Aggressive, upright and with the ability to swing the ball both ways, Martin Bicknell is the most underrated opening bowler in England, if only by the selectors. He has a high arm-action, bowls a miserly wicket-to-wicket line, and has been the rock on which Surrey have built their domination of the County Championship in the past few seasons. Bicknell's unstinting efforts at domestic level have, in part, been borne of frustration - his England career has been less a stop-start affair, more a non-stop non-starter. He was chosen for the 1990-91 Ashes tour at 21 - too early - and had to wait until 1993 for his Test debut. He let nobody down, but against a rampant Australian team, he played just two Tests before being consigned to the crowded scrapheap of ex-England cricketers. His opportunities were subsequently limited by Angus Fraser's return to fitness, then by the emergence of Darren Gough and Andrew Caddick, although he was continually mentioned at Test-selection time without quite getting the recall. Instead, he kept himself busy by developing into a high-class county No. 8 or 9, adept at carting tired bowlers. By his own admission, he had given up on England some three years before he earned a shock recall to the Test squad in 2003, when he was 34. He duly took a wicket with his second ball at Headingley, before bowling England to a famous victory on his home ground at The Oval. He was pensioned off for good after that, and his career had rather fizzled out in injury before he called time at the end of 2006.
Lawrence Booth