Mark Ramprakash, the former England batsman is a product of our Colts side and is one of the youngest ever players to play in our first team.
Ramps played in the same side as current first team allrounder Andy Carr and he showed his class at an early age.
Mark played for England in 52 Test matches and 18 One Day Internationals and is the most prolific batsman in county cricket along with Worcestershire's Graeme Hick.
Ramps is an excellent stroke maker who is simply brilliant to watch. He can play every shot in the book and he's really great to watch when in full flow. He also bowls some handy off spin and is one of the best fielders of his generation.
In the first big match of his career, the 1988 Nat West Final, Ramps won Man Of the Match with an impressive 56 as he led Middlesex to victory over Worcestershire in a very tight low scoring final.
He made his Test Debut in 1991 against one of the great West Indian sides and he was faced by a pace attack that was led by Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson and the late great Malcolm Marshall. He made 27 twice in the match and also snared an amazing catch at point to dismiss Phil Simmons.
During his first series he never once got past the 20's although he showed glimpses of what he was capable of.
Ramps was effectively mucked around for next seven years (along with Hick, a player who's talent and career are strikingly similar).
The high points of this seven year spell would be the endless plundering of county bowling attacks and two brilliant Test fifties against the 'old enemy' Australia. The first a 64 in the second innings of Sixth Test in the 1993 Ashes helped England to a tight consolation win at the end of that series.
The other was an excellent 72 against Australia during England's 1994 / 95 Ashes Tour in the Fifth Test at the WACA Ground in Perth, the fastest ground in the World.
Ramps put on 158 with Graham Thorpe to rescue England from 77 - 4 to a respectable 295.
His breakthrough knock came in Barbados in March 1998 when he scored a fantastic maiden century against a resurgent West Indies attack. His 388 ball 154 anchored the England innings and this gave Mark a chance to establish himself in the England side. He topped the England averages in that series, scoring 266 runs @ 66.50.
Ramps followed up the West Indies tour by scoring 344 runs @ 34.4 against the touring South Africans and Sri Lankans in six tests. His best knock of the summer was a solid 67 not out against South Africa at Trent Bridge.
England's tour of Australia in 1998 / 99 was Ramps best tour in terms of runs and scores. He scored four fifties in the series, topping England's averages with an impressive 379 runs @ 47.37. He scored two of his fifties in the stifling heat of Adelaide (61 & 57). He also took one of the best catches of his career in the Fourth Test in Melbourne. With Australia looking well set in their chase of 175, Ramps fielding at square leg dived and caught Justin Langer off the bowling of Alan Mullally. His catch lifted the England side as we eventually triumphed by a mere 12 runs.
Mark had an average season against New Zealand in the summer of 99. Averaging a touch over 24 with only one fifty meant he missed out on the winter tour to South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The following Summer, Ramps was asked by the new England management team of Nasser Hussain and Duncan Fletcher to open the batting with Michael Atherton. Ramps didn't fair too badly in his new role, scoring 56 against Zimbabwe at Trent Bridge, but once again he was dropped after two games and only four innings in his new role.
Ramps was recalled to the England side for the Second Test of the 2001 Ashes series after a prolific start to the season with new county Surrey. During the series he kept getting starts without going on to get a big score. This was until the final test of the summer when he scored his first and only Test hundred in England. Ramps made 133. The following has been taken from a match report from cricinfo.
" The long awaited hundred was only his second Test century in a career spanning 46 Tests and it took five-and-a-quarter hours in the blistering heat to complete on the ground the Surrey batsman made his new home earlier this year. The innings brought England in sight of the follow-on target of 442, closing the third day of the match on 409 for eight with Ramprakash unbeaten on 124.
For much of his innings he played second fiddle to his partners with first Nasser Hussain, then Usman Afzaal stealing the limelight. But he worked hard in the background, accumulating his runs quietly and cleanly until he arrived in the 80s and with England losing their eighth wicket, he was suddenly in danger of running out of partners.
But Darren Gough stayed with him and finally, with the shadows lengthening, he drove Warne elegantly to the extra cover boundary to celebrate a moment that will remain one of the most emotional of his career. It was his 15th boundary from 196 balls and it resulted in a standing ovation from the 18 000 strong London crowd. His England colleagues applauded from the balcony, Gough gave him a big bearhug and the Australian players, including Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist, came to him to shake his hand."
Ramps was in and out of the side for the next couple of years and he played his final test to date in April 2002 against New Zealand at Auckland.
His achievements at county level are hugely impressive. He is the only batsmen in the history of the game to score hundreds against all 18 first class counties, a record he achieved in 2005 with a hundred against his old county Middlesex.
2006 was his best season scoring a massive 2,278 runs, averaged over 100 and made his highest score of 301* and was awarded the Professional Cricketers' Association Player of the Year award, by his fellow pro's.
In 2007 he had another wonderful season once again topping the First Class averages. He scored a staggering 2026 runs at 101.30 with 10 hundreds. It was a amazing effort and one that nearly regained him his England place for the tour of Sri Lanka in November 2007. He also averaged over 50 in 1-Day cricket!
In 2008 he became
the 25th player in history to reach 100 first class hundreds.
Over the past couple of seasons he has continued to score stackful of runs for Surrey and was rumoured to have been discussed at selection for the Oval Test in the 2009 Ashes.
He is also the only player to captain both Middlesex and Surrey.
He has been a member of three County Championship winning sides (twice with Middlesex), he's won the Nat West Trophy and the Benson & Hedges Cup once each, the Sunday League twice (once with Middlesex) and he was a key member of the Surrey side that won the first Twenty20 Cup in 2003.
One can only guess what Ramps would have achieved if he had been given a proper run in the side or if central contracts had been brought in five years earlier. I would have expected Mark to have played 80+ Tests and scored 5,000+ runs.
Mark has also found fame on TV winning the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2006 with dance partner Karen Hardy
Career Span 1987 - to date
Batting & Fielding
|
Class
|
Mat
|
Inns
|
No
|
Runs
|
HS
|
Ave
|
100's
|
50's
|
Ct
|
|
Test
|
52
|
92
|
6
|
2350
|
154
|
27.32
|
2
|
12
|
39
|
|
ODI
|
18
|
18
|
4
|
376
|
51
|
26.85
|
-
|
1
|
8
|
|
FC
|
426
|
701
|
89
|
33244
|
301*
|
54.32
|
108
|
139
|
244
|
|
1-Day
|
398
|
385
|
62
|
12947
|
147*
|
40.08
|
17
|
83
|
132
|
|
Twenty20
|
52
|
52
|
8
|
1388
|
85*
|
31.54
|
-
|
10
|
18
|
Bowling
|
Class
|
Mat
|
Balls
|
Runs
|
Wkts
|
BB
|
Ave
|
Econ
|
|
Test
|
52
|
895
|
477
|
4
|
1-2
|
119.25
|
3.19
|
|
ODI
|
18
|
132
|
108
|
4
|
3-28
|
27
|
4.90
|
|
FC
|
426
|
4171
|
2196
|
34
|
3-32
|
64.58
|
3.15
|
|
1-Day
|
398
|
1734
|
1354
|
46
|
5-38
|
29.43
|
4.68
|
|
Twenty20
|
52
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
All stats correct of Saturday March 30th 2009