Alex Loudon's decision to quit cricket has caused a few raised eyebrows as Dave Fulton finds out
Alex Loudon's decision to quit cricket has caused a few raised eyebrows as Dave Fulton finds out
The news that Alex Loudon, Warwickshire's talented off-spinning all-rounder, has called time on his career at the tender age of 27 has featured prominently on the cricket pages of some national papers this week having caused quite a stir on the county scene.
Loudon, highly-rated, was expected by many to have a lengthy England career. A stylish batsman with an array of attacking shots and an off-spin bowler who seemed to have perfected the doosra (a delivery that appears like an off spinner but goes the other way) he was fast-tracked into Duncan Fletcher's one-day team at the Riverside against Sri Lanka in 2006.
It was his solitary appearance and an inauspicious one at that as he was run out without facing and failed to take a wicket in six overs.
Loudon bounced back with some good performances for a Peter Moores-led A side in Bangladesh last winter scoring 71 and taking 5 for 76 in the second "Test", and started the 2007 season with a bang, scoring three early centuries that put him in the frame for another England call up.
David Graveney never phoned, however, and Loudon's season declined as Warwickshire went into such a freefall that they were relegated in both leagues.
Graeme Swann emerged as the next best spinner to Monty Panesar and Loudon was faced with the choice of rolling up his sleeves and fighting for his England career in domestic cricket's lower tier or giving the game away to pursue new challenges in the equally cut-throat world of business.
I was not surprised when I read he had decided upon the latter. Having captained him at Kent for several years before his controversial move to Warwickshire I was aware of his interests and options outside the game. He was head boy at Eton, graduated from Durham University and cricket was by no means the only thing in his life.
I remember him saying on several occasions that he had given himself a tight timeframe to make it as a cricketer. Not for him the endless county grind and another year of treading water. It was either going to be a sparkling England career or off into the sunset.
Part of me admires his decision. But part of me wonders, too, if so many other opportunities might have inhibited the hunger and drive necessary to reach the top.
When the going got tough - as it did at Kent in 2004 when he was disappointed with some events on and off the field - his instinct was to move on.
The second half of this summer at Warwickshire must have been tough too and he's moved on altogether. There is a phrase that goes "nothing worthwhile ever comes easy". Perhaps cricket came too easily for Alex Loudon.
