P Deeley: Surrey's form calls for close inspection (15 Jun 1998)

15 June 1998

Surrey's form calls for close inspection

By Peter Deeley at Chelmsford

IT WOULD be one of cricket's great ironies if Surrey maintained their present levels of achievement and became county champions for the first time in 27 years while propping up the rest in the AXA League.

That would mean the best side in the first-class game being relegated to the lower division of the National League. Surrey would not feel the financial pinch to the same degree as less well-supported counties - their major sponsorship from a computer company is already assured for two more years.

But there would be some red faces on the Oval cricket committee who were largely in favour of creating a "premiership" one-day competition, presuming that Surrey would figure in the top echelon.

Surrey have always been a side to raise strong emotions on the county circuit and their Jekyll and Hyde summer to date is a matter of public debate.

One view is that their performance in the AXA has partly been the result of smaller counties, concerned their finances would suffer if they were in the lower group of the National League, preparing one-day wickets to suit their own attack.

More likely, the answer is that Surrey have set their eyes on certain priorities - and the AXA is not one of them. If Ian Salisbury (23 championship wickets to his credit) had not torn a groin muscle after sending down only one ball in the Benson and Hedges semi-final at Leicester, there is every possibility they would be preparing to defend their title in the final against Essex.

His spin colleague, Mushtaq Saqlain, has already taken 22 wickets in his first three games and together they provide the best slow bowling attack in the first-class game - a weapon whose potency is reduced in the one-day affair.

This year they have won four of their first six games - one of them against Worcestershire with a bold declaration while Alec Stewart, Mark Butcher and Graham Thorpe were on Test duty at Edgbaston. To date they have not suffered calls upon their attack.

Against Essex in the current game they have certainly looked a formidable outfit, and are close to enforcing the follow-on this morning, with Essex resuming at 151 for eight, still 222 runs adrift. But injuries are threatening to erode their many strengths: Alistair Brown and Graham Thorpe are nursing bruised fingers, Ben Hollioake has a groin strain, Darren Bicknell's back operation will keep him out until late summer, Nadeem Shahid has a virus complaint and Martin Bicknell a back problem.

If Surrey overcome the twin burdens of Test demands and injuries and maintain their ascendancy in the championship none will deny their true worth. Who then will really care about finishing bottom of an one-day league whose passing at the end of this summer will be lamented by few?

Source :: Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk)