Man was yet to set foot on the moon the last time cricket’s County Championship knew a “three-peat” — and when the Yorkshire team of ’66, ’67 and ’68 accomplished the feat they most certainly did not call it that.
Of the 55 summers since, 10 have begun with one or other county as back-to-back champions, but come autumn, not one of the hat-trick chasers has still been on the throne. Starting away to Lancashire on Friday, the 11th, Surrey, are out to buck the trend.
“We were good last year, but I didn’t think we were great,” says former England international Alec Stewart, the club’s director of cricket, in what is an ominous warning to the rest.
“We perhaps weren’t at full capacity in how we could play last year and still won it.”
As if the chance to go three-in-a-row were not enough, Surrey were given extra motivation when Stewart announced last month that this season will be his last in post, the 60-year-old stepping back to spend more time with his family, including wife Lynn, who has been battling cancer for more than a decade.
Such is Stewart’s status at the Oval — where he spent all 23 years of his playing career — that when he walks away from the ground for the final time it will be through the gate that already bears his name.
“It can be an emotional driver,” says captain Rory Burns. “It’d be nice to send the gaffer out with another championship, but we’ve got a lot of hard work to do to get to that.”
If you’re not moving forward, you’re standing still, they say, and in truth, such is Surrey’s quality that that may well have been good enough. They have, however, made one major summer acquisition, in tempting star batter Dan Lawrence away from last year’s runners-up Essex.
“To be honest, I think the only club I would have come to would have been here,” says Lawrence, who is hoping the move will push him back into England’s Test side.
“It was an opportunity that I couldn’t let pass.”
While Surrey have indeed poached some stellar talent over the years, and brought overseas players such as West Indies hero Kemar Roach and Australia’s Sean Abbott back, their squad relies heavily on a remarkable production line of homegrown talent.
“I want to win every trophy,” says Stewart. “But I get as much enjoyment seeing an Ollie Pope, Will Jacks or Jamie Smith come through our system as youngsters, come into our first team and then go on to play for England. That, to me, counts as success.”
The only club I would have come to was Surrey... it was an opportunity that I couldn’t let pass
It can also be a weakness. Surrey will, for instance, start the season without Jacks and Sam Curran, who are at the Indian Premier League, and will lose others to England duty at various times during the campaign. Still, the calibre of players not included in Friday’s first XI of the season at Old Trafford tells you they have the depth to cope. So what hope for the contenders?
“They are always broken, these monopolies, and the fun of sport is seeing people challenge those dominant teams,” said Richard Gould, the England & Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) chief executive, this week. Ironically, that remark came in a setting that said plenty for Surrey’s success and influence.
Gould was previously the county’s CEO and was speaking at a season launch held, incidentally, at the Oval, Surrey’s home. Later, ECB chair Richard Thompson — another former Surrey man — would present Burns, the Surrey skipper, with the County Championship pennant to fly over the ground, as teammate Pope, England’s Test vice-captain, sat in the front row.
Still, the point is valid: there is a reason why even the great county sides of the past 50 years have failed to reel off three titles in a row.
Unlike football, county cricket operates with a salary cap designed to level the playing field, and a relatively modest one at that, worth about £2.9 million per season.
Surrey’s is a little higher at £3.2 million, on account of a slight London weighting, but by far their bigger advantage is in being well-enough run as a business to make use of it. For most counties it is dry coffers, not cap space, that restricts spending on players.
Plenty do, though, look on enviously at Surrey’s edge in terms of wealth and location. The Oval is not only frequently packed out for international and T20 Blast matches, but also daylights as a lucrative London conference venue.
For players, too, the pull is real. “Me and my girlfriend are a young couple, so we’re quite keen to get into the mix and see what London has got for us,” says Lawrence, though for now he is still on the Central line from Essex each day. For him and for Surrey, a summer-long journey towards history lies ahead.
