"Someone like Ali Brown would have made a fortune in T20 franchises around the world. He was a long way ahead of his time with his strike rate with the bat"
Friday 12 June 2020 09:41, UK
As our series asking the Sky Cricket experts to lift the lid on their former team-mates continues, MARK BUTCHER discusses underrated and intelligent players and who'd be useless on a desert island...
Chris Lewis. With the bat, with the ball, in the field, the whole lot. I think he is a player who would have benefited from playing in the era of central contracts and having his worth as an all-rounder and fast bowler maximised. He suffered a lot of injuries and England didn't get the most out of him, something that happened to a lot of players in that generation. He was as quick as anyone when it came to fast bowling, genuinely rapid.
Alec Stewart would be up there, he was always in great shape, but I'll go for Mark Ramprakash. I have never seen anyone hit as many balls in training.
I think everyone who did well in my era would have adapted to today's training methods and new formats - but someone like Ali Brown would have made a fortune in T20 franchises around the world. He was a long way ahead of his time with his strike rate with the bat.
I think I'll pick Ali for this one, too. He averaged comfortably over 40 in first-class cricket, with 47 hundreds and an incredible amount of runs, so wasn't just a short-form player. It's a shame he only managed 16 ODIs, his third of which featured a hundred against India. He played in an era when people didn't score hundreds in one-day cricket. Doing it back then was a big deal.
Ali, again, and Graham Thorpe. Ali, who coached second XI at Surrey, because of how unorthodox he was and Thorpey because he never seemed to care what anyone else was doing! Graham has done really well, though, and the England guys really love working with him.
Fortunately, I didn't have too many roomies. The only tour I went on where he had roommates was in the West Indies in 1998, my first England tour - I shared with Thorpe and Adam Hollioake for quite a lot of that trip, two very good mates of mine. So I will mention my old pal Adam as best and worst roommate. He wasn't the tidiest but neither of us did the other any favours with our timekeeping, either in the morning or the evening!
Ben Hollioake. He was a cool cat and loved his music. He listened to all kinds of things and I remember him introducing me to Gomez and stuff like that back in the day. We shared a lot of musical tastes.
Ben was also second on my list for most talented player I played with, only because we never quite got to see everything he was capable of. There were a couple of flashes, including a half-century on his ODI debut against Australia at Lord's. At the time of his accident, he was having a little lull on the cricket field and not quite fulfilling everything but I have no doubt he would have come back all the better for it. I think he probably would have become more renowned for his batting than his bowling.
Definitely Alec. REO Speedwagon was about the height of his musical sophistication. He was the worst dancer, too. Nobody else comes close, an absolute shocker. I cannot comment on Nasser Hussain's dancing as he is not the sort of bloke who is going to stand up and enjoy himself!
Thorpey was very handy and Stewie was a very good player - as well as dirty as anything! I read Nasser said that the red mist could descend when I played! I used to play a hell of a lot and to a reasonably good standard in Croydon up until I was about 16. When I was 12 or 13 I was leading scorer and I was in the Crystal Palace catchment area but being a professional footballer was never an option for me.
I was fortunate to be around with people like Freddie Flintoff but also early on with Phil Tufnell, who could be incredibly entertaining. Ashley Giles, as well, was great on a night out. Myself, Gilo and Dean Headley went on an 'A' tour to Australia in 1996 and there was amusement to be had, with Gilo right in the thick of it. He wasn't always the straight man he is now in his role as director of cricket with England.
Michael Atherton. You always knew writing was likely to be in his future. There was a late entry, though, in Ed Smith, now England's national selector. When he popped into the dressing room during that series against South Africa in 2003 there were one or two raised eyebrows at some of the words and phrases he came out with. Don't forget Sir Andrew Strauss, either.
It has to be Adam Hollioake. We'd never go hungry, that's for sure, as he would be hunting stuff down with his bare hands and making fire. He is the boy you want in the wilderness. We are such good mates, as well, and have known each other since we were nine or 10 years old.
I think we clicked because we both had big, bushy, curly hair and darker skin than the other kids, while he was the best bowler around and I was the best batter around in our age group. We just grew together and when he was a great captain and fabulous leader for Surrey, I sort of played his right-hand man. We had a yin and yang between us.
Rob Key. He'd just sit there saying everything was pointless and be bored all the time. With no golf courses and no internet, he'd hate it.
