England's Nearly Man

Adam Hollioake, who announced yesterday that next season would be his last at The Oval, will be remembered as a feisty allrounder with a swag of Championship medals in one hand and the best slower ball since Steve Waugh's in the other.

And he will also be remembered as England's Nearly Man - the man who probably should have captained England in the 1999 World Cup, and might even have led them in the 2003 one. It was certainly one of the daftest pieces of selection - and man-management - in England's recent history when Hollioake was one of several reinforcements called up for the one-day squad in Australia last winter but didn't actually get a game ... while Ronnie Irani was given numerous chances to demonstrate just how far out of his depth he was. One Aussie journalist suggested that Irani (who collected 60 runs and five wickets in his ten matches) must be a member of the Barmy Army who played after getting onto the team bus by mistake.

It was clear then that Hollioake's international career was over, after four Tests and 35 one-dayers (14 as captain - he won his first five, including the Champions Trophy final in Sharjah in 1997-98, but then only one more). But nonetheless he seemed to be leading Surrey to another routine Championship title in 2003 when they suddenly ran out of steam in August, not helped by the selectors suddenly spotting what every county member had known for years - that Martin Bicknell was a Test-match bowler - and what everyone in the country had known all season - that Graham Thorpe was a better bet in the Test side than Anthony McGrath.

The fun went out of it all for Adam early in 2002, when his brother Ben was killed in a car crash in Perth in Western Australia, which coincidentally is where Adam is likely to settle - he has business interests in the leisure industry there - after next season. Ben was leaner and lankier than Adam, and more naturally talented too, but initially lacked his squint-eyed determination. What added to the sense of tragedy was the feeling that Ben had finally got it together and was at last becoming the handy cog in England's one-day side that seemed to be his birthright after that heady Lord's debut in 1997, when he casually carted Glenn McGrath back over his head and plonked Shane Warne over the square-leg ropes for six.

Adam, who had made his Test debut alongside Ben in '97, played in the second half of 2002 like a man on a mission - and became both brothers rolled into one. Always aggressive, he batted manically at times. In the Cheltenham & Gloucester quarter-final at Hove, just two days after Ben's memorial service at Southwark Cathedral, Adam blasted a clinical, cold-eyed century of awesome power from only 52 balls.

Almost by sheer force of personality (and helped by Ian Ward's runs and Bicknell's wickets for the Surrey All-Stars) Hollioake lifted his side to their third Championship title in four years. The realisation that even he couldn't rise to such heights again in 2003 will have helped his retirement decision, even though he will only just have turned 33 when the curtain goes down next September.

This year's Championship setback stung Surrey, as rumours of dressing-room friction tend to confirm. But as long as more big names don't follow Ward and Alec Stewart out of the Hobbs Gates, Surrey will start next season as favourites again. The lure of securing a farewell title for Adam Hollioake will be an inviting one.