Mark Ramprakash: The Career of a Legend Part 2

Here is part two of three blogposts I have written about Mark Ramprakash’s career between the years of 2002 and 2008.

Ramps could now concentrate on playing for Surrey with less media pressure on him, and had a good second season for his county in which he scored 4 centuries, including 2 double centuries, helping Surrey to their 3^rd Championship in 4 years. The Championship was won even though the team had suffered a tragedy before the season started, with Ben Hollioake dying in a car crash in March at the age of just 24.

This obviously hit the team, and especially his brother and club captain Adam, hard, but they managed to win the Championship that year, and follow it up the year after, by winning the inaugural Twenty20 Cup, in which Ramps was a vital part of. He also scored 6 centuries in the Championship, but without being able to catch the selectors eyes enough, as he was ignored for all international games.

In 2004, Ramps had his most prolific season yet for Surrey when he struck 7 centuries in the Championship to lead them to 3^rd place in Division One. However, the wonderful Surrey side from the previous few years started to break up, as Adam Hollioake retired at the end of the 2004 season, which was a year after another Surrey legend, Alec Stewart, had hung up his gloves. 

Young players had to be brought into the team quickly, and even though they were talented, they weren’t anywhere close to what had preceded them. Ramps took over the captaincy at the beginning of the 2005 season because Mark Butcher was injured, and even with players such as Azhar Mahmood and Harbhajan Singh, Surrey were relegated to Division Two, finishing just one point behind London rivals Middlesex. Ramps still managed 6 centuries, as he continued to show the selectors what they were missing.

Even though it was Division Two, Ramps had his best season for Surrey by far in 2006, as he scored over 2000 runs in the Championship at an average of over 100, to lead Surrey straight back up into the first division. He scored his highest First Class Score in his career with an unbeaten 301 against Northamptonshire and he claimed the PCA player of the year award at the end of the season.

The return to Division One was a struggle at the start, as Surrey were right at the bottom for a long time in the season, but largely thanks to Ramprakash, they managed to survive. People doubted whether he could repeat what he did in Division two in the First Division, but he did. He once again scored over 2000 runs in the Championship, he hit 10 centuries, and became the first batsman in English Domestic cricket to average over 100 in two consecutive seasons. He was named one of the Wisden cricketers of the year for 2007, and even at the age of 37, a recall to the England side must have been on the cards.

However, once again the recall didn’t come, so Ramprakash had to concentrate on his time at Surrey. 2008 was a difficult year for Surrey, as they failed to win a game in the County Championship, the first time they had done this in their history, and were duly relegated back to Division Two, with Ramps covering Mark Butcher as captain. However, 2008 was once again a fantastic year for Ramprakash and one that will most definitely stick in the memory bank for years to come.

He started the season off by scoring 2 centuries in the first 3 matches, to take his overall tally of First Class Hundreds to 99. Media and fan pressure seemed to get to Ramprakash, as he went months without being able to secure that illustrious ton. However, on August 2^nd he finally completed the feat when he scored an unbeaten 112* against Yorkshire at Headingley, the place of his first hundred back in 89. He was the 25^th man to reach achievement, and as I said before, he will be the last.

Check back here for tomorrow for the 3^rd and final part of my take on Mark Ramprakash’s career.