring [big] runs until after he was 15, when he started to develop physically. Some don’t develop as quickly as others.”
Surrey now use a system developed by Warwickshire and backed by the ECB that allows aspiring cricketers, aged 10 to 18, to submit videos of themselves in action. These are viewed by the performance department and the ones who look best are asked to come in for face-to-face assessments with a view to joining the winter pathway programme. Previously, a candidate had to be recommended by their club.
“No one is written out, boy or girl,” Stewart says. “Anyone can send in via the county website. We have no idea what type of education they are in. If you are left out, it’s not like that is it. You can send in a video again and come back. It’s a robust system.”
Atkinson is an example of someone who featured in Surrey’s pathway aged 12-13, then dropped out for a while, before coming back after taking part in a pre-season match in which it was suddenly apparent he was bowling much faster than anyone else the county had at the same age. In his case, he had taken strides forward at his private school, Bradfield, under the guidance of the coach Julian Wood.
The slight disadvantage with running a big scouting system is that there is not always room to accommodate all the best talent. This happened in the case of Shoaib Bashir — another member of this week’s Test XI — who came through Surrey’s pathway but was unable to secure a place at their academy. With Surrey’s blessing, he tried his luck with Berkshire and then Somerset, who signed him.
Advertisement
Jade Dernbach, Surrey’s assistant coach, says that Atkinson has recently done some remedial work on his run-up — which he has lengthened — and delivery action since his white-ball appearances for England last winter.
“He’d had some struggles with his run-up,” Dernbach said. “We tried to straighten things out and get him to attack the crease more. It took time to bed in. The early part of the championship season didn’t go as well as he would have liked, but the T20 Blast came at a good time. He could just concentrate on bowling fast, and certainly did that. He made a good impact and took that into his last championship fixture against Worcestershire, where he bowled with serious pace and changed the game.
“He’s made huge strides physically and now understands what it takes to bowl fast day in, day out, spell after spell. He hits a hard length at around 85mph. He’s not a Mark Wood but will have quick spells in him.”
England team Z Crawley, B Duckett, O Pope, J Root, H Brook, B Stokes (capt), J Smith (wkt), C Woakes, G Atkinson, S Bashir, J Anderson.
West Indies team K Brathwaite (capt), M Louis, K McKenzie, A Athanaze, K Hodge, J Holder, J da Silva (wkt), G Motie, A Joseph, S Joseph, J Seales.
England v West Indies
Advertisement
First Test, Lord’s
Starts Wednesday, 11am
TV Sky Sports Cricket
