Cricket: Diary - Surrey rise above the call of England duty

IT WILL be some achievement if Surrey, as now seems likely, win the County Championship without their best players for long periods of the summer. No fewer than seven men have been summoned to England colours during the season, severely testing their reserve strength.

To win the title in such circumstances is as commendable as it is unlikely. The Brown Hatters, however, will not be the most such depleted team to become Champions. True, no side to have prevailed have lost so many different members to either Test or one-day duties but what counts is the proportion of matches they miss.

By the end of the season, Surrey are likely to have been deprived of a total of 22 Championship appearances by their international septet: Alec Stewart, Alistair Brown, Mark Butcher, Adam Hollioake, Ben Hollioake, Ian Salisbury and Graham Thorpe. This works out at a hefty 12 per cent reduction in strength based on applying the simple, if not quite perfect formula of multiplying the number of matches (17) by the number of places in the team (11) which gives 187 places each summer.

Since the reduction in Championship matches in 1969 the title has been won only seven times by counties who have had no Test calls, the last occasion by Warwickshire in 1994. Six other champions have lost only one player. In 1977 Kent shared the Championship despite being without three players for almost the entire series against Australia, Derek Underwood, Alan Knott and Bob Woolmer missing 35 appearances (13.8 per cent). Although Essex lost four players in 1986 the depletion level was only 10 per cent.

Perhaps the most significant achievement of the modern era was in the previous year. Middlesex gave up five players to England during the summer. It forced them to forfeit 43 county appearances from a total of 264 or a mighty 16.2 per cent. Yet the reserves came through and Middlesex were top by 18 points.

The reduction to 17 matches means that Surrey have not been quite so weakened. The performances of the overseas player, Saqlain Mushtaq, have been important - allied to those of Martin Bicknell. In the latter's case it might mean an England recall for the Test against Sri Lanka, which would raise the depletion level.

SEVERAL TOURS to England this summer seem to have been well-kept secrets. The South Africans have been well documented but the Sri Lankans, world champions to boot, have been going about their business almost unheralded.

Visitors have also included Australia A who were in Ireland and Scotland, and Bangladesh, coached by Gordon Greenidge, who were here (though you wouldn't have noticed) to gain experience for the World Cup. And this week in southern England the Italians are here. The country's Under-18 team will play five matches against club opposition, ending in Hampshire at Hambledon (though not the Bat and Ball Ground of legend) and Liphook later this week. A club team from Lazio (where Gazza used to play football) has already visited.

Perhaps this should not be surprising. The first official record of cricket being played in Italy was in 1793 when Lord Nelson organised a match between teams of crew members. And a century later, in Milan, the International Cricket and Football Club was founded. It later became a wee organisation called Juventus.

NOT BEFORE time the PricewaterhouseCoopers One Day International Ratings were introduced last week. These revealed that Sachin Tendulkar is not only the world's top batsman in Test cricket but also in one-dayers and that Allan Donald is similarly effective.

So far, so predictable, but not in every case. A bane who is not in the top 30 batsmen is Steve Waugh, No 3 in the Test charts. This is the Steve Waugh who is deemed to be so capable at the shorter game that he has been elevated to the captaincy of Australia's one-day side.

BOOK MARK

"The fieldsmen gathered round, gave three cheers, wished me good luck (for after-years of course) and the play was resumed. I dearly wanted to do well. It was not to be. The reception had stirred my emotions very deeply and made me anxious - a dangerous state of mind for any batsman to be in. I played the first ball from Hollies though not sure I really saw it. The second was a perfect length googly which deceived me. I just touched it with the inside edge of the bat and the off bail was dislodged. So in the midst of my great jubilation at our team's success, I had a rather sad heart about my own farewell as I wended my way pavilionwards. In my final matches at Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester and Lord's I scored centuries so maybe the Oval was just one of those great reminders which are continually being sent to cricketers to keep their feet, metaphorically speaking, on the ground."

Sir Donald Bradman's own description of his final Test innings, played 50 years ago last Thursday, in his book Farewell To Cricket.

SILLY POINT

Lancashire will start as clear favourites in the NatWest Trophy final against Derbyshire. This is not only because of their auspicious record in the competition compared to the opposition's poor one - it stands at six final wins to one - but it is also because Lancashire have much more international experience. Well, yes and no. The semi-final ties last week demonstrated otherwise. Between them Lancashire could muster only 147 limited overs international caps (Atherton, Crawley, Fairbrother, Lloyd, Martin, Watkinson) while Derbyshire fielded 171 (Barnett, Cork, Slater and above all DeFreitas). Of course, if Lancashire's captain is fit for the final it will redress the balance. Wasim Akram (pictured) has played nearly 250 one-day internationals.