It’s relief all round as Ramps finally joins the cricket elite
While Surrey star Mark Ramprakash celebrates his 100th 100, David Jesudason tells how it wasn’t all plain sailing
When Mark Ramprakash finally held his bat aloft in celebration of earning his place among the cricketing elite, it was a feeling of relief rather than elation which met with the crowd’s appreciation.
The 38-year-old’s unbeaten 112 against Yorkshire on Saturday was his 100th first-class century, a knock which entered him into a unique club of only 25 players to have achieved such a milestone.
Undoubtedly, this is a feat that deserves celebration, but is ultimately an achievement which has been forged out of a good few nerves on the Surrey man’s part. The drastic lost of form he suffered this season has seen the champagne put on ice with scores of 17, 9, 29, 14, 17, 15, 48, 0, 42, 6 and 10 culminating in an agonising four-month wait for his century of centuries.
Ironically, however, it was a visit to Headingley – scene of Ramprakash’s very first ton back in 1989 – which brought up No100, leaving the exasperated England veteran relieved.
Fate
“The last few months have been difficult because I’ve had a few good deliveries and I’ve not managed to get close to scoring a hundred,” Ramps explained. “Luckily, it seemed like fate to get it at Headingley, because I got my first one there back in 1989.
“Being up there with the great names is something nobody can take away. Hundreds don’t grow on trees. The first two games or so after my 99th at Hove I felt really edgy because everyone is talking about you and the pressure builds but after that it was business as usual.
“The Twenty20 Cup competition made it difficult to get into any sort of form but I was still excited to get to 99 centuries and it was certainly not a monkey on my back.
“Even if I had not managed my 100th century I would still have been able to retire a happy man.”
Naturally, the feat deserves to be hailed but it only has been achieved because the Surrey man was shunned by England after a succession of failures at Test level and left to wile away his days for his adopted county
Nowadays so many Test and limited over matches are played that even the most prolific run getters like Essex’s Alastair Cook are unlikely to grab 100 centuries unless they have a prolonged exile from the highest level.
Recall
Ramprakash hit only two centuries and 12 half-centuries in 54 matches for England – figures which undoubtedly blight his impressive CV and may have been on the minds of selectors when he was under consideration for a recall for last year’s Ashes tour.
At the time, and at the age of 36, Ramprakash was still the form player of county cricket, having become the first man since himself, a decade earlier, to top 2,000 runs in an English season – and at an average of over 100.
He then repeated that feat in 2007, becoming the first player ever to do so two seasons in succession.
But Ramprakash insists that an England recall was never on the cards, hitting out at the ageist selection policy. “I’ve constantly heard that the door is still ajar but I’m not sure it is,” he went on. “There has been a fascination with age. You get past 30 and suddenly you are a veteran, you have had your chance. But I have played my best cricket from the age of 30 to 38.”